Valerie F. Leonard

Valerie is the founder of Nonprofit Utopia, LLC, where she facilitates an online community and provides leadership coaching and consulting services. She is also a member of the John Maxwell Leadership Certified Team, the world’s largest leadership training and development company, providing leadership coaching, speaking and DISC assessment. Valerie is the host and producer of the Nonprofit Utopia Podcast, and Nonprofit Utopia Livestream, inviting nonprofit thought leaders to share lessons learned and the latest developments in the nonprofit sector. 

  Valerie has been working with nonprofit organizations for over 20 years, in some form or fashion.      

  In one life, she was a financial analyst, helping the CFO of Mount Sinai Health System arrange nearly $120 million in bond financings to cover major building expansion projects. In another life she was the founding executive director of a neighborhood grantmaking organization, using small grants to help residents develop the leadership skills they needed to take control of their economic environment. Valerie leveraged those experiences and lessons learned to launch her own consulting practice, where she helps nonprofit leaders to improve their own leadership skills while guiding their organizations to sustainability. To date, she has assisted about 1,000 nonprofit leaders raise over $100 million through proposal writing and technical assistance.  She has also helped nonprofit founders obtain tax-exempt status within 3 months through Nonprofit Utopia’s Nonprofit Founder’s 90-Day Challenge. Valerie has helped nonprofit leaders increase their nonprofit management and leadership skills up to 3X through the Capacity Building Blocks^TM Intensive and the R3 Capacity Building And Beyond Program.

Valerie also teaches courses in nonprofit management and social enterprise at local universities, giving students the tools they need to immediately apply their learning to their own situations. Valerie has been an engaged citizen, working on several social justice issues surrounding education and school improvement; equitable community development and the importance of the Census and how it impacts our everyday lives.  

Valerie played an integral role in the development of North Lawndale’s most recent community planning process. She is the co-founder of what has become the North Lawndale Community Coordinating Council, where she recruited and oriented members of the Steering Committee and developed much of the infrastructure for the planning process. She wrote the proposal for the group to receive local technical assistance from CMAP, as well as the proposal to receive Quality of Life Plan funds from LISC. Her innovative program models for community development have been adopted by LISC and replicated in other communities around the City of Chicago.

Valerie graduated from Spelman College with a degree in economics. She also has a Master of Management degree in finance and marketing from Northwestern University.