Silicon Valley is home to many large technology corporations you’ve likely heard of: Facebook, Google, Intel, etc. But it’s also home to thousands of startups that you may not have. In the midst of this whirlwind of productivity around us, Net Impact Silicon Valley saw an opportunity to bring the Net Impact mission to professionals in the area and build a cross-functional synergy among them.

About a year ago, we offered one Green Drinks networking event every month and one core event every year. My co-leader, Rick Drain, and I agreed the chapter could do more – but doing more meant we would need a new leadership team and a clearly defined strategy to create a chapter that could truly harness the creative energy of the Valley and inspire professionals to develop impact careers.

In late 2012, I resolved to hand pick a few talented professionals who wanted to seriously dedicate their time to Net Impact and grow the chapter. I was lucky to find a group of talented individuals who are dedicated to the Net Impact mission. Thanks to Leif, Vish, Theresa, Veronica and Rick, and their collective vision and hard work, we are seeing our community grow, slowly but surely.

While we still have a lot of room to grow and build a stronger community, these are the strategies that have worked the best for us:

1) Build a strong leadership team and all else will follow

Recruiting interested volunteers can be difficult: we’re always looking for people who are truly committed to building a local community. When recruiting, I talk to every member who expresses interest in volunteering and ask them to seriously consider how much they want to be involved and what they want to do that would most benefit their long-term career.

Our leadership team sees itself as the start of all the relationships we want to build in our community, so we do that by taking a personal interest in each other first. I make time for fellow teammates by making all my contact information available; they know they can call me or email me at any time. We meet in person once a month over beer or dinner and I arrange one-on-one meetings at least once a month so that individual leaders can voice any questions, concerns, or brainstorm new ideas.

2) Set your strategy and objectives for the year

Whether you are on a calendar year or an academic year, outlining your chapter’s objectives is critical. Net Impact provides chapters with a Chapter Plan, a very useful tool to help you think about what you want to do and what you want to accomplish. While not required, the Chapter Plan helps us create a vision for the year, and helps us stay focused. It also settles any arguments – if an idea doesn’t tie back to our strategy and goals, we agree to defer the idea for consideration at a later date.

3) Make everyone accountable and meet often

In our chapter, we have an online collaboration platform where we keep track of our calendar of events, and specific tasks that we need to accomplish to put on those events. Don’t sweat the details of what tool you should use – ours is simply an Excel sheet with action items, due dates, and the name of the task owner. Each week, we commit to a regular status call to check our progress. Status updates don’t have to be boring, and in fact, my leadership team enjoys our weekly calls. It is a chance for us to check in with each other and celebrate even the smallest of successes (like checking off a task on our list). We also get motivated by evaluating the activities that have not yet been done.

"Building relationships is crucial, because it opens up access to different resources and builds more opportunities for networking."

4) Partner with other local chapters in your area first, and other nonprofits second

Leif Linden, our VP of Partnerships, spearheaded efforts to connect with all the local Net Impact chapters in the San Francisco Bay Area. We arranged calls with chapter leaders, talked to them about their chapter goals, and found opportunities with each chapter where we could work together. Building these relationships is crucial, because it opens up access to different resources and builds more opportunities for networking. For example, we work closely with the Santa Clara University MBAs chapter, and not only have they been able to provide us with a great event space and access to Bon Appetit catering, I’ve been able to make friends with the leaders there, and would hope they would join us as professionals after they’ve graduated.

We also partner with local nonprofits that could benefit mutually benefit from a relationship, such as our local urban farm, Full Circle Farms in Sunnyvale, Calif. Since partnering with Full Circle Farms in 2010, we have been able to provide Quickfire Consulting, help members build friendships with each other while sweating over weeding a plot, and included Full Circle Farm board members at food sustainability-related events.

5) Take advantage of Net Impact's resources for Chapter Leaders

Net Impact’s Chapter Leader Portal (available to chapter leaders via netimpact.org) has a ton of different resources that are helpful to launching a new chapter. We worked closely with Marie Casabonne, Net Impact’s Community Associate, who gave us helpful feedback, directed us to resources on the Net Impact website, and shared collaboration tools and templates that other chapters were using.

This approach has paid off. As of last September, we have successfully put on four core events (plus a regular Green Drinks event each month). Total membership has increased by 7 percent after remaining relatively flat for many years, and we are on track to achieve at least Silver Chapter status for this year. For more information about the chapter, including membership and upcoming events, visit Net Impact Silicon Valley online.

About Clara Kuo

Clara first joined Net Impact in 2005 as a MBA student at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and continued on as a member of Net Impact Silicon Valley in 2008. In her professional life, Clara is a business researcher helping companies to get connected to users and consumers to make informed decisions about consumer experiences and product strategy.