You know how sometimes your favorite food will get a new packaging design and it will say “New look, same great taste?”

The Center for Nonprofit Excellence has unveiled some new packaging, but in our case that’s not all! The new packaging reflects broader changes within our organization. Yes, we still have great classes on fundraising and nonprofit management. We still offer professional development through our relationship with our online partner MindEdge Learning. We still offer consulting that can help you fine-tune your strategy and operations. And yes, we still provide networking opportunities for the nonprofit community. 

But we have also recently gone through a deliberate, thoughtful process to better define our vision, mission, and values. The new logo is a direct reflection of that work. 

We replaced the pyramid logo not JUST because it was dated, but because it doesn’t adequately tell the CNPE story. The pyramid, adopted shortly after CNPE’s founding in 1999, represented something important at the time. The creation of our organization was a milestone achievement, a landmark organization for nonprofits. A pyramid fit that story. But our narrative has changed as we have evolved. 

Now, more than ever, CNPE has recognized the need to “Build a Bigger We.” This is a phrase coined by john a. powell (who prefers to use lowercase letters in his name) of the Othering and Belonging Institute. It calls on each of us – as individuals and as representatives of our organizations, to think deliberately about how and when we use the word “we.” It asks us to continually broaden that definition. Our strategic planning efforts are helping us do that. 

CNPE’s new logo is important not for its own sake, but because it more cleanly communicates our mission and values.

Here’s what I hope you will notice: Our new logo comprises four arrows, each a different color, coming together. They are in a group but remain distinct. Our goal is not assimilation but sharing. The logo also presents a lot of dynamic energy and interconnectedness. The arrows are coming together because we recognize that one of the most important things we do at the Center for Nonprofit Excellence is convening the nonprofit community, bringing people together to share challenges, solutions, opportunities, best practices, and strategies. 

These four arrows represent two interrelated concepts: They represent our four values. But they also represent the diversity of nonprofit organizations we represent. 

Let’s look at the arrows: 

• Red – Love motivates us to serve, support, challenge, engage, and sacrifice, caring for one another as we try to create a just, equitable community. CNPE works with nonprofits that have chosen a mission more important than financial profit. They are motivated by a love of people, a love of animals, a love of art or the outdoors. Love is the foundation of all we do. 

• Blue – Equity encompasses a lot of other values – fairness, justice, equality. The concept of equity is fundamental to so many of our cultural aspirations – and yet remains elusive. Sometimes it seems like we can’t even agree to try! CNPE lifts up the sector’s voices and connects historically marginalized organizations and people with resources they need to grow and thrive. We are humbled by the work that so many of our organizations do to right wrongs in Louisville. We pledge to work with them to make Louisville more equitable. 

• Green – CNPE advances learning directly – our class offerings are unique, strong, and growing. We nurture a culture of inquiry, curiosity, and study to deepen the reach and impact of knowledge, skills, and innovation. Learning is also a core mission of many of our member organizations. Whether they provide support services to children, run educational facilities like museums or cultural centers, or work to educate the public on health measures or animal care – learning is a value that nonprofits share. 

• Orange – Orange connotes not only the need for heightened attention but the need for courage to surmount obstacles. It takes courage to work in a busy, rapidly changing environment. In the same way, we appreciate the bravery of all our nonprofit colleagues. At CNPE, we encourage one another to think differently, to make space for creativity and innovation, and to support the freedom to fail. The willingness to speak for the voiceless, the boldness to stand up for what’s right, even the courage to explore the history of our own organizations and make changes – we all need to work with courage. 

At the Center for Nonprofit Excellence, we understand that the nonprofit community in Louisville is made up a diverse community of people, who are working on diverse causes, for a diversity of reasons. But those four values are something we can all share. 

We are ballet dancers and social workers, parks administrators and public health experts, animal welfare advocates and museum directors, nurses and protesters, artists and accountants, communicators and therapists, educators and advocates, lawyers and urban designers. We are all people coming together to make Louisville better. 

When you look at our new logo, that’s what we want you to see!