Who We Are
The Center for Nonprofit Management at Stonehill College works with and builds the leadership capacity of community-based nonprofit organizations through southeastern Massachusetts and northern Rhode Island. We are a place where nonprofit and community leaders come together for learning, skill-building, networking, and research.
Staff listing
Georgia Antonopoulos, Director
(508) 565-1858
gantonopoulos@stonehill.edu
Georgia Antonopoulos is Director of the Center for Nonprofit Management at Stonehill College, responsible for internal and external operations since 2006. The Center for Nonprofit Management builds the leadership and management capacity of nonprofits in southeastern Massachusetts and northern Rhode Island. As the Center's Director, Georgia leads its external outreach and fund development efforts, signature training programs and specialized consultancies in the areas of organizational assessment, board development and strategic planning.
Some of the innovative programs Georgia has introduced include the CNM Afternoon Board Series and Executive Peer Coaching. Additionally, Georgia has expanded the Center's Resource Room offerings through the creation of the Resource Room Intern Program and its companion Virtual Resource Room, developed in conjunction with students in Stonehill's Computer Science Department. Georgia also launched the Developing Fundraising Leaders Institute (DFLI), a program that trains undergraduates in fundraising and development through a partnership with the College's Advancement Division.
Georgia serves on the board of the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network as a founding board member and as its Southeast Region representative. She also serves as a board member for the Community Foundation of Greater Plymouth County, and for the United Way of Greater Plymouth County's Allocations & Community Impact Committees. Additionally, Georgia has recently joined as a Trustee for the Massachusetts 4-H Foundation.
Prior to her arrival at Stonehill, Georgia worked and consulted with a range of Massachusetts-based nonprofit organizations on business planning, marketing, and development. In addition, she worked for three years in fundraising and grant making for the Newton Schools Foundation. Georgia has a strong interest in entrepreneurship and has served as the lead organizer for the Hellenic Business Network (HBN) Big Idea business plan competition in Boston.
Georgia received her M.B.A. from Boston University with concentrations in Public & Nonprofit Management and Strategy. She obtained her B.A. in English with a minor in education from Wellesley College.
Sarah Varadian '10, Program Officer (508) 565-1856
svaradian@stonehill.edu
Sarah Varadian, a 2010 graduate of Stonehill, has returned to the college as the new Program Officer at Center for Nonprofit Management.
Nearly ten years ago, Sarah started her own nonprofit initiative, The Wee-Care Bears, whose beneficiaries include girls' schools in Afghanistan, third world countries in Africa and an orphanage in Armenia. Her interest and passion for fundraising only grew when she discovered the incredible resources that the Center has to offer.
She became a Center Intern in 2008, participated in the inaugural year of the Developing Fundraising Leaders Institute (DFLI) and completed the program with an internship at Lifespan, a healthcare system whose development department is responsible for the fundraising and advancement of five of the hospitals in Rhode Island. She has been consulting for Lifespan for the past year and a half, rotating through each of the affiliate hospitals.
Having gained experience in many aspects of development and special events, Sarah is thrilled to be back at Stonehill and ready to bring her ideas and passion for the nonprofit sector to her new role at the Center.
The Center's Background
In late 2003, Stonehill College received a congressional appropriation to establish a Center for Nonprofit Management. The Center began meeting with regional nonprofit leaders to better understand the management challenges and issues they face in addressing local needs. The initial needs assessment provided some preliminary insights to inform the Center’s programming and future research questions and reinforced the limited local training available to many leaders in the field.
As the Center has continued to meet with nonprofit staff and volunteer members we have increased our understanding of these needs, identified other potential resources and partners, shaped programs and further assessed the best role for the Center. This increased knowledge has also helped the Center identify its focus on the smaller, under-resourced organizations in the sector, and those most rooted in and working with the at-risk communities in our region. While the Center’s training and educational programs are available to all nonprofits in the sector, priority will be given to these smaller organizations for more specialized interventions.