There are lots of theories about how to develop leaders across the nonprofit sector. But who’s putting those theories into practice, and are younger nonprofit professionals optimistic about their implementation?

This month our HRConnections newsletter features a piece from Trish Tchume, National Director of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN). Trish explains that YNPN’s most recent National Voice report examined just these sort of questions. The report, titled “Good in Theory, Problems in Practice,” concludes with recommendations to help nonprofit executives, emerging leaders, funders, and others effectively implement leadership development strategies.

Visit IdealistHR or YNPN to learn more. Or sound off here: does your organization have a refreshing approach to leadership development? Do you feel you can weigh in and make it even stronger?

By Amy Potthast.

This month the nonprofit sector has witnessed the auspicious launch of a new online magazine, OnlyUp.

OnlyUp was started by four recent college grads and bloggers experiencing the angst of navigating nonprofit careers without a road map, with a sense that the sector has not planned well enough to accommodate the growth of young leaders.

The upbeat, thoughtful, bi-monthly magazine aims to engage the sector in a forward-looking conversation about the “future of social change leadership,” embodying the cry of hope: “When you have nowhere else to go, the only way is up!”

But don’t mistake it as a GenY-only affair. The magazine gives voice to young nonprofit leaders – a voice that peers and the rest of us need to hear in order to recruit new talent and support the growth of our organizations in the coming decades.

By Tobias Myrstrand Leander (Flickr)

For example, in the current issue, articles include topics like:

• Why the newest generation of young leaders values a mentoring style of supervision
• How relationships among grant makers and grantees is changing due to social media
• Why the key to social change is in the word social
• Where the intersection lies between nonprofits and businesses, and how the rising generation of leaders plays a major role in blurring the lines
• What GenY professionals can do to sidestep issues of work-life balance

Different from a blog that keeps on top of daily trends and happenings, OnlyUp offers more nuanced discussions of nonprofit sector dynamics and the complex experiences of young nonprofit employees.

Like the best blogs, however, the magazine encourages reader participation – not just inviting comments but also encouraging readers to pitch articles of their own to contribute.

Check it out and let us (and OnlyUp creators) know what you think!

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Amy Potthast served as Idealist’s Director of Service and Graduate Education Programs until 2011. Read more of her work at amypotthast.com.