Amanda Long brings teaching, nonprofit experience to community foundation role

Amanda Long learned early in her career that helping people succeed starts with understanding what they need.

As a high school English, French, and reading intervention teacher, she had to find creative ways to reach students. Later, as a nonprofit leader, she drew on those same skills to build partnerships and adapt programs.

Now, she is bringing that approach to the Grand Haven Area Community Foundation as its new vice president of grants and programs.

“As a teacher, you have to be innovative, right? You have to understand who your audience is, how to meet their needs, what works best for them, and how to support their success,” Long says. “And I think that comes with building really strong relationships.”

Long joined the foundation in late September. She oversees its grants and scholarship programs, supports its Grants & Program Committee, and helps guide efforts to address community needs across northern Ottawa County.

The foundation does more than award funding. It also provides technical support to nonprofits and brings community leaders together to work on shared concerns. 

“What we do is based on building strong relationships with the community partners, the nonprofits that we serve and that we support,” Long says.

That approach depends on understanding each organization’s work.  Long’s early focus is learning the local landscape by listening to those nonprofits. She plans to meet their leaders, learn about their missions, and explore ways they can work together. What are they trying to accomplish? What stands in their way? Where could funding or a partnership help?

From there, she hopes to identify where the foundation’s tools can support the nonprofits’ work. 

That could mean a grant, a connection to another organization, or a conversation among groups working on related needs.

Extensive background with nonprofits

Long’s previous work gave her experience with the challenges nonprofits face as they grow.

She previously spent nearly 12 years with Embarc Inc., a Chicago nonprofit that worked with Chicago public high schools to give students meaningful experiences outside the classroom. 

Working at a startup required flexibility, she says, and her roles there included director of curriculum and instruction, program director, chief programming officer, interim CEO, and executive director.

“We had to stay innovative. We had to play multiple roles. We had to foster meaningful and supportive relationships in the community.”

Long later became executive director of Four Pointes Center for Successful Aging in Grand Haven, where she helped set goals, build partnerships, fundraise, and manage daily operations.

Those experiences reinforced lessons she first learned in the classroom: Understand the people being served, build trust, and be willing to change an approach when needed.

Hadley Streng, the foundation’s president and CEO, says Long’s experience helped distinguish her during the search.

“Amanda brings a unique combination of strategic leadership, nonprofit management experience, and deep community connections,” Streng says.

Connected to education

Before beginning work with nonprofits, Long taught for nearly nine years and earned a master’s degree in reading instruction. Education remains part of her life through her volunteer work as board president of the Grand Haven Schools Foundation.

“I think it’s great, and anytime I have a touchpoint with education, it brings a little joy to my heart. It fills my cup,” Long says.

Overseeing the community foundation’s scholarship programs gives her another way to support students.

“Just knowing that we at the foundation contribute to the success of young people too really aligns to my roots,” she says.

Her involvement with the school’s foundation also helped her build connections after moving to Grand Haven in 2021. A friend suggested her educational background would be a good fit for the board at a time when she was looking for ways to get involved.

“I love serving on the schools foundation board. I love doing that work, and the board members themselves are just really passionate about the impact we can make together,” Long says.

Long grew up in Cadillac and spent much of her career in the Chicago area. She and her family bought a home in Grand Haven in 2020 and moved there full time in 2021. They were closer to family in Grand Rapids, Lansing, and Cadillac. Lake Michigan was nearby, too.

“We knew we wanted to be close to nature and the lakeshore. We were fortunate to find a home in Grand Haven,” Long says. “We didn’t know what the long term was, but the more time that we spent here, the more we knew that we needed to make this home.”

Her two children attend Rosy Mound Elementary School. The family enjoys visiting local businesses, hiking, and going to the beach.

The foundation has served northern Ottawa County since 1971 and works with its partner foundations in Allendale and Coopersville.

Long’s initial goal is to learn what local groups are doing and how the foundation can help.

“I’m really looking forward to this next chapter of my work, and it’s really exciting for me to be able to learn about the different work that’s happening in the community.”