Building Community, One Gathering at a Time: A Look Back at the Pontiac Nonprofit Networking Series
Some of the most important work in a community isn’t reflected in a boardroom or a grant report. It happens over a meal, in a room full of people who have a reason to be in the same place at the same time.
That was the idea behind the Pontiac Nonprofit Networking Series — a monthly gathering hosted by the Pontiac Funders Collaborative, an initiative of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, that brought together nonprofit leaders, staff and community members from across Pontiac to connect, share and simply get to know one another.
Beginning in September 2025, the series ran for 10 sessions, welcoming nearly 200 attendees to engage over the course of the program. Each session was held at a different nonprofit or local business, highlighting the spaces that make Pontiac unique.
The series was designed to strengthen the nonprofit ecosystem and to put dollars back into the small businesses that help Pontiac thrive. Each gathering supported the economy by providing food from local small businesses for participants to enjoy as they built relationships with each other.
The result was a room that felt less like a formal networking event and more like a neighborhood. Organizations that had worked blocks apart for years met for the first time. Newer leaders found people who had been doing the work for decades. Conversations that started over food turned into partnerships, referrals and shared problem-solving long after the evening ended.
“When nonprofit leaders have space to be in community with one another, it changes what’s possible,” says Erin Marie McDonald, program officer with the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, who currently leads the initiative. “We saw people leave these gatherings with new collaborators, new ideas and a stronger sense that they’re not doing this work alone.”
Consultant Monica Marie Jones facilitated the gatherings and watched the network take shape over the course of the series.
“A strong nonprofit ecosystem isn’t just a collection of strong organizations — it’s the relationships between them,” Jones says. “In Pontiac, the talent and commitment were already here. What this series did was create the connective tissue. I saw leaders find partners, share resources and start trusting one another in ways that will benefit this community far beyond the life of the series.”
A celebration to close it out
The series wrapped at the end of July with a celebratory mixer at The Crofoot in downtown Pontiac, featuring a live DJ who set the atmosphere for fun and fellowship. The event provided a final opportunity for the network to gather, mark what had been built and carry those connections forward.
Learn more about the Pontiac Funders Collaborative and its work in Pontiac at cfsem.org/initiative/pontiac.
