About Us

The Mission of HandsOn Northwest North Carolina

The Vision of HandsOn Northwest North Carolina

Core Values of HandsOn Northwest North Carolina

Responsiveness – pro-active and reactive in our work with nonprofits and community volunteers so that we respond to the emerging needs of the community.

Collaboration & Connectedness – nonprofits and community service provide an opportunity for diverse populations to come together to make change.  Collaboration is at our core as we believe none of us alone will be as effective as all of us working together.

Accessibility – we “make it easy to make a difference,” and aim to remove barriers so that nonprofits and volunteers can access our services, whether through program pricing or ensuring our technology is user-friendly.

Inclusivity & Transparency – we “practice what we preach,” modeling best practices in nonprofit management and governance, while making our decision-making, planning, and programmatic work as transparent as possible to our funders, our nonprofit partners, and the wider community.   Transparency is key to our mission to build leadership and service, and central to our goal to build organizations led by people of color and work in under-resourced communities.

Excellence – we can only be effective when we are at our best. We want to provide “best in class” professional and leadership development opportunities, and managed volunteer experiences.  When we fall short of excellence, we want to make sure that we “fail forward,” and work quickly to acknowledge, correct, and learn from our mistakes.

Staff Descriptions

Amy Lytle became the first Executive Director of HandsOn Northwest North Carolina in October 2007, bringing with her over ten years of professional nonprofit management experience. Amy came to HandsOn from The Volunteer Center of Greensboro, where she served as Assistant Director for more than eight years and was the lead staff member providing training and technical assistance to the nonprofits with which the Center worked. She has developed and presented workshops throughout the state of North Carolina on a variety of volunteer management and nonprofit governance topics. In the past, Amy served on the board of ncyt , a statewide organization of young, non-profit professionals, and as President of NCAVA, the North Carolina Association of Volunteer Administrators, and continues to serve as a volunteer with numerous other professional, educational, nonprofit, and community groups. Amy is also proud to be a founding member of the Fondue Fund, a Triad-wide giving circle comprised of diverse young women that merged with The Women’s Fund of Winston-Salem in 2010, with whom she now serves as a member of its Leadership Development committee. For all of these efforts, Amy was honored to be recognized in 2006 as one of the Forty Leaders Under 40 by the Triad Business Journal. Amy graduated from Guilford College, received her CAVNC (Certified Administrator of Volunteers in North Carolina) credential from NCAVA in 2001 and graduated from Duke University’s Certificate Program in NonProfit Management in 2003.

Destiny Butler is our new Program Coordinator.  Destiny is a Baltimore, MD native with a Bachelor’s in Political Science from Morgan State University.  She has over five years of experience working in nonprofit, volunteer geared services, and leadership building in Baltimore City.  She first served as a Teen Coordinator, then as the Program Coordinator, Program Director, and Club Director for the Boys & Girls Club of Metropolitan Baltimore.  She is now a resident of Greensboro, NC pursuing her dreams and expanding her knowledge and experience in the North Carolina nonprofit sector through capacity building, community advocacy, and program planning.

Casey Capstick is our Development and Partnership Manager. Casey just completed her second year of AmeriCorps VISTA with HandsOn, working specifically on managing the GetConnected portal and social media, and outreach. We are excited to have her join our team full-time. Casey grew up near Buffalo, NY where she attended SUNY Oswego. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, with a concentration in Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology, and History, concentrating in World History. After completing her B.A. in 2016 she relocated to Greensboro NC. She is also attending UNC Greensboro’s Master’s of Public Administration with a Concentration in Nonprofit Management.

Kathy Davis started with HandsOn NWNC as Program Director in October 2008 to lead our professional development and leadership training efforts. A Winston-Salem native, Kathy has an MPA from UNC-Chapel Hill. She has extensive experience building capacity with small nonprofits and governments from nine years of community and economic development work in upstate South Carolina where she wrote grants and managed infrastructure, housing, building renovation and construction projects for marginalized communities. Kathy also has experience in budgeting and program evaluation from her tenure with the City of Charlotte. She has a certification in community development from the University of Central Arkansas’s Community Development Institute and spent several years helping local nonprofits in the Charlotte area with grant writing and project development.  Kathy is a 2015 graduate of Leadership Winston-Salem.

Shivani Patel has joined HandsOn NWNC’s team as an AmeriCorps VISTA Member through Wake Forest University’s Office of Civic and Community Engagement. She will be working in a capacity building position to ensure nonprofits are equipped and engaged in creating thriving, healthy communities. Shivani has pivoted into the public sector after obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Textile Product Development from North Carolina State University. Working and learning with HandsOn within is the next step in her mission to foster sustainable and equitable practices through community organizations. With her curiosity in public serving organizations, she also works for the Forsyth County Public Library system and volunteers with nonprofits and NGOs supporting various causes.

Board Members

HandsOn NWNC History

NonProfit Connections was originally created to help build and strengthen nonprofits in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County area. Its goal was to provide area nonprofits with the tools to fulfill their missions and ultimately enhance the vitality of our community. NonProfit Connections provided information, assessment tools, and referrals on a wide variety of topics related to development, support, and professional development and training for individual nonprofits and the local nonprofit community as a whole. It was a funders’ collaborative that indirectly employed a part-time staff person.

Volunteer Connections evolved out of the work of the volunteerism committee of the ECHO (Everyone Can Help Out) Council, which was spearheaded by the Winston-Salem Foundation in 2003 to work as a promoter, incubator, facilitator, and advocate for social capital. (In 2009, ECHO was spun off as an independent nonprofit, but remains co-located with HandsOn.) Volunteer Connections’ mission was to serve as a focal point for mobilizing and connecting both new and established volunteers and leaders and for engaging them in activities that strengthen and unite our community. In February 2007, Volunteer Connections launched its web site designed to match volunteers and nonprofits in Forsyth County. Until the merger, it was a volunteer-led group that was supported by a consultant.

Combining the two organizations created a single entity devoted to building a stronger and more engaged community by improving the effectiveness of nonprofits and connecting volunteers with opportunities for meaningful community service. The merger allowed for the opening of a dedicated office and the hiring of full-time staff for the first time in October 2007.

HandsOn NWNC continues the work and goals of its two predecessor groups while working to expand services into other counties to the north and west of Forsyth County.

Location and Directions