Pittsburgh Community Development Group Director Accepted to Harvard Program for Non-Profit Management

Rufus Idris, Executive Director of CEED, a Pittsburgh-based community development group, has been accepted under full scholarship to attend Harvard Business School's Performance Measurement for Effective Management of Nonprofit Organizations program in Cambridge, MA, in May.

Rufus Idris

The four-day program will use faculty presentations, case studies and group discussions to help participants understand best practices at other organizations and develop an effective way of measuring the success of their own programs and activities.

CEED is a non-profit organization that provides free business consulting services and microloans (under $10,000) to entrepreneurs who might not otherwise qualify for bank loans. To date, CEED has provided business planning and technical assistance to about 125 small businesses in the 10-county region of Southwestern Pennsylvania, 85 percent of which are based in Allegheny County, Idris said.

Topics at the Harvard program include:
- Managing organizational performance for strategic advantage.
 - Assessing and responding to demands for accountability.
- Examining tools and approaches for measuring the organization’s performance.
- Overcoming challenges and obstacles to organizational performance management.
- Institutionalizing and sustaining organizational performance management systems.

"It is an honor to be selected for the Harvard program for Nonprofit Organizations, and it will help CEED to be sure that we continue to be successful as we grow and help more people in the Greater Pittsburgh community," Idris said.

The Harvard program comes at a good time as CEED prepares to draft a comprehensive strategic plan for its growing program, Idris said.

A native of Nigeria, Idris has spent over 10 years working with disadvantaged and underserved populations on community development and poverty alleviation initiatives across Africa and in the United States. He joined CEED in 2008 as Director for Non-profit Services and was promoted to Executive Director in 2009. He attended Federal College of Fisheries and Marine Technology (FCFMT), and the University of Agriculture in Nigeria, and La Roche College in Pittsburgh, and received a Master’s Degree in Community Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University. Idris is a co-founder of the Union of African Communities in Southwestern Pennsylvania. He sits on the Allegheny County Department of Human Services’ Advisory Council on immigrants, internationals and refugee issues, and he is a member of the Vibrant Pittsburgh Affinity Group Steering Committee.

For more information about CEED, go to www.usaceed.org.