The mission of the Whitney M. Young Center for Urban Leadership is to cultivate and enhance the leadership capabilities of individuals and organizations that serve urban communities. Our role is to convene and link those entities to practical leadership development tools and resources to help them address capacity issues and various leadership challenges.

One platform used to accomplish this objective is the annual Urban Leadership Development Conference which is held in various destination cities around the country. This conference is designed as a comprehensive training ground for nonprofit leaders who serve urban communities and have an interest in impacting social and economic change. The audience includes a mixture of nonprofit leaders from community based organizations, government agencies, corporate community officers, health and human services, and many others.

Some of the content areas of the conference include: fundraising courses taught by Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy Fundraising School; leadership development taught by some of the world's leading experts; fiscal management for nonprofit managers; health and quality of life featuring a funder's round table; human resources; program management/administrative leadership, and much, much, more. Any individual and/or organization that are dedicated to improving the lives of the constituents they serve benefits from this phenomenal training and development experience.