This nonprofit leader acts as a ’no-fee staffing agency’ connecting overlooked young professionals to corporate jobs

Grace Manning leads a program helping land young professionals work at companies like Subaru.

Grace Manning is director of employer and alumni relations at Hopeworks, a nonprofit organization based in Philadelphia and South New Jersey, offering workforce development programs to young adults.

Through training programs, paid internships, and placement services with local employers, Hopeworks helps young, diverse professionals ages 17 to 26 get their foot in corporate America’s door. As director of employer and alumni relations, Manning helps place Hopeworks’ participants (usually 150 at any given time) land work at companies including Subaru, public utility company American Water, and cloud computing firm Akamai.

“I act as, essentially, like a headhunter for our young professionals in our program, and for our partners, I act as kind of a no-fee staffing agency,” she said of her role. In 2021, Manning also developed the nonprofit’s alumni network, which offers support with career advancement and mentorship, salary negotiation, and even planning for homeownership.

“Part of our goal is…we’re putting them into roles, and they’re getting into positions where they work for great companies that have some of those resources. But even then, we have some alumni who work for some pretty large organizations, it can be hard to figure out how to navigate that,” she said. “So [we’re] acting as a continued mentor, career coach for them, to advocate for themselves, and find those spaces.”

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