SWAN Pennsylvania
Empowering nonprofits, arts organizations, and community partners to build a stronger, more inclusive, and more sustainable future together.
Building Brighter Futures Through Collaboration
The Strategic Workforce & Arts Network of Pennsylvania (SWAN) was created to help arts, culture, heritage, and community organizations navigate a rapidly changing world through collaboration, shared knowledge, and practical support.
SWAN brings together nonprofits, educators, artists, community leaders, and workforce partners to strengthen regional impact while reducing isolation, duplication of effort, and barriers to access. We believe organizations are stronger when they share ideas, resources, opportunities, and solutions rather than compete for limited attention and support.
Our current goals include:
- Encouraging collaboration and resource-sharing among organizations
- Supporting workforce readiness through arts, culture, communication, and creative skill development
- Expanding access to affordable training, professional development, and educational opportunities
- Promoting ethical and accessible use of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence
- Strengthening visibility for community events, programs, and organizations across the region
- Helping nonprofits build sustainable systems for governance, fundraising, marketing, and community engagement
- Creating practical tools and shared infrastructure that allow organizations to focus more energy on mission-driven work
SWAN believes the arts are not separate from community development or workforce development.
Creativity, communication, leadership, adaptability, and collaboration are essential workforce skills, and arts organizations play a vital role in developing them across generations.
By building connections across sectors and communities, SWAN aims to help create a more sustainable, accessible, and collaborative future for organizations throughout Pennsylvania and beyond.
Our Story
Stronger Nonprofits. Stronger Communities.
The Strategic Workforce & Arts Network (SWAN) was founded on a simple belief: when nonprofit organizations work together, everyone benefits.
Across Pennsylvania and beyond, small and mid-sized nonprofit organizations are tackling some of our communities’ greatest challenges. Yet many face the same obstacles: limited staffing, constrained budgets, increasing demand for services, growing administrative responsibilities, and a lack of time to build the partnerships that could help them succeed.
SWAN was created to help change that.
Our mission is to strengthen nonprofit organizations through collaboration, education, networking, advocacy, and resource sharing. We believe organizations should not have to solve the same problems in isolation. By connecting nonprofit professionals with one another, sharing knowledge and best practices, and promoting strategic partnerships, we help organizations build capacity, improve sustainability, and increase their collective impact.
Rather than competing unnecessarily, we believe nonprofit organizations can accomplish far more by working together.
What We Do
SWAN serves nonprofit executives, development professionals, board members, volunteers, arts organizations, educators, community leaders, consultants, foundations, and businesses that support the nonprofit sector.
We help organizations:
- Build meaningful partnerships with other nonprofit organizations.
- Share resources, knowledge, and best practices.
- Coordinate community events and reduce unnecessary scheduling conflicts.
- Learn about fundraising, governance, communications, strategic planning, and nonprofit leadership.
- Stay informed about legislation, public policy, funding opportunities, and issues affecting the nonprofit sector.
- Connect with experienced nonprofit professionals and trusted consultants.
- Build relationships that lead to stronger organizations and healthier communities.
No one organization has total expertise in every area of nonprofit management. One of SWAN’s primary goals is to connect organizations with experienced professionals and consultants whose knowledge can help them address specialized challenges, expand capacity, and identify new opportunities.
Fundraising Through the CFRE Lens
Sustainable fundraising is built on ethical leadership, thoughtful planning, and strong relationships.
SWAN regularly shares practical fundraising guidance through the perspective of Carla Anderton, MFA, CFRE, Founding Partner of SWAN.
As a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE), Carla is committed to promoting fundraising practices grounded in accountability, donor stewardship, strategic planning, and the highest ethical standards. She is also a proud member of both the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and CFRE International, organizations dedicated to advancing ethical fundraising and professional excellence throughout the nonprofit sector.
Whether your organization is writing its first grant proposal, strengthening donor stewardship, developing an annual campaign, or building a long-term fundraising strategy, SWAN seeks to provide practical, experience-based resources that help organizations become more sustainable and mission-focused.
Advocacy for the Nonprofit Sector
Healthy communities depend upon healthy nonprofit organizations.
SWAN works to educate nonprofit leaders about legislation, funding trends, workforce issues, accessibility, governance, public policy, and other topics that influence the nonprofit sector. Through educational content and our SWAN Advocacy Alert series, we encourage organizations to stay informed, engage constructively with decision-makers, and advocate for issues that strengthen the communities they serve.
We believe advocacy is not limited to contacting elected officials. It also includes educating the public, sharing lived experiences, promoting thoughtful public dialogue, and ensuring nonprofit organizations have a voice in decisions that affect their work.
Accessibility and Disability Inclusion
Accessibility is one of SWAN’s core values.
SWAN is committed to advancing disability inclusion and promoting accessible nonprofit organizations, arts organizations, workplaces, and community spaces where everyone has the opportunity to participate, contribute, and lead.
This commitment is informed by both professional experience and lived experience. SWAN’s Founding Partner, Carla Anderton, lives with rheumatoid arthritis, a lifelong disability that has shaped her understanding of accessibility, inclusion, and equitable leadership.
Carla also serves as a Volunteer Advisor with Disability Belongs, a national nonprofit organization working to advance disability rights, civic participation, and disability-led leadership.
We believe accessibility should never be viewed simply as compliance. It should be embraced as an essential element of organizational excellence and community engagement.
Education, Networking, and Collaboration
At its heart, SWAN is a connector.
We believe some of the best ideas emerge through conversation, collaboration, and shared experience. SWAN creates opportunities for nonprofit professionals, board members, volunteers, consultants, fundraisers, educators, business leaders, and community advocates to build relationships that strengthen both individual organizations and the nonprofit sector as a whole.
As a proud member of the Mon Valley Business Alliance (MVBA), SWAN actively supports opportunities that bring together nonprofit organizations, businesses, educational institutions, and community leaders. Cross-sector collaboration creates stronger organizations, stronger partnerships, and stronger communities.
Whether you’re looking for a fundraising consultant, communications strategist, accessibility expert, governance advisor, grant writer, marketing professional, or simply another nonprofit leader willing to share ideas, SWAN strives to connect organizations with the people and resources that can help them succeed.
The SWAN Blog
The nonprofit landscape is constantly evolving, and so is the conversation.
Through The SWAN Blog, we publish regular articles exploring nonprofit leadership, fundraising, grant writing, communications, accessibility, governance, board development, advocacy, workforce development, artificial intelligence, technology, capacity building, collaboration, and emerging issues affecting mission-driven organizations.
Our goal is simple: to provide thoughtful analysis, practical ideas, and resources that nonprofit professionals can apply immediately within their own organizations.
Join the Network
SWAN believes that collaboration is one of the nonprofit sector’s greatest untapped resources.
Whether you represent an arts organization, community nonprofit, educational institution, historical society, human services agency, grassroots initiative, foundation, or business that supports nonprofit work, we invite you to become part of the conversation.
Together, we can build stronger organizations, share knowledge, create meaningful partnerships, advocate for positive change, and strengthen the communities we all serve.
Connect With SWAN
Carla Anderton, MFA, CFRE
Founding Partner, Strategic Workforce & Arts Network (SWAN)
📧 Email: carla22377@gmail.com
🌐 Website: swanpa.org
💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/carlaeanderton
Whether you’re seeking collaboration, strategic guidance, fundraising resources, networking opportunities, or simply want to learn more about SWAN, we’d love to connect with you!