Building Capacity, Confidence, and Community for Girls in Leon County
When Denise Howard stepped into the role of Executive Director of Girls on the Run of the Panhandle (GOTR) in 2024, she inherited a program known for its quality, but running on the last of pandemic-era funding. GOTR is a nonprofit for girls ages 6 to 12 that helps build confidence, healthy habits, and emotional resilience through running and life skills lessons after school. As the organization’s only staff member and highly motivated to lead well, Denise sought every opportunity to learn, including reviewing resources from the national organization, streaming podcasts on nonprofit leadership, and more. In 2025, Denise applied to and was selected for the Children Services Council of Leon County’s Small Investments for Program Success (SIPS) initiative, a yearlong program that pairs a small grant with coaching and training.
Girls on the Run of the Panhandle received $15,000 over 12 months, and Denise participated in monthly coaching calls and in-person capacity building workshops. Denise also completed an opening assessment to understand GOTR’s baseline organizational capacity. From this process, she identified two areas to work on during the program year: financial management and community engagement. But that wasn’t the full story. Eager to go above and beyond the program requirement, Denise elected to complete all five modules of the “Essentials of Nonprofit Leadership” certificate series offered to SIPS recipients. And the results of her drive to expand showed in the organization itself.
Through SIPS, Denise received just-in-time tools and information to grow GOTR’s organizational assessment score from 156 to 204, an increase of nearly 31%. In the same time, the organization completed its first executive performance evaluation, onboarded a bookkeeper and a treasurer to manage cash flow projections, and launched Songfest, a new signature fundraising event. For the first time in Denise’s tenure, Girls on the Run finished its fiscal year “in the black,” enabling it to place nearly $4,000 into its reserves. In August 2026, Denise hired the organization’s second staff member, a Program Coordinator, using the hiring practices learned during the SIPS capacity building initiative.
For GOTR, growing capacity translated directly into service. The organization delivered full fall and spring programs across 11 schools in Leon County as a SIPS recipient, serving 314 girls and surpassing its goal of 263. More than half of those participants, 164 girls, also live in CSC Leon’s priority zip codes.
GOTR leveraged other lessons learned from the SIPS training regarding logic models and evaluation tools. For the first time, the program measured its impact with girls served at three Leon County Title I schools using the Life Skills Transfer Survey, a peer-reviewed assessment developed at the University of Minnesota. They found that 70% of girls participating in GOTR at Riley Elementary were better able to manage their emotions. In all three studied schools, 59% of participating girls reported improved emotional management. Denise then used these results in a successful application for $50,000 in new funding for GOTR. This marked another first for the organization – using its own outcome data to secure additional funding.
The CSC Leon SIPS partnership meaningfully influenced growth at Girls on the Run of the Panhandle; however, the motivation of its Executive Director sealed the deal. The financial investment funded program leadership and materials, making it possible for GOTR to reach more girls. The coaching and training provided by CSC Leon made it possible for Denise, as Executive Director, to strengthen the organization’s financial and reporting practices along the way. Today, Girls on the Run is building new, innovative partnerships in our local community, specifically with local athletes, influencers and organizations stepping forward to raise money on its behalf. “We are more well known in the community now,” Denise says, having secured connections that were once out of reach and diversified funding sources.
Programs like Girls on the Run of the Panhandle illustrate what can happen when a determined leader has the resources to put ideas into action. Denise describes herself as “downright feisty” about the organization’s impact in Leon County. With support from SIPS, she has helped Girls on the Run build a stronger foundation for the girls it serves today and for the years ahead. “I feel like we are a Cinderella story,” she says.
Songfest 2026 takes place Oct. 22. To attend, register a girl, or volunteer as a coach, visit https://www.gotrpanhandle.org/.
