For many nonprofit and grassroots organizations, limited access to capacity-building resources can make it difficult to strengthen operations, communicate impact and plan for long-term sustainability while responding to urgent community needs. To help address that need, we expanded our partnership with Resilia to offer free capacity-building support to organizations across Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Oswego and Onondaga counties. The Central New York Lyme & Tick-Borne Disease Alliance is participating in the 2026-27 cohort, gaining access to online tools, coaching, peer learning, planning resources and funding research support as it builds on its strong foundation and prepares for its next chapter of growth.
Written by: Melissa Carr Rowe, EdD, MSc, CPH, Executive Director, Central New York Lyme & Tick-Borne Disease Alliance
The Central New York Lyme & Tick-Borne Disease Alliance is entering an exciting new chapter.
Since our visionary founding in 2019, the Alliance has grown from a grassroots effort driven by passionate volunteers into a trusted regional resource for prevention, education, advocacy and collaboration around tick-borne diseases. Today, we serve communities across Onondaga, Oswego and Madison counties, working alongside healthcare providers, researchers, educators, policymakers and community organizations to address one of the fastest-growing public health threats in our region. We’ve developed a model that others look to around the country as a successful collaborative response to tackling this complex public health challenge.
In the United States, nearly a half million people are impacted by Lyme and tick-borne disease each year. Unfortunately, New York is a leading state with high incidence rates contributing to these cases as tick populations continue to grow at a rapid pace. Undoubtedly, prevention of exposure is the most important intervention, and the Alliance has stood strong in this fight. In 2025 alone, we reached more than 17,500 individuals through our education and advocacy efforts, but there is still so much more work to be done to achieve our vision of a region free of the burdens of Lyme and tick-borne disease.
As the world continues to change around us, it is also a time of dynamic change inside the Alliance. In January 2026, I had the privilege of stepping into the role of Executive Director, building upon the remarkable foundation established by the Alliance’s founders, volunteers, board members, partners and supporters. Like many nonprofits experiencing growth and leadership transition, we are balancing the responsibility of meeting today’s needs while intentionally building the systems, strategy and partnerships necessary for tomorrow.
That is exactly why participating in the Resilia Capacity Builder program through the Central New York Community Foundation comes at such an important moment in our organization’s development.
Throughout my diverse experiences in leadership, I have learned that meaningful impact requires more than passion alone. It requires honest reflection, strong systems, intentional action, clear strategy and a humble commitment to continuous learning and improvement. Those experiences have shaped my deep belief that capacity building is not separate from mission work, but rather, it is mission work. Every improvement we make to our strategic planning, communications, development systems, volunteer engagement, staff and leadership strengthens our ability to fulfill our mission. Strong organizations are better positioned to respond to community needs, build meaningful partnerships and create lasting impact. We’re up for the challenge.
One of the most valuable lessons I have taken from the Resilia experience so far is the recognition that capacity building matters at every stage of an organization’s journey. There is sometimes a misconception that these resources are most valuable only for new organizations still finding their footing. In reality, nonprofits at every stage of development face unique opportunities and challenges. Emerging organizations are building foundational systems. Growing organizations are navigating increased demand, leadership transitions and expansion. Mature organizations must continually adapt to changing community needs, evolving funding landscapes and new opportunities for impact. In each case, strong mission-driven work depends upon robust organizational capacity.
Programs like Resilia recognize that effective nonprofits require more than dedication and hard work. They require deliberate investment of resources, commitment, time and effort in important areas like leadership development, governance, financial sustainability, communications, strategic planning and organizational effectiveness. These are often the very areas nonprofit leaders struggle to prioritize while simultaneously meeting urgent community needs.
It’s such a delicate balance and it’s hard work. That is what makes investments like this so vital.
By making these capacity-building resources accessible to organizations across Central New York, the Central New York Community Foundation is sharing the journey with us all, helping achieve our collective long-term visions for community impact. The cohort model here is a visionary way to bring us together while helping us to grow in both individual and collective ways. This approach recognizes a simple but powerful truth: stronger nonprofits create stronger communities. In so many ways, this is one of the most forward-thinking and important forms of philanthropy. When nonprofit organizations are equipped with the tools, knowledge and support necessary to grow and adapt, the benefits extend far beyond any single organization. They strengthen partnerships, improve services, increase community responsiveness and help ensure that critical missions continue to thrive for years to come.
Equally valuable is the applied nature of the training itself. Instead of just theoretical ideas, the program provides tools that we can implement immediately. One of my early insights came during the storytelling workshop, From Impact to Investment. Like many of my nonprofit colleagues, I entered the program expecting to focus primarily on strategy, governance, fundraising and operations. While those topics remain essential, the workshop reinforced something equally important: storytelling is a critical component of organizational effectiveness.
At the Alliance, every educational presentation, prevention initiative, advocacy effort and community partnership is rooted in the experiences of real people. Behind the data is a parent protecting a child from a tick bite, a clinician searching for answers for a patient, a researcher advancing scientific understanding or an individual navigating the challenges of a tick-borne disease diagnosis. When we tell those stories thoughtfully and authentically, we do more than raise awareness. We build trust. We strengthen relationships. We inspire action. Most importantly, we help others understand exactly why this work matters.
The workshop helped put this into a refreshed perspective, then took it a step further, providing simple templates and structures to help me walk away ready to take action in my own organization. All too often, I’ve attended a webinar and left with exercises to be filed away for future use; but here, what I gained included easy, tangible tools that could be integrated directly into our existing workflows. With that foundation, we began applying what we learned almost immediately and already, the feedback is that it feels really good to tell these stories in better ways, because after all, they are precisely why we do what we do every day. These stories are the most critical piece of our organizational DNA.
As we continue our Resilia journey, my goal is to ensure that organizational growth remains deeply community-centered and collaborative, and that we leverage the full ecosystem of our nonprofit in this work. We have already started engagement of our full staff and board within the platform and will continue to work together to advance this effort over the cohort year. It’s exciting to consider how this will have an impact on shaping the future of the Alliance and helping us grow in strength, capacity and effectiveness.
The next chapter of the Alliance will be written by many voices. Through the investment in this program, we are gaining new tools and perspectives needed to bring those voices together, build upon our strong foundation and increase our impact throughout the region.
We are incredibly grateful to the Central New York Community Foundation for investing not only in programs, but in the organizations that make those programs possible. By helping nonprofits build the capacity to grow, adapt and lead, they are strengthening the future of the entire nonprofit sector and, ultimately, the communities we all serve right here in Central New York.
About the Author
Melissa Carr Rowe, EdD, MSc, CPH, serves as Executive Director of the Central New York Lyme & Tick-Borne Disease Alliance. She is passionate about bringing people together to address complex challenges through collaboration, education and community-driven solutions. Melissa lives in Oswego County with her husband and five children and is honored to help lead the Alliance into its next chapter of growth and impact.
