Client Success Story

Young Catholic Professionals

Who: Peter Blute, Executive Director

Location: Dallas, TX 

About:  Young Catholic Professionals (“YCP”) is a network that inspires modern-day saints by equipping Catholics in their 20s and 30s to live out their faith confidently. Through dynamic monthly events and mentorship from Catholic executives, YCP delivers a community built on meaningful connections, formation, and growth, guiding members to integrate faith into their lives as they pursue holiness on the road to Heaven. By fostering Catholic identity, encouraging community, and inspiring faith-driven leadership, YCP drives members to grow in holiness and create meaningful connections that lead to extraordinary outcomes.

Why Undivided Life?

YCP was embarking upon a leadership transition that had the potential to be more disruptive than any change they had experienced in the past. It was a pivotal moment for YCP to shift from founder Jenn Baugh to a non-founder executive director, Peter Blute. Peter stepped into the role in 2024 after years of working alongside Jenn. His first objective: lead the organization through the transition. At the same time, Peter identified growth and revenue opportunities on the horizon and continued building the team as it grew headcount and brought thousands of young people to “Work in Witness for Christ.”    

“We knew as part of the transition that we needed additional help to ensure it went smoothly,” said Peter. “The organization was growing either way, but the ‘how’ of it mattered."

 “YCP was already growing rapidly, but now we’re thriving with the help of Undivided Life.”

– Peter Blute, Executive Director

Working in Witness through Change  

YCP was founded for the purpose of building a network and creating a community, and the leadership team identified this transition as an opportunity to strengthen that culture. They needed an experienced partner to support the entire transformation from conceptualization to implementing internal organizational changes to external messaging.

A partnership with Undivided Life was a natural next step.  From marketing and communications to strategic culture building, finance, and more, Undivided Life’s engagement as "Executives Down the Hall" enabled YCP to align on key initiatives, move faster, grow their impact, and advance the mission. 

Contact us about Executives Down the Hall

 

From Growing to Thriving

Undivided Life started serving YCP several months before the transition and helped craft the message announcing the leadership change both internally and at the organization’s annual national conference with nearly 1,000 people in attendance. In addition to event preparation, Undivided Life offered ongoing executive coaching to Peter and the entire YCP national team during this pivotal time. 

Peter’s decade-long employment with YCP meant he had extensive organizational knowledge, but it was through Undivided Life’s executive coaching that Peter began his professional transformation. He began to embrace his role as a spokesperson and visionary while maintaining core strengths as a strategist and operator. 

Undivided Life helped Peter set the tone for his team as a visionary and galvanizer. The annual conference was a success, and Peter rallied his entire staff, as well as YCP members from across the country, around this event to spur excitement for this new phase of growth and development.

Success in Action

YCP has set the standard for what an innovative nonprofit can accomplish. The team consistently collaborates on new ideas and meeting needs that arise across their chapters. Undivided Life helped strengthen communication and collaboration among the staff, which has led to new ideas and revenue streams. Through Undivided Life’s Harrison Assessment and related workshop, the YCP Staff learned how to maximize their team strengths and recognize weaknesses while planning thoughtfully about adding new teammates to the mix. It also provided a new level of data and insights, as well as targeted questions for interviews based on a candidate’s assessment results. The data allows Peter to envision how candidates would fit with the existing team, and it helps identify whether a candidate could fill skill gaps that currently exist in the organization. Undivided Life also supported YCP leaders with selecting and screening candidates, interviewing, and communicating the intangible benefits of working at YCP, leading to three key hires in just three months. 

 

“The Harrison Assessment gave us a more targeted, data-driven approach and helped us see the person more fully. It gave us more confidence in the hiring process and leveled up everyone on the team.”  – Peter Blute

Learn more about the Harrison Assessment

A Great Culture Breeds Innovation

The YCP team has disrupted the status quo of a traditional nonprofit in numerous ways.

Their growth is unique in that they have successfully scaled their model, enabling eager volunteers to launch new chapters in their cities. They continue to grow their proprietary membership platform, Belong +, because of its unique value to the community. Along with creating shared experiences, the membership model is a source of revenue for the mission. And they’re currently working on an innovative tool to connect YCP members with employers. Undivided Life has worked with them behind the scenes throughout this process to stress test the opportunity and determine the optimal path from a time, resources, and bandwidth standpoint. This tool will not only be a source of revenue but will also be a service to support those Working in Witness for Christ. 

Learn more about YCP at YoungCatholicProfessionals.org.