Downey, the program director of nonprofit services at GVSU’s Johnson Center for Philanthropy, said he was surprised to receive the award, assuming that his work was not as great as some of the other nominees.

“The other nominees all work in specific organizations and do great work … so I thought they wouldn’t choose me because these other people do amazing work as well,” Downey said.

But with almost 20 years of work in the nonprofit sector behind him, Downey has helped many nonprofit organizations in fundraising, marketing and developing programs.

Downey has organized workshops and training seminars open to community groups and organizations needing help in these areas while working with the Johnson Center.

His passion for work in the nonprofit sector started at 18 years old.

“I was like a weird 18-year-old kid; I decided this is what I was going to do for the rest of my life,” Downey said. “It was unusual to say that I wanted to work in the nonprofit sector. I wanted to have a job where I got paid to make communities better and make communities stronger.”

Downey’s biggest influences came from a variety of different people that he has worked with during his years in the nonprofit sector.

“The people at the Johnson Center are brilliant,” he said.

In many of his previous jobs, Downey said there were always more experienced professionals to look up to and help him learn what to do and what not to do. He said it is the collection of the different leaders with whom he has worked that have helped him build his skills and knowledge so that he is able to try and impact as many lives as possible.

Take Temple United Methodist Church in Muskegon Heights, for example.

Downey helped the church rebuild an after-school program called Pathfinders, which had been shut down after the program lost grant money from the governor’s office.

The church members had come to one of Downey’s workshops to talk about rebuilding the program. They sat down, discussed the organization, who they could get involved in the organization, what resources they could gather and what kind of strategy could be implemented to raise money and get the program back on its feet.

Downey got the program up and running again over the summer, and it is planning on staying open through the fall and winter while working on raising money to stay open through the spring and summer of 2012, success the church attributes to Downey.

“I got a little note … saying that they now had up to 15 board members and Gerber gave them a $10,000 grant,” Downey said. “And at the end of the thank you note it said, ‘Matthew, we couldn’t have done it without you.’”

And though those little notes can mean big victories, Downey said sometimes it is still difficult trying to convince people that GVSU and the Johnson Center can be relevant in their lives, and that they can benefit by coming to seek services from them.

“That disconnect and having people looking at us and saying, ‘How do you know what life is like for us’ — that we can have a conversation and I can benefit from it,” Downey said. “That’s a difficult thing to convince people, that kind of trust and relevance factor. Even the smartest people with the best intentions, trying to work in community-based nonprofit organizations need an additional kind of help.”

Downey’s client Bridget Clark Whitney, the executive director at Kids’ Food Basket, nominated him for the Professional of the Year Award, which, according to the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, is awarded to “someone who excels at work (and) always goes above and beyond for their cause.”

“They should be someone who is passionate, enthusiastic and devoted to the nonprofit sector,” Whitney said. “It should be someone who is committed to leadership in the sector and helping others work on solving some of the society’s most pressing problems. That person is, without a doubt, Matthew Downey.”

Downey has also worked with the Kids’ Food Basket, including teaching nonprofit 101 classes and intense strategy planning with the board of directors.

“He brings such an incredible range of knowledge that has consistently improved my organization,” Whitney added.

The Johnson Center works to support foundations and nonprofit organizations and help improve their ability to work with community groups, research and training on different topics and work one-on-one with other people.

The Johnson Center is located on the Pew Campus.

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