October 24, 2008 — Describing the current financial crisis sweeping the country and Massachusetts as an “economic tsunami,” Steve Grossman, a business leader and staunch advocate for the nonprofit sector, told more than 300 nonprofit executives today that they will come out of it “stronger than ever.”

“This is a defining moment for the not-for-profit space,” he said.

He added, “You enrich and enliven the community every day because of the work you do. That has given me the sense that the best and brightest people in Massachusetts are working in the nonprofit sector.”

Grossman, head of Grossman Marketing Group and former Democratic National Committee Chair, made his remarks at the first annual conference of the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network (MNN), which he keynoted at Bentley College in Waltham.

Echoing his comments was Liz Walker, former news anchor on WBZ-TV, who told the gathering: “You’ll hold back the darkness....The world needs you more than ever.”

Gross noted that the nonprofit organizations that thrive best are those that create what he called a symbiotic relationship between professionals and volunteers, where both need each other to do their work.

By way of advising attendees what makes a good volunteer, he said, “They are people who want to make a transformational impact on the world and the people you serve. You’ll flourish if you find those volunteers.”

Attendees accounted for a significant portion of the approximately 500 members that MNN has developed since it was launched early last year. They included organizations across the entire spectrum of nonprofits—from small to large—representing the arts, education, social service, advocacy, health, and other sectors.

They came from all parts of the state, from the Boys & Girls Club of Cape Cod in Mashpee to the Old Colony Hospice in Randolph, to the Cleghorn Neighborhood Center in Fitchburg and the United Way of Hampshire County based in Northampton.

Paul Grogan, president of The Boston Foundation, received MNN’s first Lifetime Nonprofit Service Award. The foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, invests in nonprofits and initiative that seek to address critical community challenges and provided funding that led to the establishment of MNN.