Hear from company founder, husband, father, and lifelong student Ryan Barton on practical ways to ensure that what you are pursuing is meaningful - and then to pursue it with both passion and wisdom.  How to utilize effective goal setting, intentional scheduling, deep work, feedback loops, and practical technology to increase your velocity in life – the rate at which you get things done, and the ways in which you ensure they are the right things.

This seminar on time management discusses not only the motivation, but also the method required to retain a healthy control over your schedule in a work and home environment. 

We live in a time where the rich are getting richer, the working and middle classes are slipping behind, and the upper-middle class has growing concerns with funding their education, healthcare, and retirement. What are the implications for fundraising? In the last 25 years we’ve moved from talking about the 80/20 Rule (where 80% of the money comes from 20% of the donors) to the 90/10 Rule. But are we really closer to the 95/5 Rule, and on our way to 99/1? How do nonprofits cope with this significant socio-economic shift?   

In this interactive session, we will discuss strategies for raising major money from those who have it, while still maintaining broad community support. Participants will come away with an understanding, first, of how the country is changing, and second, how to develop fundraising strategies that make practical and philosophical sense for their organizations.

This workshop introduces participants to scenario planning as a helpful tool for:

• Understanding the broader and complex ecosystem in which each nonprofit organization operates
• Imagining plausible future worlds in which they will be challenged to find success
• Developing and implementing effective long-term strategies.

The presentation covers basic steps and questions that typically guide scenario planning processes and opens eyes and minds to the power of scenarios to heighten the impact of strategic planning exercises and to sharpen the ability to tell a compelling organizational story. Thoughtful consideration of the pressures, forces and events (collectively, the “drivers”) facing an organization enables identification of the critical uncertainties and their implications that will likely shape an organization’s future. Through an engaging and participatory process, this workshop will enable participants to begin practicing the art of scenario planning.

In today’s workplace, where time is a precious commodity, managers and leaders often believe they don’t have the time to help employees navigate conflict. More often than not, however, it takes more time not to address conflict than to constructively intervene. But before managers can successfully guide others in managing disagreements, they must be able to manage their own mindset and behaviors through centered presence, clarity of purpose, and skilled communication.   

This workshop presents a coaching intervention process to use with employees in conflict—a guide for managers, HR professionals, and leaders to coach conflicting employees back to a professional, effective working relationship, while simultaneously changing their lives for the better.   

Attendees will walk away with skills and practices to reinforce their ability to:

• Be calm and centered in conflict situations. 
• Manage their own emotions and those of others in order to help employees resolve conflict. 
• Know how to work with conflicting parties individually and when and how to bring them together. 
• Sense when employees are willing and able to move forward from the conflict

More nonprofits are turning to video to increase their brand recognition and marketing performance. Based on market studies, 82% of consumer web traffic will be video and by the year 2021, it is anticipated that digital ad spend will exceed $22.2 billion. Nonprofit marketers will benefit from understanding how to navigate video and video advertising and use it as an acquisition tool for donors and/or potential members.    

You will learn the components of a solid video strategy through an exercise on how to write a script, how to visualize the visual, and how to use video to tell your story in an inspiring and actionable way. In addition, you will learn about platforms to promote your video.

Developing an engaged, inspired and effective board takes some guts, commitment and a willingness to look some dysfunctional habits in the eye - and change!  The process doesn't have to be painful. In reality, once you begin ending some entrenched habits, you will find your board members thanking you.  

This workshop is designed to help nonprofit Executive Directors, board chairs and board members bring new energy into the board room and build the capacity of the board members to form a high-performing team that excels in strategy, fundraising and governance.

Participants will explore new thinking in how to develop effective board meetings, manage diverse personalities around the boardroom table, break down the fears board members hold about fundraising and tap into the unique talents of individual board members. Participants will leave with tools, templates and a draft plan of how to re-invigorate the board experience and cultivate board engagement.

With a focused brand strategy, nonprofits have an opportunity to connect with their mission, build strong relationships with key stakeholders and highlight their U.S.P. (unique selling proposition) for donors, sponsors and partners. Many nonprofits today say they have a need for “better branding” – but they are unsure what perceptions or misperceptions exist in the minds of their target audiences. Good branding is based on solid research, and therefore a key question to answer is:  are you known for what you want to stand for? This workshop will explore:

• The 4 steps to building a reputation
• Options for conducting “known for/stands for” research on a shoestring budget
• Techniques for defining and communicating your brand once you have established your U.S.P. and core messages

A strong board can be the greatest asset a nonprofit has when it comes to raising gifts, but most board members are reticent when it comes to raising funds. This session will help staff and volunteers understand how to give boards the tools they need, inspire them to want to be a part of raising money for your cause, and even get them excited about getting out there and building philanthropic support for your mission.  You will come away from this session with a host of ways to assure your board members that they are the best ones to be out there engaging your potential donors.

Competition for grant funding can be steep and the process confusing and intimidating, especially for beginners and small shops. This workshop is geared to the grant-writing novice and will provide solid concrete tips for the entire process from making that first call to a foundation to writing that final report.  

This workshop aims to remove the stigma around grant-writing and empower participants with the skills to become successful grant-writers. Participants in this session will come away with the tools to:  

• Confidently make a personal contact with a foundation or grant-making institution  
• Differentiate between project based grants and operating grants 
• Craft a compelling case for support using active strong language and measurable outcomes

In August 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued an Accounting Standards Update that affects nonprofit organizations for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017. 

The changes are meant to help nonprofits tell their story more transparently through their financial statements. While the changes are comprehensive, the areas most significantly affected are:

• Classification of net assets
• Presentation of expenses
• Reporting of liquidity and availability of resources

The time has come for all nonprofits to implement the new reporting standard. Join our presenters from BerryDunn to review how these changes, along with the new revenue recognition requirements, will impact your nonprofit’s financial statements. Take a dive deeper into topics such as:

• Determining if your grants and contributions are within the scope of the new revenue recognition standard and whether they should be accounted for as contributions or exchange revenue
• Exploring how the new liquidity and cash management disclosures will impact your financial statements

The #MeToo Movement has pushed sexual harassment back into the forefront and recent court decisions have clarified the obligation to prevent and effectively respond to reports of harassment. Organizations, including nonprofits, that fail to respond to the changing landscape risk distraction from their mission, loss of reputation and/or financial support and a significant damage award. This workshop will lay the groundwork for an effective response to reports related to employees and will address the issues associated with responding to the conduct of board members and/or volunteers who are not under the employee umbrella.

This workshop will bring organizational leadership up to speed on the current law, help them identify risk within their current practices and procedures and provide examples of practical steps they can take to minimize risk.  For example, attendees will be able to compare their current training and reporting mechanisms with those that were the subject of recent court cases. Attendees will also gain a better understanding of how to effectively respond to reports of harassment in the current context.