Nonprofits often think their good works speak for themselves. But that is not always the case. Marketing for a nonprofit is just as essential as it is for any for-profit business. We are exposed to hundreds of marketing messages every day—in print, online, just about everywhere. How can your organization stand out and get the attention you need? How can you create messages that motivate donors and other key stakeholders? By the end of the workshop, you will better understand how to identify your target audiences, develop compelling messages, and create a brand that stands out.

This workshop covers:

• Positioning strategy and branding
• Defining and understanding your intended audiences
• Developing clear and consistent messaging that sets you apart
• Creating a messaging guide which specifies audiences, behaviors, and key messages
• Using the messaging guide to gain consensus from staff and board
• Using a messaging guide to produce downstream marketing content

Participants will be able to:

• Conduct a positioning exercise with their team
• Identify target audiences or segments
• Understand how to create concise messages per target audience
• Implement a communications “audit”
• Develop a plan to update their communications

Audience

This workshop is designed for nonprofit executive directors, marketing directors and development directors in small to mid-sized nonprofit organizations. It will also be appropriate for any communications professional responsible for developing marketing content and programs.

This workshop will focus on relationship building, corporate partnerships, event sponsorships, and strategic nonprofit/for-profit marketing opportunities.

During the session we will discuss:

• Outreach and networking strategies
• Developing volunteer roles to attract business leaders and young professionals.
• Potential new sponsor identification and stewardship
• Relationship building for current partners and vendors and how to develop these relationships into meaningful long-term connections.

Participants will learn about creating unique sponsorship opportunities and how to deliver on marketing through impact messaging. We will review case studies to see the key elements of a sponsorship proposal. 

Audience

Board members, leadership staff, marketing, fundraising and development staff members.

This workshop will teach you the skills you need to be a good writer for a new decade and how to create compelling content for a variety of platforms. A blog can and should be the hub for your new approach to marketing. You will get the how-to’s in writing SEO-optimized and shareable content, crafting articles, posting pitches and content to social media that all sync together (and save you time)! Write text that has many uses, and that will cut through the clutter, be impactful on social media, and most of all take the storytelling power of your messaging to a new level.

Learn how smartly crafted writing can communicate the values of your nonprofit brand and position you in front of the right audiences. Learn the affordable way to build a blog, how to turn that blog into an SEO engine, and to share content across many platforms in a time effective and impactful way.

Participants will hear strategies to:

• Simplify your written language and drop the jargon
• Write targeted, search-optimized headlines and text that earns readers' attention
• Craft releases that go beyond just the facts, and reach new audience who do not consume traditional media
• Search target keywords and implement them to win better visibility and increase brand exposure on search engines
• Find your SEO potential
• Write posts and tweets that will be noticed and shared
• Tell your brand's story through blogging and social media
• Set up a real blog that is the hub of your new promotional plan
• Set social media goals

Audience

Any size nonprofit - as we will fit the strategies to the audience - and ask for input, and encourage questions.

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

• Understanding the broad, 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 in a very uncertain and rapidly changing world

The workshop 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.

This workshop is designed to provide both an overview and a taste of scenario planning. Participants will come away with a conceptual understanding of the purposes and benefits of scenario planning in an uncertain world, a basic recipe for conducting a scenario planning process, and a little bit of practice in "Imagineering" the future.

Audience

The ideal audience is a mix of board members, organization leaders, and staff from any size organization, including small-, mid- and large-size organizations whose missions and strategies are subject to periodic reappraisal due to ever-changing external factors. Audience members should have an interest in organizational governance and strategic thinking.

This workshop will help you thoughtfully craft messages leading up to and after the election, ensuring you address the critical issues your donors are thinking about while still remaining bi-partisan. We will also discuss donor behavior and motivations surrounding a political year and what your nonprofit can do to ensure a successful Annual Appeal after the election outcomes.

Participants will leave with:

• A framework for storytelling in 2020
• A list of the top things not to do when fundraising in an election year
• Insight into donor behavior in 2016 and what we can expect in 2020
• Ideas on how to stay true to your mission while also attracting new funds
• The ability to craft bi-partisan messages leading up to and after elections

Audience

Development Directors, Marketing staff and Executive Directors, with any level of experience in small to mid-size organizations.

Do you want to be able to determine whether and when a loan, a line of credit, or other financial tools are right for your organization?  If you tend to dismiss all debt as being bad, you may be missing opportunities to support your nonprofit.  At this workshop, we will:

• Explore why nonprofits are reluctant to use debt to advance their mission;
• Introduce new ways to build financial management capacity; and
• Share experiences where debt has proven useful. 

We will provide a couple of case studies, led by industry leaders and nonprofit peers who have used different financial tools to improve their financial health, complete projects, expand services and reduce operating costs.  The goal of these case studies is give you a window into the process of assessing and using debt as a financial tool.
Participants will:

• Explore how to build capacity to determine whether/when a loan is right for a nonprofit organization.
• Learn from specific case studies from nonprofits that have successfully used various tools to manage cash flow, weather difficult financial times, complete projects, reduce operating costs, etc.
• Learn about various resources and partners for nonprofits to consider as they explore whether, when and how to use various financial tools.

By the end of the workshop, every participant should have: 

• Greater understanding of various elements of financial capacity;
• Greater level of comfort to think creatively about different financial tools that they have not yet employed; and
• Resources and potential partners to help them take the next step.
  
  

Audience

Nonprofit Executive Directors and Board members; Nonprofit Finance Staff and Finance/Budget Committee members; Any organization size, targeted to organizations with an established financial track record.

Social and psychological research confirms that everyone has unconscious or implicit biases. This is a part of human nature as our brain’s categorize and process information as mental shortcuts to navigate life’s complexity.

If inappropriate unconscious biases are unknown and un-checked they can create toxic company cultures and unhealthy work environments, and can possibly lead to discriminatory behaviors. This interactive training raises awareness about race, culture, and gender biases to create a more positive and dynamic workplace and workforce.

Participants will:

• Build awareness about unconscious bias is in the workplace
• Learn how unconscious bias influences company and organizational policy, procedures, and hiring
• Explore strategies to address unconscious bias in the workplace
• Learn how to recognize personal biases and make more informed decisions
• Learn the relationship between unconscious bias, diversity and inclusion and preventing discrimination

Audience

This presentation is ideal for professionals at all levels.

To be a financially strong and sustainable organization, a nonprofit needs board members and staff to take ownership and responsibility of the fiscal health of the organization. For many board and staff leaders, we took on the role  because we love the mission of the organization, butfinancial statements are something that we rely on the finance director and the CPA on the board to understand. Attend this presentation to lose your fear of financial statements and gain skills to add to the long- term financial well-being of your organization.

This fast-paced, interactive presentation will cover key topics including:

• Best practices for reading and using financial statements
• Why you should care about the financial statements
• What each part of the financial statements tells you
• Understanding the Form 990
• Best practices in corporate governance
• Key questions to ask the auditor and/or financial professional
• How to be involved when your expertise isn’t finances and accounting.

Participants will:

• Gain knowledge of key concepts related to understanding financial statements, internal controls and their fiduciary duties as it relates to the finances of an organization
• Leave with an understanding of questions they should be asking and how to evaluate the responses to those questions

Audience

Board and staff leaders seeking deeper understanding of nonprofit financials.

Data fatigue is a real thing in today's fast paced and short-staffed environments. When time is short and you need to focus on key performance indicators, utilizing dashboards is the best way to get pertinent data in front of decision-makers.The goal of this workshop is to assist participants with selecting the most meaningful data to assist with streamlining financial information that is most helpful to their organizations. Participants will be able to ask questions and engage in open discussion with their peer organizations during the presentation.

In this presentation, we’ll cover:

• The different types of dashboards and when to use each type
• How to select the information to include in your dashboard based on the audience
• Different ratios and KPI’s (key performance indicators) that organizations commonly include in their dashboards

Audience

Finance staff and board members will find this presentation the most helpful. Everyone at all levels are welcome to join.

Are you thinking about using video to get your message out? Are you already using video but want to do a better job? In this workshop, we'll go over techniques for shooting better video with basic video equipment (your smartphone!) We'll discuss what you need to tell an effective story with better visuals and sound.

This workshop will address:

• Composition
• Lighting
• Sound
• Accessories (tripods, gimbals, microphones, etc.)

Participants will:

• Gain confidence in their ability to more effectively shoot video for their organization
• Be in a better position to make a video that people want to watch

Audience

Anyone from a junior staffer to CEO would benefit from this workshop. Video is becoming an important tool for communication and everyone in an organization can play a part.