Whether your nonprofit has just hired its first employee or you have hundreds, confusion often occurs between the roles of staff and the board. There are boards that have responsibility for day-to-day operations and, on the other end of the spectrum, boards that only attend board and committee meetings – having no interaction with staff or the operations of the nonprofit. 

This workshop will delineate and discuss the roles of staff and the Board of a nonprofit, how those roles differ, and how those roles may change over time – based on factors like the size of the organization and/or the life-cycle stage.  The workshop will also cover the responsibilities and legal duties of the Board of Directors, the role of outside legal counsel, and how to work with a Board member who is a lawyer.

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

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.

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

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.

An organizational assessment provides your nonprofit with the framework and data to think thoughtfully about the organization’s current state, its trajectory, and its long-term stability. If done correctly, the assessment can help prioritize strategies and practices that your nonprofit may want to put in to place to further its effectiveness. 

This workshop will explore how to obtain valid information about the performance of their organization and its leadership.  We will discuss various tools, ways in which data is collected/utilized, and answer these questions:

• Who leads the charge for an Organizational Assessment?
• What is the role of the Executive Director and the Board in an Assessment? 
• What opportunities and challenges present themselves when conducting an Assessment?
• Who sees the results, how do you share the information, and most importantly what do you do with information?   

We will also discuss accountability and how information gathered can impact individual and organizational performance standards and what this means for your nonprofit.    

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.

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.

A donor stewardship plan ensures your time is spent where it’s most effective, deepening donors’ engagement and appreciation of your mission and outcomes. 

 Workshop topics will include:

• Activities, surveys, and board activities that connect donors with how they make the world a better place. 
• Identifying donors who would welcome a monthly giving program to make their giving easier. 
• A leadership giving program that expands the highest level of giving to your operations fund. 
• A simple bequest program campaign

By starting with these four simple ways to stretch your programs, one at a time, within months you’ll see increased productivity and donor giving. If you already have a beginning program in any of these 4 areas, join us for ideas to take your program to the next level.

A positive organizational culture is critical not only for employee productivity, but also for employee recruitment and retention as well as customer/client satisfaction, development, advocacy, and more. If your culture suffers, employees suffer. When employees suffer, business suffers. Communication is the blood running through the veins of your organization, keeping it healthy and productive. This workshop will explore:

• Methods for researching how communication flows in your organization and where the roadblocks are
• How to improve communication flow and identify priority problem areas and 
• Techniques for teaching communication skills to leaders to make them as effective as possible.  

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.