Based off of the baseball principle of a five-tool player as one who has speed, arm strength, fielding ability, hitting for average and hitting for power, this presentation applies this metaphor to the fundraising professional and the five tools for being the best philanthropic leader. In fundraising the five tools are being an effective solicitor, manager of ceo/exec team, staff manager, strategist, and volunteer manager.

In fundraising the five tools are being an effective solicitor, manager of ceo/exec team, staff manager, strategist, and volunteer manager. – Could the highlighted portion of the sentence be edited to “CEO/executive leadership team”

By learning these top 5 tools and spending time in group breakouts to dive deeper, attendees will leave equipped with new ways to go about their role, sharpen their weaker tools and leverage their strongest ones.

Participants will:

• Understand the pitfalls and opportunities of each of the five tools.
• Increase their understanding through workshopping together and diving deeper into the material through facilitated conversation.

Audience

The ideal participant will be fundraising staff - whether portfolio managers and major gift officers, heads of development, etc. Any size organization is welcome.

This workshop will tackle questions of leadership transition for New Hampshire nonprofits. We are in a high point in the shift in nonprofit leadership, both through well-earned retirements and also other unplanned transition. This panel discussion will present stories and learning from people deep in different stages of this shift -- nonprofit CEO's, executive management, and an expert leadership transition coach and consultant. Beyond the logistics of planning a transition, there are important themes of leading a company through change, growth and innovation. Come to learn and share best practices from the field, and come away with resources to equip your own organization for the future with ideas for succession planning of your own.

Board and staff forming early plans, leaders in the middle of transition themselves, and staff of organizations going through change will all find resources and shared learning to consider in their own succession plans.

Participants will:

• Be introduced to succession planning examples, stories and lessons learned through personal leadership experience, as well as best practices, research and published guides from national nonprofit experts. 
• Be able to apply what they learn in this session to NH nonprofit organizations at any stage of leadership transition.

Audience

The ideal participant will be nonprofit management staff and board members of any level experience from all-size organizations.

Branding is the way your organization authentically shares your story about the work you do and why you do it. We emphatically believe that to be successful in pursuing your mission you must create and communicate messages that clearly describe what you are doing and why others should care.

The complicating factors are that many people are delivering the message (your staff, board, volunteers, beneficiaries, etc.), you are communicating with many different audiences (members, donors, the public, the media, etc.), and well…it is noisy out there so messages are hard to hear!

In this workshop we will go through eight (8) concrete steps to create meaningful and clear messages and then create an action plan for sharing these messages.

Workshop participants will receive tools to take with them such as a how-to create core messages document, branding worksheets, and some recommended articles for learning more about nonprofit branding and marketing.

By the end of the session, participants will feel more confident about what to communicate (and why!) to whom and how to communicate effectively.

Participants will:  

• Understand and establish your organization’s values and strengths.  
• Understand and articulate the persona of your organization. 
• Understand and articulate the personas of your target audiences. 
• Set objectives for behavior, knowledge and belief changes that are critical for your mission.
• Understand audience barriers that get in the way of these changes or your organization’s mission, and brainstorm how to overcome these.
• Craft a differentiated positioning statement that is clear, simple and shows your impact or why. 
• Create core messages for your organization that communicate this differentiation. 
• Create a plan for getting key internal stakeholders on board with the messages and determine the best opportunities for delivering the messages to your audiences within a reasonable budget.

Audience

The ideal participant will be those who work in communication, development, programs or in any management role at a nonprofit. Board members and volunteers will also find this workshop helpful and interesting. Organizations of all sizes will benefit from this workshop.

Discover and discuss easy-to-apply techniques you can use to improve your direct mail and email fundraising results. These fifty "hacks" are easy to implement, and are backed by neuroscience, behavioral psychology, A/B testing, the experiences of small and large nonprofits, and the recommendations of the field's biggest experts. You'll leave with a copy of Five Maples' President Gary Henricksen’s booklet of the same name with all the info, research and examples.

Participants will:

• Be introduced to clear and concise tips.
• Discover practical applications that can be used right away.

Audience

The ideal participant will be anyone charged with messaging to donors for appeals or impact newsletters, and anyone charged with producing communications for donors. Even very experienced fundraising staff can learn new tricks to improve their fundraising results.

Without specialized diversity, equity, and inclusion training, most nonprofits have gaps in their cultural competency around the LGBTQ+ community.  This issue is timely and critical for nonprofits. 

Recent studies show that, although LGBTQ+ individuals seem to be well-represented within nonprofit staff, board membership, and leadership, LGBTQ+ staff members, for example, report discrimination and even fear of coming out of the closet. 

In this interactive workshop, participants will learn best practices for effectively engaging with the LGBTQ+ community, including the transgender community, while also gaining a greater sense of empathy for the LGBTQ+ experience. 

Participants will solidify their foundational knowledge of terminology and key concepts regarding sexual orientation and gender identity.  With opportunities for questions woven throughout the workshop, learners will have the opportunity to pose questions they may have always wondered about, but never had a forum in which to ask. 

Learners will leave with an ability to bring about positive, LGBTQ+ affirming change in the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of their organization.

Participants will:

• Define key terminology and foundational concepts regarding the LGBTQ+ community, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
• Better empathize with the LGBTQ+ experience.          
• Utilize up-to-date best practices, around language, behavior, and environmental elements, to drive more effective interactions with the LGBTQ+ community, both from an internal and a constituent-facing perspective.       
• Identify tools and techniques that can be put to immediate use, for making their organization more LGBTQ+ affirming in attitude and behavior.
• Describe the current status of the LGBTQ+ community in the nonprofit world and avenues to positive change which learners can implement.

Audience

The ideal participant will be staff, leadership, and board members of any skill level and any organization size.  Anyone involved in the nonprofit sector, regardless of position, can benefit from becoming more culturally competent around the LGBTQ+ community.  All can play a role in creating more inclusive and equitable environments amongst nonprofit organizations.

Leading a nonprofit - whether as the chief executive or as a board trustee -  is a highly nuanced and strategic art form. It is like no other leadership position. What makes this model so unique is that the paid professional CEO is overseen by a volunteer board made up of leaders from all walks of life that rotate regularly on and off the board.

While the model fosters a diversity of viewpoints around the board table, it also results in frequent transitions.  High performing board-executive leadership teams must put in motion a variety of “conditions”  that will drive mission and financial success as the organization journeys through each life-cycle stage and transition.

During this workshop we will explore strategies the board and the chief executive can implement to build a highly adaptive nonprofit business.

The goal of the workshop is to provide those leading nonprofits with an understanding of why some nonprofit leaders excel at creating the conditions that lead to success.

Participants will:

• Explore conditions for success and leave with deeper clarity about how they can be more effective and strategic leaders. 
• Be provided with a new frame and a variety to tools to foster effective leaders on every level of the organization

Audience

The ideal participant will be senior leaders and board members of any size organization.

Strategic planning can have a bad rap: 

• "The process is too long and resource intensive."
• "By the time the plan is developed it is out of date and no one ever acts on it."

Leadership, a performance-based culture, and an innovative strategic planning process can create a plan that motivated employees are excited to implement and iterate.   In this workshop the presenters will share both a proven consulting process and real-life organizational framework that has proven results. 

Participants will:

• Gain insight into : 
  • Critical components of a solid strategic planning process. 
  • How to gain buy-in at every level of an organization. 
  • The importance of metrics and individual accountability. 
  • How to create a strategic organization through culture 
  • Empowering your management team. 
  • The importance of having a dynamic plan.
• Understand key process steps for gathering information on which to develop a plan.
• Take away templates for metric dashboards and workplans.

Audience

The ideal participant will be organizational leaders (executives, board members) with any level of experience from small to large organizations.

The  Council of Nonprofits defines a Board’s responsibility being “to steer the organization towards a sustainable future by adopting sound, ethical, and legal governance and financial management policies, as well as by making sure the nonprofit has adequate resources to advance its mission.” Research from McKinsey, PWC, and others show that organizations that have diversity in their leadership are more likely to outperform their peers. Yet, it is more than just diversity of people that makes an organization perform at its best. 

This session will explore how Boards can ignite the performance of their organizations through embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion for themselves and their organizations.

Participants will: 

• Understand how diversity, equity, and inclusion can impact your Board; 
• Understand how your Board can ensure your organization’s leadership, structure, and programming is equitable and inclusive; 
• Have actionable ideas for improving your organization’s performance.

Audience

The ideal participant will be board members and senior leadership of any nonprofit of any size who are interested in increasing the reach and performance of their organization.

We know you are passionate about your nonprofit. Board members, management, and staff often join nonprofits because they are passionate about the organization’s mission. Then, they find out that their responsibilities include understanding the financial statements so they can help make informed mission-driven decisions.

It’s easy to rely on the one board member who has the financial expertise to “take care of” and understand the financial statements. But, to be financially healthy and sustainable, an organization needs to ensure all board members take ownership and responsibility for the fiscal health of the organization.

Don’t let the financials intimidate you. Help board members increase their financial literacy by learning the basics of financial management.

The goal of the workshop is to make the financial aspect of a nonprofit organization less daunting for non-finance professionals (board members and staff). 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.

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 the organization, team members, and/or external resources such as their accountant.
• Gain insight on how to evaluate the responses to those questions.
• Gain skills to help them contribute to the financial health of the organizations they are involved with.

Audience

The ideal participant will be someone who got involved in a nonprofit because they care passionately about the mission. They now realize they need a better understanding of the finances and related fiduciary responsibilities to be a more effective board or staff member.

Decisions you make on your IT today will have a significant impact on how smoothly your organization operates in the years ahead. How do you ensure you're set up for success and avoid frustrated staff and costly, unnecessary triaging and remediation projects? In this workshop, we'll walk you through key technologies and approaches to save you and your organization serious tech headaches down the road. Join us to learn more about how your organization can truly have technology that "just works".

Participants will:

• Walk away with an understanding of key IT topics relevant to organizations of any size.
• Be equipped with prompting questions to assist in discovering IT issues in your organization.
• Learn about recommended strategies for addressing the most common IT problems.

Audience

The ideal participant will be organization staff in IT or Operations roles in small to mid-sized organizations.

It’s impossible to open your laptop or turn on your phone these days without being served various forms of digital advertising. From Google Adwords to social advertising to programmatic, pre-roll, retargeting, native ads and sponsored content...the options, the terminology and the costs can be difficult to navigate. On top of that, the technology is changing nearly every day, making a murky space almost impossible to keep up with. This session will:

• Provide a brief glossary of the terms relevant to digital advertising.
• Discuss whether digital ads are the right choice for branding vs. lead generation.
• Provide tips and checklists for developing a simple, cost-effective campaign to maximize an entry-level budget.

Participants will:

• Be introduced to the ad platforms available to organizations that wish to handle digital advertising in-house/DIY. 
• Learn how to work with a media outlet or ad agency that handles digital advertising.  
• Learn how display ads, videos and other ad content are served to audiences on digital platforms.  
• Understand the difference between a lead generation campaign and a brand awareness campaign.  
• Learn how to map out a digital ad campaign, from creative concept to launch.  
• Be able to set a realistic digital ad budget.

Audience

This ideal participant will be a professional responsible for their organization's brand visibility and/or marketing and advertising. From entry level professionals who might handle social media to senior-level EDs or Development Directors responsible for hiring staff to perform this function, this session will help a diverse mix of professionals understand digital advertising options.