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.

As competition for engaged donors increase, nonprofit leaders must look beyond the tactics of donor relationship building and become adept and creative at establishing a community culture in their donor base and nourishing organic growth. This workshop provides the best practices to shift their approach. Participants gain insight into the five elements for sustainable engagement that are essential to founding and growing a reliable community of donors- People; Shared Purpose; Shared Experience; Shared Resources; and Trust. We will discuss, explore, and then develop our own understanding of the five essential elements in community development, as well as identify and problem solve on a case for improvement.

Participants will:

• Be able to identify and articulate the ‘why’ behind the five elements of a sustainable donor community
• Learn how to identify and develop meaningful and measurable aspects of their community that match the five elements.
• Be guided through the proper application or optimal effectiveness of each element through group case study and problem-solving
• Learn how organizational departments can better work together to align department goals and enhance the community experience while growing engagement for the organization.
• Learn how to create an action plan to ensure that the goals for the donor community elements stay alive and vibrant.

Audience

Development staff, Executive Directors, and board members with some experience in development

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.

If staff are the number one asset of an organization, then why, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is 4.4 years the average length a staff member will stay at an organization? Why, according to a recent Gallup poll of more than one million employed United States workers, is the number one reason staff quit their jobs a bad boss or supervisor? This workshop will help employers and supervisors make a compelling case for incorporating intentional relationship building into organizational training and development programs and provides tools for organizations to create a “whole-life” approach to leadership.

Participants will:

• Identify competencies or skills that their supervisors must possess to increase employee retention
• Learn how to develop a plan to help those supervisors gain the needed skills

Audience

Anyone in a leadership or supervisory role at an organization as well as human resources personnel who are concerned with employee turnover and succession planning.

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.

Your staff, board, volunteers, and donors can be some of your most engaged and energetic storytellers. But are they telling the right story…and to the right people? Learn how to use the passion of these dedicated supporters to exponentially expand your brand awareness, and leave the session with tools you can use to craft your own brand ambassador program.

Participants will:

• Learn how to identify their most engaged brand ambassadors (and those most likely to be engaged with additional cultivation)
• Create a set of clear messages for those ambassadors to use.
• Learn how to develop and sustain a simple but effective brand ambassador plan that can significantly enhance the impact of their marketing and fundraising efforts.

Audience

The ideal audience is marketing and fundraising professionals - from any sort/size of organization, at any experience level. The session would also be appropriate for senior leadership and board/committee chairs.

At some point we all cross the threshold from a mission-filled life as a nonprofit leader to a new life -- be it retirement, fulfilling a new passion, family care, for-profit work, or travel and adventure. This session is an occasion to share with others the joys and anxieties of leaving nonprofit work, to assess organizational vulnerabilities, and determine what steps are necessary for your organization's sustainability beyond your tenure. For those not sure about their wrap-up date, this session is a chance to understand best practices in the preparing-to-leave process, communication timing, and approaches to getting staff ready. Board members can also learn about their role in supporting an organization in a time of nearing transition.

Participants will:

• Begin to demystify the process of leaving a leadership role after many years of service
• Learn about good practices for a smooth transition
• Complete an assessment of what makes their organization vulnerable should they leave
• Leave with an action plan to complete on immediate steps to take back home
• Understand the timeline for communicating their plans to leave.

Audience

Executive Directors, especially Baby-Boomers and retiring execs; Senior staff in key, decision-making positions, Board members with an ED nearing a potential transition 

In our communities and work, we interact with people of all ages, yet stereotypes about age often limit our expectations and experiences. The World Health Organization defines ageism as “…the stereotyping and discrimination against individuals or groups on the basis of their age.” While frequently linked with attitudes towards older adults, our biases can affect perceptions about any age group. There are 5 generations currently in the workforce. Using a variety of learning tools, activities and discussions, we will explore perspectives and biases about different ages, along with ways to overcome those feelings to enjoy more inclusive life and work experiences.

Participants will:

• Understand how our life experiences and personal identity affect biases we have
• Explain how “ageism” can affect our interactions with others
• Develop a personal action plan for interacting and working with people of all generations

Audience

All job types and skill levels

One of the single most important factors in the success of a nonprofit is the ability of the Board to be engaged, dynamic and adaptable. In order to think beyond traditional governance to ensure organizational viability, an engaged Board builds clear plans and remains focused on three primary roles: Strategy, Financial viability, and CEO oversight. This type of Board demonstrates the correct balance between support, particularly in strategy and development, while recognizing that the operation of the organization rests with the CEO and staff.

This session offers 3 methods, each applicable to unique organizations, [KW1] of increasing Board engagement to achieve greater impact. This includes how to:

• Establish clearly defined roles,
• Shape focused agendas
• Improve communication to strengthen the foundations of teamwork.

Participants will

• Master key strategies in working collaboratively to establish roles, responsibilities, and level of engagement while building a governance structure that is more focused and effective
• Have action items specific to their organization that they can take back with them

Audience

Any CEO/Executive Director, staff member who interacts with the Board, or member of the Board. Concepts are applicable to any nonprofit regardless of size or focus.

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.

The Sabbatical Program is a cost-effective way to develop leadership at all levels, improve organization resilience and retain talented staff. In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to hear firsthand from the Community Loan Fund how the program works including the design and implementation of the sabbatical policy. There will be opportunity to interact with colleagues who have taken or covered for colleagues and explore how to prepare for a sabbatical to achieve maximum results for the organization.

This program is an opportunity to build bench strength in the organization because while the employee is out on sabbatical getting recharged, those covering the sabbatical are learning new skills and getting crossed trained, which in turn strengthens the organization. This is a win-win for the organization and its colleagues.

Participants will learn how to:

• Make the case for this personnel policy to your board
• Identify what problems it can solve
• Hear about why it’s even better for the organization than it is for the staff

Participants will see how this program can be a tool that can help develop and retain talented employees.

Audience

All participants could benefit but ideally ED’s and CEO’s – decision makers; it could also be someone from the organization who is not a decision maker that can take it back as an idea for their organization.

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.

For most major change efforts, "change" means culture change ― a shift in how organizations work and how staff collaborate in pursuit of the mission. Drawing on a new resource, Adapt: A Primer on Culture Change for Nonprofits, this session will define an adaptive culture and provide a framework for understanding and overcoming the barriers to culture change. Then, within the context of the Dēmos Racial Equity Transformation, the group will be guided through the process of:

• Defining the challenge
• Assessing cultural adaptability
• Engaging a change team
• Developing a change framework
• Implementing the changes, and
• Measuring progress and adjusting

In partnership with participants, the concepts of change management and adaptive culture will be brought to life through concrete tools and an opportunity to test the concepts in real time.

Participants will:

• Learn how to enhance the adaptability and change-friendliness of their organizations in order to “be the change”
• Explore why most change efforts fail – and how to avoid the major pitfalls
• Learn practical steps to strengthen your organization’s culture and enhance its adaptability
• Discuss how different tools and processes can make change easier

Audience

Ideal participants are organizational leaders, both staff and board members, who are responsible for leading change efforts at their organizations.

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. The workshop will also feature a panel of local nonprofit and community business leaders , allowing participants to get a mixed perspective through the lens of the “what’s in it for me?” question.

Audience

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