2017 Summit Workshop Descriptions
THURSDAY, OCT. 12TH
1:15 – 2:45 PM Learning Labs Session 1
- Pursuing Sustainability: Using the Matrix Map to Make Strategic Decisions with Steve Zimmerman
Nonprofit sustainability lies in committed, passionate leaders coming together with a shared understanding of the organization’s business model to make strategic decisions to adjust to the dynamic environment and constituent needs. Steve Zimmerman, CPA, will dive deeper into the matrix map, a visual tool to engage nonprofit leaders in difficult discussions to drive exceptional impact in a financially viable manner. The matrix map allows board and staff to understand their organization by integrating mission impact and financial viability in a way that allows them to frame choices and make the adjustments and investments necessary to strengthen the business model. Participants will gain experience with a tool they can use immediately to engage staff and board in the pursuit of nonprofit sustainability.
- Cultural Competence: Strengthening Workplace Sensitivity with Bruce Decker
In a time where commotion and disruption is around every corner, nonprofit organizations need to be keenly aware of how organizational culture influences how well you proactively deal with change, successfully impact your mission, and survive beyond sustainability. The intent of this training workshop is to raise awareness of the importance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) within the workplace, as well as with partners, clients, and other stakeholders. The interactive training pushes participants to face biases, prejudices, and assumptions in a proactive and positive manner. It encompass definitions and examples of harassment and discrimination and clarification of laws addressing these areas. It also provides interactive activities focusing on addressing inappropriate behavior, valuing differences, heightening cultural awareness, and creating a culture of diversity and respect in the workplace. Building cultural competence through strengthening workplace sensitivity is important for non-profits to be able to thrive in today’s complex and challenging world.
- Turn to You – Nonprofit Leader Guide to Self-Coaching with Tricia Kingery
Employee evaluations, miscommunication, time management, inadequate resources, burnout. These are common leadership and management challenges. Sometimes as a nonprofit leader, the only person you have to turn to is you. In these critical moments, it is imperative that you have developed self-coaching habits that you need to ensure your nonprofit operates efficiently. Having an arsenal of approaches and resources at your disposal should give you the tools to work through the challenges, as well as learn from those experiences so that every day you strengthen your ability to become the best leader you can be.
- Most Frequently Violated WV Employment Laws with Tammy Baker
We will identify the most frequently violated employment laws and what employers must do to be in compliance with these laws. Lack of awareness does not minimize liability. And those boring posters we all have hanging up…Are you doing all the things you are required to do? And why keeping your handbook up to date is so important and what can happen if it’s not. We will cover the new WV Workplace Safety Act and how it impacts employers in WV. We will also discuss the new provisions for medical marijuana and how employers will be affected. We will cover best practices in HR on some hot topics such as recruiting, social media, healthcare changes, etc. Participants can ask questions on any HR issues they may have.
- Here for Good: Anatomy of the Creative Campaign with Ellen Allen
When Covenant House first teamed up with 84 Agency to produce the Here for Good sustainer campaign, they had one mission—To get young people excited about giving back to their community. It’s a challenge that many nonprofits face in West Virginia. As the majority of donors and volunteers in the state age, it’s critical that organizations find new ways to get more young people engaged with the work happening in their own communities, and it’s imperative that these organizations find ways to make young people feel empowered to donate to their cause. In this session, we’ll walk you through how a small team of four turned that mission into a reality. Told from every angle, Ellen Allen, Executive Director of Covenant House and the creative team of three at 84 Agency will provide insight into how an organization can best prepare for a creative fundraising campaign and what the creative process can look like from idea to implementation.
- Volunteer Program Needs Assessment with Nicole Fiocco
Determine the strengths of your volunteer program and discover areas that can be improved. We will cover topics such as staff buy in, orientation and training for both volunteers and staff, policies and procedures that can help with structure. The facilitator will walk the participants through a comprehensive needs assessment of their volunteer program and offer tools and resources to improve areas of weakness and expand in areas of strength.
3:00 – 4:30 PM Learning Labs Session 2
- Mastermind Groups: Gleaning the Wisdom of the Group for Greater Success with Jeremy Turner
The concept of a mastermind group was formally introduced by Napoleon Hill in his classic 1937 book, Think and Grow Rich. According to Hill, “no two minds come together without creating a third, invisible, intangible force which may be likened to a third mind.” Though Hill coined the phrase “mastermind”, the practice of regular meetings among like-minded members sharing common goals has been around for centuries. In this interactive 1-hour session, Jeremy Turner, Founder and Managing Director of EPIC Mission, will take participants through the features, benefits and organization of a Mastermind Group and then facilitate a brief live session among attendees. Jeremy has witnessed first-hand the tremendously positive impact a well-run Mastermind group can have for all its members and it is his hope that each participant will be empowered to take this concept back to their respective organization in order to help promote positive growth and development.
- Telling Your Organizations Story-Financial Best Practices with Valerie Ellis
Your organization’s financial statements and Form 990 are important parts of telling your story, so it is important that these documents communicate that you are an organization committed to quality, transparency, and accountability. This session will help you understand the financial reporting requirements applicable to nonprofit organizations, including the provisions of Accounting Standards Update 2016-14, a major initiative by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to improve nonprofit financial reporting which is scheduled to go into effect in 2018. The session will also provide you with the information you need to file a Form 990 which both complies with IRS requirements and presents your organization favorably to its stakeholders and the general public.
- How to Harness the Power of Data to Successfully Navigate Change and Challenges with Sonia Pandit
Much of an organization’s success lies in its data management strategy. The power of an efficient and effective data management system is limitless. It can both accelerate fundraising and marketing efforts by measuring an organization’s impact and also inform continual improvements within the organization itself by providing real-time insight into its operational processes. While metrics are important to nonprofits and funders alike, organizations often make avoidable mistakes when designing and executing their data management strategies. Such mistakes can jeopardize an organization’s funding, marketing, and ultimately, viability. For nonprofits undergoing change or dealing with challenges, data is more important than ever. This session will teach nonprofit leaders how to harness the power of data to guide their decision making process toward success during times of change or challenge.
- Strategic Planning: Positioning your Organization for Future Success with Bruce Decker
In today’s rapidly changing environment, nonprofits need to be aware of how changes in funding priorities, customer/client needs and preferences, technology, marketing, and resource availability affects their capacity to deal proactively with change, successfully meet their mission, and survive beyond sustainability. Being aware of these changes isn’t even enough; you need to be equipped to make the difficult changes needed to succeed and thrive! In order to achieve your desired organizational and community impact, there must be an implementable plan in place to address change head-on. Strategic planning helps you figure out where you are now, where you want to go, what’s standing in your way, what is there to support you on your way, and what you need to get there. This session will address the value and steps of strategic planning, who should be involved, and what do with the plan once it is developed.
- Volunteer Management with Nicole Fiocco
This session will cover best practices of volunteer management. Looking at all aspects of management from recruitment to retention and everything in between . Tough topics such as ‘firing’ a volunteer will be discussed. If your organization even has one volunteer, this session is a must!
FRIDAY, OCT. 13TH
9:00 – 10:30 AM Learning Labs Session 3
- Achieving your Goal: The Power that Advocacy Plays! with Christopher Kimes
Many nonprofit leaders struggle with engaging in advocacy efforts. In this session, we will review successful advocacy efforts. Additionally, participants will get a better understanding of the parameters that non-profits can engage in when it comes to advocacy. Session will be interactive and participants will come away with skills to train fellow co-workers. Participants will also get an opportunity to work through their agency advocacy efforts and learn from one another about ways to do things better. Come and share about the successes of what advocacy efforts can do to push your organization forward.
- Engaging for Change with Susan Koehler
Change may come as an opportunity or threat. Successful and sustainable nonprofits act, not react to change. In this Workshop, participants will learn the tricks for engaging their board and leave with the tools and tactics for creating an organizational structure and culture that can weather the unexpected and embrace opportunity. You’ll hear how some nonprofits seized opportunities to grow and others failed to weather unanticipated storms and what you can learn from their experiences. Workshop Leader Susan Koehler will help you tailor what you’ve learned to your particular nonprofit taking into account its size, organizational stage, and mission. This will be an interactive workshop with time for questions.
- Social Enterprise: Earned Revenue & Social Impact for a Double Bottom Line with Jeremy Turner
Increasingly, nonprofits find themselves caught in the contributed revenue fundraising cycle, often worried that there will be ample funding to continue fueling their core missions. These organizations have visions of days when they will be more self-sustaining so they can focus more of their attention on making the world a better place. Oftentimes, business-minded funders grow weary of the seemingly endless appeals coming from their favorite charities. Both parties know there must be a better way, and for many organizations, social enterprise is the key that unlocks the organization’s ability to diversify their funding model beyond donations and grants only and grow their bottom line to include both financial profit and social impact. In this session we will examine what is social enterprise, why is it important and how can your organization consider and, where it makes good sense, implement it to add your own double bottom line.
- A Game Plan for Effective Communications to Weather the Storm with Tricia Kingery and Elizabeth Pellegrin
Downturn … decline … crisis … budget crisis….doing more with less. Whatever term or phrase you choose to describe the current state of the world we live in today, chances are good that negativity and pessimism are swirling around you. For many in the nonprofit world, our professional lives have been thrown into a tailspin by reduced staff, slashed budgets, and pulling back on communication and marketing strategies that are forcing us to do more with less. Where are we headed? When will we get there? Will we be successful? When uncertainty abounds, there is a tendency to stay silent, and many organizations are reluctant to answer these questions and communicate effectively with their clients, board, employees, peers and donors. But silence is rarely “golden,” and it’s important to use effective external, internal, and interpersonal communications not only to survive but to thrive, in good times and bad.
- Prototype Your Future – an Introduction to Design Thinking Concepts and Tools with Ron Bailey
Our organizations and communities operate in environments that continue to become more complex and more fluid. Societal changes, technological advances, governmental gridlock, environmental concerns – these factors and more directly affect us, our staff, and our clients daily. Yet, despite these pervasive challenges, we want a future where we can thrive, where our clients can succeed. The concepts and methods embodied in Design Thinking offer us a mindset and a toolset for building our way toward innovative, collaborative, human-centered solutions to our most challenging problems in this increasingly complex environment. Combining a presentation with interaction and exercises, this breakout session provides participants an introduction to the basic principles of Design Thinking, a Design Thinking framework, and three specific design tools that can be applied immediately.
- Volunteer Motivation with Nicole Fiocco
During this session we will look at generational volunteer motivations and dealing with the changing times and faces of volunteerism. By the end of this session, participants will understand generational volunteer motivations and be able to identify key strategies to manage and engage a diversity of volunteers.
10:45 AM – 12:15 PM Learning Labs Session 4
- The Power of Story – An Introduction to Multimedia Storytelling with Ron Bailey
Storytelling has always been one of the most powerful modes of human communication. While we can never truly know what it’s like to walk in another’s shoes, storytelling allows us to open our hearts and minds to empathy and understanding. With the digital technology available to us today, we can create and share our stories with the world like never before. Nonprofits can use storytelling techniques for a multitude of reasons – sharing their client’s success and challenges, educating the public about their organization and cause, bringing public awareness to a problem that doesn’t get enough attention, announcing a new service offering, and so much more. However, structuring a compelling story, collecting the supporting media, creating the finished product and sharing it with an audience can be a daunting process. Combining a presentation on storytelling elements and structure with a demonstration of creating a multi-media story using Apple iMovie on an iPad, this breakout session provides participants with enough knowledge to begin their own storytelling efforts.
- Cause Related Marketing with Aaron Gooden
Many companies are beginning to realize that it is good business to “do well while doing good.” It is better for them, and for the people they serve, when people succeed and communities flourish. At the same time, nonprofit organizations are realizing that sustainable community impact can be achieved by partnering with for-profit companies. Cause Marketing is like a good marriage where two very different beings come together to create a more wonderful whole. In an effective Cause Marketing relationship, both for-profits and nonprofits receive great value from each other. They partner together for the betterment of their community. Kingery and Company has helped many nonprofits succeed in this way. This training will draw upon our real-world experience and provide critical knowledge, examples, and skills needed to help your organization explore the possibilities of Cause Marketing.
- Aligning Your Team Members with Your Organization Priorities with Bob Whitmore & Monica Gould
Nonprofit organizations are successful in attracting talented people and in placing these people in the right roles. Nonprofit staff are driven by a passion for the mission and the difference the organization provides to the community. To be successful, organizational leaders must be able to align an inspired staff with the direction and performance expectations of the organization. Developing, organizing, evaluating and rewarding work of the staff is often a challenge for leaders who are also driven by the mission and not necessarily business decision making. Creating and communicating a simplified system for aligning everyone in the organization to the organization priorities is one solution for leaders.
- Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Strategies for Surviving in Challenging Times Jeanette Wojcik
Understanding the life-cycle of a nonprofit organization and where your organization falls in that cycle is the first step in creating an organization that will survive in challenging times. We will explore how organizations respond to change at various stages in the life-cycle, the role of the leadership in managing change and the characteristic of positive organizational change. This workshop will introduce you to strategies that you can implement at any stage of the life-cycle to invigorate, renew and sustain the work of your organization.
- Looking at Your Leadership with Nicole Fiocco
This session will focus on leadership within the non profit sector. Often times, the person in charge is in the position because they have been around the longest. During this session we will look at themes, resources and strategies to motivate your staff and volunteers. With the skills gained in this workshop leaders will feel confident in supporting staff and volunteers to rise to any challenge in an organization.
