Facilitating Change in a Networked World

We live in challenging and exciting times, marked by diminishing resources, escalating challenges and increasing connectivity. More than ever, would-be change agents are called on to join with others in pursuit of substantive change. But how? In this interactive workshop, participants will explore models and tools to help them lead effective collaborative change efforts and respond to change in an ever more dynamic and networked world.

Track: Collaboration

Skill Level: General Audience

• Presenters: Curtis Ogden & Andrea Nagel, Interaction Institute for Social Change

  • Curtis Ogden is a Senior Associate with the Interaction Institute for Social Change, where he brings his experience in youth work, education, community building, and nonprofit program design and management. He has worked as an independent training, research, and evaluation consultant to a number of civic engagement and nonprofit support initiatives, including Learn and Serve America, Tufts University College of Citizenship and Public Service, and the Building Movement Project. In addition to his work at IISC, Curtis is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Organizational Management at Antioch New England and a board member of the New England Grassroots Environment Fund.

     

    Andrea Nagel is a Senior Associate at the Interaction Institute for Social Change. She is driven by a need and desire to challenge inequity and bridge the divisions among and between peoples. Andrea began organizing around Latin American issues in college and then shifted her focus from global to local efforts in Roxbury, MA at the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, a multicultural resident-led community-based planning and organizing organization. Andrea has also served as a program advisor and training associate with YouthBuild USA. In addition to delivering training, consulting and facilitation services to IISC clients, Andrea manages the Community Building Curriculum, a grassroots leadership development project.

The Pros and Cons of Affiliations and Mergers: Look Before You Leap

One of the biggest issues facing non-profits in the current environment is how to survive on limited financial resources. For many non-profits, there is a need to reduce overhead while continuing to provide services, and that has lead some non-profits to consider affiliations or mergers with other non-profits.

This Workshop will discuss the pros and cons of entering into an affiliation or merger with another non-profit, and the need to consider the issues relating to such proposed affiliation or merger before entering into the transaction (or look before you leap ). In order to keep the workshop interesting and informative, the panelists, an attorney and a person from a non profit that has completed a merger, will encourage audience participation and questions throughout the program.

Track: Collaboration

Skill Level: Mid-Advanced

• Presenter: C. Forbes Sargent III, Sherin and Lodgen LLP
  Donald J. Gudaitis, American Cancer Society - New England Division
  

  • C. Forbes Sargent III is chair of Sherin and Lodgen LLP’s Corporate Department and co-chair of the firm’s Employment Law Group. Forbes advises a variety of nonprofit organizations on general corporate and charitable matters including entity formation, charitable and tax-exempt qualification, corporate and governance issues, executive compensation, mergers and acquisitions, and financial restructuring and dissolution. He is a trustee of the Milton Foundation for Education, a member of the Town of Milton Personnel Board, the former state fundraising chairman for the American Cancer Society and spent several years as a director and member of the Executive Committee of Junior Achievement of Eastern Massachusetts. Forbes received his J.D. from Duke University School of Law and his undergraduate degree from Vassar College.
    
    Donald J. Gudaitis became the first Chief Executive Officer of the American Cancer Society’s New England Division when the six New England state divisions merged in 1997. For the previous decade, he served as the Executive Vice President of the Society’s Massachusetts Division and, in all, has 32 years of experience at the Society. Don has served on numerous national Society committees and provided leadership to various Society initiatives, including the nationwide Learning and Development initiative; he currently chairs the Mission Delivery Council. During his tenure as EVP, the MA Division was successful in passing tobacco control legislation and launching the first Making Strides Against Breast Cancer in Boston, both of which served as nationwide models. Under Don’s leadership, the New England Division raises more dollars per capita for the fight against cancer than any other Division. A graduate of Dickinson College, he has completed the core M.B.A. program at Rutgers University.

Leadership Roles in Fundraising: Who Leads and When Do You Lead?

Three perspectives on leadership in fundraising by a fundraiser, consultant and executive director. This session will explore how three key players in fundraising lead in different ways, how they interact, and how they deal with conflict from their different perspectives.

Issues addressed:

• How does the fundraiser get a good hearing?
• How do you use available tools to get a strong organization-wide fundraising effort in place?
• What tools are most useful?
• How do you sell fundraising priorities to organization leaders?
• What about issues like trustworthiness, transparency, ethics and values when the leadership is satisfied but donors are not?
• How can you use your standard fundraising tools (annual report, mail appeals, major donor meetings, strategic planning, crisis management plan, etc) for organizational change?

Track: Fund Development

Skill Level: General Audience

• Presenters: Tomasz Kierul, The Assumptionists
  Ken Phillips, Organizational Futures, LLC
  Barbara Hill, Clean Power Now

  • Tomasz Kierul, CFRE is Director of Development for the the Assumptionists (religious organization based in Worcester, MA) since 2004 where he is responsible for all aspects of the the organization s fundraising and development efforts. Recently he graduated from School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College with Master Degree in Theological Studies where he focused on the concept of stewardship and ethical issues in fundraising and philanthropy.
    
    Ken Phillips of Organization Futures, LLC brings 40 years of experience representing practical knowledge in leadership positions in consulting, training, fundraising, management and board development, working with small to large organizations.
    
    Over the course of the past 30 years Barbara Hill has held a variety of management positions within non-profit organizations focused on renewable energy, land preservation and affordable housing. From 2001 - 2005 she served as the Project Manager for Offshore Wind with the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Renewable Energy Trust, the state's development agency for clean energy and the innovation economy. She is a founding initiator of the CLEAN campaign, a collaborative of grassroots led organizations working for a new national energy policy advocating CLEAN's Call to Action. Barbara is also a 2008 Senior Fellow with the Breakthrough Institute, and currently serves as the Executive Director of Clean Power Now, a non-profit grassroots organization informing citizens and empowering them to support viable renewable energy projects and policies.

Where's the Money: Shifting Trends in Foundation and Corporate Giving

Gone are the days of writing a simple proposal and receiving $50,000 for general operating support. Foundation grantmakers want to support programs or one-time projects that produce outcomes to further their mission. Corporate grantmakers ask, what’s in it for us? Be ready for dynamic discussions and learn how these trends affect your overall grant seeking plans as well as how to strategically use grants to complement your fundraising efforts.

Track: Fund Development

Skill Level: Mid-Advanced

• Presenter: Diane Gedeon-Martin, The Write Source, LLC

  • Diane Gedeon-Martin is the President of The Write Source, LLC, a grantseeking management firm based in Connecticut. Since 1993, she has assisted over 200 nonprofit organizations in 23 states and the District of Columbia achieve their goals with grants from foundations, corporations, and different levels of government ranging from $5,000 to $5.0 million. She is member of the faculty of The Fund Raising School at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and the Connecticut Association of Nonprofits.

Energizing, Engaging, and Exciting Your Staff and Board through a Leadership Transition

Session presenters will discuss the topic of how to turn leadership transition challenges into opportunities. We will cover: The common challenges and the opportunities that accompany leadership change.

A couple of case studies based on NPAG executive search experiences that will help to illustrate what can go right and what can go wrong for an organization navigating leadership change. We will also share some tools that we hope will be helpful when the time comes to take stock of how prepared your organization is to manage leadership change. The tools are designed to help identify where you may need additional planning or support to come out on the other side of leadership change having maximized the chance to refresh and recharge your organization.

Participants will work through real examples to determine how to avoid some of the less-obvious pitfalls of the virtual void, how to manage radically different social dynamics, and how to keep a geographically disparate team connected to each other and the mission.

Track: Leadership

Skill Level: Mid-Advanced

• Presenters: Laura Gassner-Otting & Allison Kupfer, Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group

  • Laura Gassner Otting is the President of Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group, founded in 2002, and the author of Change Your Career: Transitioning to the Nonprofit Sector. She served as the senior vice president of ExecSearches.com, vice president at Isaacson, Miller, and as a presidential appointee for the White House Office of National Service. Laura served as a presidential appointee for the White House Office of National Service, a program officer for the Corporation for National Service and as a member of the Clinton/Gore Transition Team and 1992 Election Team.
    
    Allison Kupfer, Managing Associate, conducts senior-level executive searches nationwide across the higher education, philanthropic, advocacy, health care, and human services sectors. She was previously a Senior Associate with Isaacson, Miller and a consultant at Abt Associates. She has been active in statewide and national political campaigns, with a special interest in children's and employment issues.

Media Rules! Why Everything We Know About Communicating Must Change

Changes in both technology and society have affected the communications and operations of nonprofits. In this session you will examine the framework for understanding this dynamic world and overcoming its many challenges -- whether the focus is online constituent engagement, communications, advocacy or fundraising. You will also explore how people's habits and expectations change in a tough economy.

Track: IT

Skill Level: General Audience

• Presenter: Brian Reich, Little m media

  • Brian Reich provides strategic guidance and other support to organizations around the use of the internet and technology in order to facilitate communications, engagement, education, and mobilization. He is well known for his expertise in new media, web 2.0, social networks, mobile, community, ecommerce, brand marketing, cause branding, etc. Reich, the author of Media Rules!: Mastering Today's Technology to Connect With and Keep Your Audience (Wiley 2007), writer and speaker on the issues involving the impact of the internet and technology on politics, society, and the media. He is the editor of Thinking About Media (www.thinkingaboutmedia.com) and contributes as a Fast Company Expert.

Nonprofit Law - Current Legal & Governance Issues

Today’s nonprofit organizations face an array of complex and pressing legal and ethical concerns. Regardless of size or program area, organizations may have concerns about governance, liability, or compliance, and issues related to the Sarbanes-Oxley law, the newly revised IRS Form 990, or questions about unrelated business income and revenue generating ventures. This seminar will help to answer these questions in clear and concise terms and provide you with a better understanding of the legal aspects of operating a nonprofit organization in Massachusetts.

Track: Regulatory/Legal

Skill Level: General Audience

• Presenter: Jeffrey Hurwit, Hurwit & Associates

  • Jeffrey M. Hurwit is founder of the law firm Hurwit & Associates of Newton, Massachusetts, which provides comprehensive legal counsel exclusively to tax-exempt organizations, foundations and charitable donors. Clients include educational, health, human service, environmental, arts, advocacy, and professional organizations throughout the US and abroad. For more information please refer to their online Nonprofit Law Resource Library at www.hurwitassociates.com.

The Lobbying and Ethics Law: Unintended Consequences for Nonprofits, New Regulations and What We Can Do About It

The ethics reform law enacted in the summer of 2009 could force Massachusetts nonprofits to spend funds to register staffers as lobbyists while hindering their ability to advocate for their cause and seriously undercut civic engagement. For example, every nonprofit that plans to communicate with a government official each year may have to pay a significant registration fee on behalf of the organization and a similar fee for each person in the organization who would participate in any planning, research, and strategizing activity undertaken in connection with communicating with a government official.

This session will explore both the effect of the new law and lay out how you can help MNN to mitigate its consequences. We will use it as a case study of how to work within the political system to change policy.

Track: Public Policy/Advocacy

Skill Level: General Audience

• Presenter: David Magnani, Massachusetts Nonprofit Network

  • David Magnani is a veteran of the Massachusetts State Legislature, where he served for 20 years as a State Representative and then a State Senator, representing the 2nd Middlesex-Norfolk District. He stepped down from his senate seat in 2005 to found EdAction Associates, a consulting firm focused on education and technology-based economic development. He also served as founding Director of the Citizen Involvement Training Project, which provided support to more than 400 nonprofit organizations in the course of eight years, beginning in 1976, earning national honors for innovation in education. He is the founder of the Ashland Educational Community Center and is involved in eleven different volunteer associations, including a position on the Board of Directors for the National Peace Corps Association. He holds a Masters of Public Administration from Harvard University, Doctorate of Education and Masters of Education from the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, and a Bachelor of Science from Northeastern University. He completed a Senior Executive Leadership program at Harvard University’s JFK School of Government in 2003.

How Are We Doing? Using Self-Assessment to Jumpstart your Board Improvement Plan

You ve sent your board members to basic training but haven t seen much improvement. Maybe it s time for a thoughtful and constructive conversation within your board on its own performance. Join board consultant and author Gayle L. Gifford, ACFRE, for a lively simulation and conversation on how to practice board self-assessment to create board ownership around an action plan for change.

Track: Capacity Building

Skill Level: Mid-Advanced

• Presenter: Gayle Gifford, Cause & Effect, Inc.

  • Gayle L. Gifford, President of Cause & Effect Inc, is an in-demand consultant, writer, blogger, Tweeter and trainer wh over 25 years of non-prof experience in organization and board capacity building, strategic and fund raising planning, facilitation, and communications. Gayle is one of the few fundraisers nationwide who hold the advanced credential of ACFRE. In addition to her book, How are we doing? A 1- hour guide for evaluating the performance of your nonprofit board, Gayle is a regular columnist on governance and fundraising for Contributions Magazine. Gayle teaches masters level courses on nonprofit and organization development as an adjunct instructor at Brown University and Simmons College. Her clients have included the House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association, WaterFire Providence, PLAN USA, Trust for Public Land NERO, and the Rhode Island Foundation.

Maximize Volunteers From the Top: Analyze and Strategize Increasing Capacity

Does your organization need to accomplish more with less? Considering recruiting volunteers to help? Learn about key trends in volunteerism, what is organizational capacity and how to increase it, how to determine whether a volunteer program (or expansion of an existing one) is feasible for your organization, and how to assess your organization s specific volunteer needs. (This introductory workshop is geared for middle and senior managers at organizations that are considering launching volunteer programs, but those with existing volunteer programs are welcome to attend.)

Track: Capacity Building

Skill Level: General Audience

• Presenters: Lori Tsuruda, Directors of Volunteer Administration (DOVA), People Making a Difference (PMD)
  Mona Chang, New England Aquarium

  • Lori Tsuruda is the founder and executive director of People Making a Difference (PMD), where she organizes one-time service projects and recruits and manages individuals and corporate volunteers to staff them as well as assists charities and companies in improving their community involvement programs, relying on a what she has learned from PMD s 4,250+ volunteers, 750+ service projects, 112 recipient charities, and her 27 years as a volunteer manager. Since 2006, she has been the president of the Directors of Volunteer Administration (DOVA), a 20+ year-old association of professionals who recruit and work with volunteers at Greater Boston non-profit organizations, fostering professional development by organizing programs about volunteer management, recruitment, marketing, screening, communications, and development, as well as creating opportunities to share experiences and skills.
    
    Mona Chang is the Manager of Volunteer Programs and Internships at the New England Aquarium, where she oversees various programs engaging 700 volunteers and interns. Additionally, she serves as the co-chair of the Diversity Council at the Aquarium. She is also the personnel and special projects manager for Boston Civic Symphony, an all-volunteer based community orchestra in Greater Boston, and a Member-At-Large for the Directors of Volunteer Administration (DOVA). She has worked in the nonprofit sector for 11 years, mainly in the areas of social services and performing arts with expertise in administration, fundraising, and recruitment.

Successful Strategic Planning

Many organizations have thought about or gone through traditional strategic planning efforts; but at the end have felt disappointed or without a clear sense of direction and purpose. Learn how to assess what is holding your organization back from engaging in true strategic planning.

No more endless discussions and debates about your core purpose and programs. Come to this workshop to learn how to fire up your stakeholders, to get excited about your future and to find your path to it!

Participants will leave with knowledge of a process that is energizing and effective in getting an organization to quickly identify long-term goals, short-term goals, and activities to get there -all in one day. The difference is that the process focuses on "feeding the organizational soul."

Track: Capacity Building

Skill Level: General Audience

• Presenters: Lydia Watts & Jodi DeLibertis, Greater Good Consulting

  • Lydia Watts, Esq. is the principal of Greater Good Consulting where she has been working with nonprofits throughout MA and DC since 2005. Ms. Watts has served as Executive Director of three nonprofits, two in Boston and one that she founded one in DC in 1996. Ms. Watts graduated summa cum laude from American University, Washington College of Law in 1996, and earned at BA from Boston University in 1990.

     

    Jodi DeLibertis, principal of Greater Good Consulting since 2005, is also the Program Director for Jericho Road Project - Lowell. In both roles, she has helped scores of nonprofit achieve maximum effectiveness, achieve their missions more fully nad enjoy their work. Ms. DeLibertis is a talented facilitator and has been trained in and delivers ""bystander awareness"" training and other diversity initiatives. She has also served as the Board President of a small community nonprofit. She graduated summa cum laude from Boston College.