| Do you, your staff, and your Board of Directors have a clear picture of where your
organization is, where it should be going, and how to get there? Strategic Planning is a
process that helps to answer these questions. And in today's unstable, ever-changing
environment, strategic planning can help nonprofits identify and act upon new
opportunities for organizational growth. The session will be a practical and usable
introduction to the key concepts and techniques of strategic planning and how to apply
them to your organization. Participants will leave with a clear understanding of what
nonprofits can gain from strategic planning. It is geared to the executive staff and board
members who must act as a team in this planning process. The session will feature
extensive handouts including planning forms, worksheets, and examples of strategic
planning documents. DEVELOPING AND MANAGING VOLUNTEERS: NEW TOOLS FOR CHANGING
TIMES
This session offers new approaches to recruiting and coordinating volunteers in order
to respond to the changing profile of today's volunteer. Workshop leader Frank Martinelli
will share with you his many years of experience in assessing volunteer needs, identifying
sources of volunteers, matching volunteers to an organization's needs and keeping
volunteers satisfied with their commitments to the organization. The course is designed
especially for the paid staff member who recruits and coordinates volunteers in new as
well as in existing programs.
BUILDING THE NONPROFIT BOARD OF THE FUTURE
We live in a time of rapid, profound change. Faced with shrinking budgets, rapidly
changing social needs, a hostile political climate, and ever more intense public scrutiny,
today’s nonprofits are finding that it’s not enough to simply update a mission
statement or patch over a list of outdated goals. The nonprofit board has a critical
leadership role to play. Is your board ready? This workshop will provide
information, skills, and techniques to prepare your board of directors. Frank Martinelli
will share his many years of experience not only as a trainer but more importantly as a
staff person who has had to interact with boards and as a board leader with an insider's
perspective.
LEADERSHIP SKILLS FOR THE NEXT CENTURY: BUILDING A VISIONARY BOARD OF DIRECTORS
This workshop is specifically designed for members of boards and executive directors of
nonprofits wishing to promote and nurture the development of visionary leadership on the part of the board. This highly
interactive session will provide information and techniques to enhance the effectiveness of your board of directors,
thereby positioning your organization for success today and in the future.
FORGING EFFECTIVE COLLABORATIONS AND STRATEGIC ALLIANCES
A growing number of forward-looking nonprofits have come to see that the best way to
fulfill their mission is to seek and build on collaborations wherever they can.
Increasingly as nonprofits become more skilled at self-assessment and strategic planning,
the impetus to pursue one or more forms of collaboration comes from within the
organizations themselves. They begin to understand that collaboration can be a vehicle for
expansion into new areas of service requiring the resources of more than one organization
or to proactively address an emerging community issue. This workshop will describe models
for collaboration that can be used to increase agency influence, share information and
resources, enhance service delivery and quality, improve community visibility, raise
funds, and more. Participants will have an opportunity to apply the collaboration models
to a back home situation of their own choosing.
BUILDING A LEARNING ORGANIZATION
A nonprofit organization committed to future growth and effectiveness must become a
learning organization. The rapid increase in new knowledge and the pace of change itself
demand that individuals and organizations become continuous learners. Beginning in 1990
with the pathbreaking book The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge, a new way of
leading and managing organizations based on the principles of organizational learning has
spread throughout the world. Michael O’Brien, an organizational consultant, defines
the learning organization in this way: "A learning organization is one that has woven
a continuous and enhanced capacity to learn, adapt, and change into the fabric of its
character. It has values, policies, practices, programs, systems, and structures that
support and accelerate organizational learning." What is the relevance of the
learning organization for your agency? This session will provide a practical introduction
to the principles, practices and models of learning organizations. The course will include
a variety of exercises, worksheets, planning guides and assessment tools for practical
application of the concepts back home as well as a resource bibliography.
SYSTEMS THINKING FOR NONPROFIT LEADERS
Systems thinking is a way to see beyond isolated events to the deeper patterns,
connections and root causes that explain many of the problems that confront us
in organizations and communities. The workshop will provide a practical
understanding of systems thinking principles, approaches and tools in order to
integrate and use them in individual and team work. As a result of the training
program, participants will learn how to apply selected systems thinking tools in
order to reach a deeper understanding of management problems and generate
solutions more likely to work. They will also have the opportunity to work
through at least one current critical management issue using a systems approach
process to identify possible solutions for action when they return to their
organization. The session will include a variety of exercises, worksheets,
planning guides and assessment tools for practical application of the concepts
back home as well as a resource bibliography.
For information about technology workshops
offered by Susan Biro of Creative Information Systems, click
TECHNOLOGY WORKSHOPS
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