Fundraising in the Era of COVID-19
Date: Thursday, Sept. 24
Time: 1 - 3 p.m.
Via Zoom (link provided upon registration)
REGISTER TODAY
About the Session
The current environment gives us the perfect opportunity to assess our development program. In the short-term, and long-term, we each want to raise increased philanthropic revenues. While current fundraising has created challenges, it has also created opportunities. Opportunities to evaluate traditional practices and activities; to reimagine where we focus, the strategies we deploy, and the role we each embrace to raise the most money possible. Even during these difficult times, we have to plan for the future – most importantly to position ourselves for maximum success when this disease sits firmly in our rearview mirror. Join us for the first of three workshops in which Chuck Gordon, president and CEO of the New Kensington Group, will lead this fall. Future Nonprofit Support Center workshops include "Building the Perfect Partnership with Your Board" and "Stewarding Your Donors: Fund Raising's Silver Bullet." Executive directors, board members and development directors are encouraged to attend.
Chuck Gordon, New Kensington Group
For nearly 30 years, Chuck has served as a senior nonprofit professional and consultant helping nonprofit organizations and educational institutions in the Boston area, and across the country, realize their vision by raising increased revenues. His professional leadership roles have focused on serving the human services, health care, and education sectors. In addition, he has worked with and supported the revenue generating needs of arts, culture, and animal welfare organizations.
Today, Chuck leads the New Kensington Group, a full-service consulting firm helping nonprofit leaders grow their organizations. His work focuses on strategic planning, fundraising, executive search, and board leadership and governance support. As a nationally recognized trainer and speaker, he dedicates significant time to building the fundraising capacity of nonprofit professionals and senior volunteers from coast to coast.
Solutions Building for a New Normal Nonprofit Sector
Date: Wednesday, Sept. 16
Time: 10 a.m. to 12 noon
Via Zoom (link provided upon registration)
About the Workshop
Join the Greater Worcester Community Foundation in a virtual design thinking workshop focused on enhancing a network of support for our nonprofit community. Joshua Croke from Action! by Design will facilitate a conversation and virtual brainstorming activity to address your organizations needs, challenges, and ideas and how that may intersect with other organizations in Greater Worcester.
As the country continues to experience changes, we recognize that business is no longer “as usual”. The Greater Worcester Community Foundation would like to bring together our nonprofit community to discuss how your needs are evolving. In this engaging workshop, Joshua Croke from Action! by Design will lead a brainstorming session and design thinking workshop focused on supporting your organization’s needs and the needs of our nonprofit community as a whole.
The idea to bring nonprofits together came out of a conversation about a possible need for shared office space for organizations. This concept sparked additional discussion about what a nonprofit resource center (either virtual or physical) might look like.
This session will place a priority on identifying challenges you face and needs you have, your ideas for solutions, and how we might strengthen a network of support for our community. We value your ideas, input, and feedback, and hope you’ll join us for this discussion.
Joshua Croke, Action! by Design
Josh is a facilitator for idea generation, project designer, community building consultant, and creative producer. Their passion lies in eliminating stigma, sharing stories, and designing experiences that enhance people’s lives and connects them to their communities in ways that bring joy, belonging, and success.
Josh is the founder of Action! by Design, a community design and innovation studio that provides facilitation, design, and strategy services that support community development, building workplace cultures of belonging, and cross-stakeholder partnerships.
Managing Your Fundraising Program During Challenging Times
Date: Wednesday, July 22
Time: 1:00 - 3:00 PM
Via Zoom (link provided upon registration)
About the Workshop:
The current environment has led us to re-evaluate our currents plans and goals. So, now what? What changes? What doesn't? What do we do now to maximize fundraising results? Consultant Chuck Gordon will share his expertise and recommendations to help us focus our limited time and resources to inform how we best manage our fundraising programs, where our boards should focus and how we can tell our stories of life on the front lines helping our clients overcome the greatest health, economic, and racial justice challenges we've ever experienced.
About the Workshop:
For nearly 30 years, Chuck Gordon has served as a senior nonprofit professional and consultant, helping nonprofit organizations and educational institutions in the Boston area and across the country realize their vision by raising increased revenues. His professional leadership roles have focused on serving the human services, health care, and education sectors. In addition, he has worked with and supported the revenue generating needs of arts, culture and animal welfare organizations.
Today, Chuck leads the New Kensington Group, a full-service consulting firm helping nonprofit leaders grow their organizations. His work focuses on strategic planning, fund raising, executive search, and board leadership and governance support. As a nationally recognized trainer and speaker, he dedicates significant time to building the fundraising capacity of nonprofit professionals and senior volunteers from coast to coast.
Introduction to Contingency Planning
Featured as part of our Worcester Together Bi-Weekly Update Series for Nonprofits
Date: Friday, June 26
Time: 11:00 AM - Noon
Via Zoom (link provided upon registration)
Register Today
About the Session:
Many organizations are nimbly adapting to the pressing needs of their communities, temporarily putting a pause on their long-term plans. But how long is “temporarily?” For example, how will you know when (if ever) you’re able to shift back to your traditional service model? Or will your service model have to fundamentally change?
Facing questions like this can be understandably unsettling. Part of the purpose of building out a contingency plan is to help manage that stress. In this interactive session, Impact Catalysts will lead a conversation to identify the essential components of a contingency plan, explore how you can get started, and consider how your specific services might need to adapt.
For background, we recommend you read these two short blog posts from Impact Catalysts about contingency planning:
More About Impact Catalysts:
Impact Catalysts is a partner to social enterprises and philanthropies. We’re here to help people who have dedicated their lives to social impact develop the systems, tools, and processes that catalyze impact. We work in partnership with leaders of social enterprises and their stakeholders. We believe that, done right, a planning process can reinforce and advance an organization’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Stephen M. Pratt, President, Impact Catalysts
Prior to launching Impact Catalysts, Steve was a Partner and Director of Advisory Services at Root Cause. Steve has more than two decades of experience in nonprofit management, having served as CEO of two direct service organizations, two capacity-building intermediaries, and a scholarship foundation. Steve has also had a role in the founding of six social impact ventures including Boston After School & Beyond and Bridgespan’s Bridgestar Initiative.
Steve has led a range of consulting engagements in the areas of education and youth, housing and homelessness, workforce development, civic engagement and advocacy, and health care improvement. As part of this work, Steve led the development of our performance measurement system tool and framework for financial sustainability planning. He has written extensively on nonprofit strategy and leadership, financial sustainability, and performance measurement.
A cancer survivor, Steve has completed the 192-mile Pan-Mass Challenge bicycle ride nine times, raising over $50,000 for cancer research and advocacy. Steve serves as chair of the board of Food For Free, a food security initiative in eastern Massachusetts, and as a member of the Development Committee for The Community Builders, a national affordable housing initiative.
Amanda Zieselman, Managing Consultant
Amanda Zieselman is a managing consultant at Impact Catalysts, where she supports strategy and implementation, and leads research and project management for client engagements. Amanda also serves as the part-time Executive Director of Health Advocacy Innovations, a global health nonprofit that she co-founded as an undergraduate at Dartmouth. At HAI, she led her organization through strategic planning, fund development, and formation of programmatic partnerships. Amanda has a passion for social justice and medical anthropology, with a focus on people. She has also worked with underserved populations in the Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire.
Devon Tomasi, Analyst
Devon Tomasi is an analyst at Impact Catalysts, where she supports research and project management for client engagements. Devon previously worked in the education field, first as an associate teacher at an elementary school in Boston and then as a research assistant focused on education evaluation and improvement on a national scale. Devon is passionate about addressing issues of equity and is dedicated to helping organizations maximize their social impact.