2024 Iowa Nonprofit Summit

Training Track: Philanthropy Track

Topic of Workshop: Leadership

Title of Workshop: Budgeting Your Influence 

Workshop Description: When we desire to see change in our communities one organization or one leader shouldn't "own" the problem, because one organization likely can't create enough change to solve the problem. Instead, to make lasting and sustainable community change, power needs to be distributed among many people and organizations. As leaders in these settings that means we must lead with influence before relying on authority. 

Your influence is a kind of currency. Like monetary wealth, you can invest and grow it wisely. Budgeting influence is one of the single most important skills that sets successful social change leaders apart from frustrated ones.

In this session, we'll take the idea of budgeting - aligning our actions with our goals - into a new realm - using our influence to advance important goals for our organization and community. We ought to be as intentional about budgeting our influence as budgeting our grants investment.

Learning objectives:
In this highly interactive session, you'll learn to
- Identify settings where you and your organization have influence, authority, and opportunity 
- Reflect on your methods of budgeting your influence 
- Explore ways to use your influence strategically and avoid behaviors that might minimize your influence
- Expand your understanding of how influence works in the context of inclusion and equity