2024 Iowa Nonprofit Summit

Keynote: We the People

Acooa Ellis has served as a national leader on numerous pioneering, complex change efforts, with a career that spans multiple industries--including roles in government, corporate and nonprofit sectors.

Delve with Acooa into the essential elements needed to drive long-term systems change, focusing on nonprofit organizations as powerful agents of collective progress. This session promises to kick the day off with lots of food for thought.

Advancing Systems Change: Attendees will gain insights into the crucial components required for driving enduring transformations within complex systems.

The Power of Coalitions: We’re powerful together as a sector. Attendees will be invited to consider the role of coalitions as effective mechanisms for maximizing impact.

Examining Notions Around Power: Speaking of power, there’s levels to this.  Understanding power in different forms is critical to crafting a winning strategy.

Exploring Concepts in Practice: This session will conclude with time to process together, for practical application.

If a small group of passionate advocates can change the world, imagine what a whole conference of committed nonprofit professionals can accomplish! This session promises to engage and inspire attendees to leverage their organizations’ respective strengths to transform systems in service to their mission.

Training Track: Advocacy Track

Topic of Workshop: data, research, advocacy, free tools

Title of Workshop: Information Wants to Be Free: Becoming a Data Detective

Workshop Description: This workshop will share tips and tricks for nonprofit advocates about researching, collecting, analyzing, and sharing data on state expenditures, program statistics, survey data, lobbying and campaign spending, and more. Discover useful databases, free tools to share and visualize data, and how to request information from the state. Up your advocacy game and become the PI of your NP!

Learning objectives:

• Understand a variety of data sources that are publicly available and how to access them
• Learn basic data analysis and interpretation practices and resources
• Utilize free data visualization tools to communicate data in an interactive way

Training Track: Fundraising & Finances Track

Topic of Workshop: Investment Management

Title of Workshop: Investment Best Practices for Nonprofits

Workshop Description: Financial stability is key to the long-term success of any nonprofit organization. In this workshop we will review fiduciary responsibilities, discuss the importance of building adequate reserves, and share industry data and best practices for nonprofit investment programs.

Learning objectives:

• Learn the key responsibilities of nonprofit fiduciaries
• Understand the importance of nonprofit operating reserves
• Discover a simple framework for overseeing nonprofit investment portfolios

Training Track: Philanthropy Track

Topic of Workshop: Individual donors

Title of Workshop: Diversify Your Fundraising: Stop Running on the Hamster Wheel and Build Sustaining Individual Donors

Workshop Description: Transform your fundraising strategy by cultivating sustaining individual donors. This method boosts financial stability, flexibility, and growth. Start by identifying passionate supporters, crafting a compelling narrative of your impact, and offering diverse giving options. Recognize and appreciate your donors to build lasting relationships and secure continuous support for your mission.

Learning objectives:

• Identify and segment individual donors
• Develop a cultivation plan based on segmentation
• Create a request and stewardship strategy to focus on donor retention

There are times in which an organization might have to consider doing a strategic plan on their own. What should you talk about? How do you create dialogue? How to keep the flow moving? Midwest Studies Group will share some tips and strategies to consider when trying to lead this important goal setting and team building process on your own.

Training Track: Volunteer Engagement

Topic of Workshop: Engaging youth (ages 5-18) in authentic and meaningful service opportunities. Discussing common barriers to youth service and best practices for engaging youth voice in your nonprofit work & mission.

Title of Workshop: Empowering Youth Service

Workshop Description: Want to increase your volunteer recruitment and create lifelong advocates for your mission? Discover tips and tricks for engaging young people (ages 5 through 18) in volunteer opportunities with your organization! We will discuss the top barriers youth face to volunteering and provide solutions for overcoming them. Additionally, we’ll cover the importance of youth voice and brainstorm ways to implement it in your organization’s existing volunteer opportunities, new service pathways, and overall mission. In addition to the training, this is a chance to hear directly from youth leaders on their service experiences.

List 3 learning objectives:

• Identify common barriers to youth volunteering
• Discover the importance of youth voice in volunteer experiences & your work
• Create authentic youth volunteer opportunities with youth feedback from session

Training Track: Various Topics Track

Topic of Workshop: Dashboarding and performance scorecards

Title of Workshop: Visualizing Your Data:  Building a Meaningful Dashboard for Your Work & Impact

Workshop Description: Develop a systematic approach for organizing the data you already produce as an impactful nonprofit to better tell your mission story. This session would help you create and plan an at-a-glance tool that would be useful in monitoring key indicators of success and make your data more consumable for better programming, decision making, staff planning, and budgeting. Begin to make your own data work for you and better tell your story and see where you need to focus more informed efforts around program enhancement and/or organizational efficiency.

Learning objectives:

• Identify and design strategies for measures key data and performance indicators for your field of work and organization.
• Evaluate approaches for easily collecting important data within your work.
• Craft strategies to identify key surveillance data from the field, from your clients/stakeholders, your operations, and your learning agenda. You’ll leave with examples and a desk reference to begin your own data journey.

Training Track: Fundraising & Finances Track

Topic of Workshop: Event Design Considerations for Nonprofits

Title of Workshop: Designing Impactful Events: Strategies for Success

Workshop Description: Explore essential elements to designing impactful events that foster meaningful connections and drive fundraising success. Whether you’re brainstorming a new idea or want to refresh your annual gala, this session is for you. From conceptualization to event execution, this workshop will cover the art and science of event design. Come ready to learn how to create impactful gathering experiences to achieve your desired results.

Learning objectives:

• Dive into the value of nonprofit events as a cultivation tool and elevate them into meaningful experiences.
• Tips to optimize event design for success.
• The power of creativity: Individualizing your event.

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

Training Track: Various Topics Track

Topic of Workshop: Advocating for Nonprofit Managers by collecting and examining the experiences of nonprofit professionals working in management, especially those new to the role and with limited access to resources

Title of Workshop: Advocating for Nonprofit Managers

Workshop Description: In our hour-long interactive session, we will gather real-time feedback from participants to champion essential areas for effective management within the nonprofit sector. Our goal is to gain a clear understanding of the needs of nonprofit mid-level managers and help participants and presenters take the first steps to implement solutions. 

Training Track: Volunteer Engagement

Topic of Workshop: Introduction to Training Staff to Engage and Support Volunteers

Title of Workshop: Engaging Staff in Volunteer Engagement

Workshop Description: 
Equipping all staff to engage with volunteers unlocks your organization's full potential! This dynamic session provides strategies and practical tools that you can use to help staff inspire, motivate, and effectively collaborate with volunteers.
The success of volunteer engagement no longer hinges on a volunteer program. It needs to be a human capital strategy that the whole organization engages with. Attend this interactive workshop where you'll explore:

• Building Meaningful Connections: Learn techniques for engaging staff in the volunteer engagement process and creating initial buy-in.
• Effective Communication: Discover how staff can convey your organization’s mission and goals in a way that resonates with volunteers.
• Motivation and Retention: Explore tools to help staff recognize and reward volunteers, cultivating commitment and enthusiasm.
• Leveraging Feedback: Discuss ways to solicit and utilize feedback from staff and volunteers to enhance the experiences of all involved.

You’ll leave this session with actionable insights, resources, and renewed confidence to engage your whole organization in volunteer engagement efforts. Transform your approach to volunteer engagement and drive your organization toward greater impact.

Learning objectives:

• Know how to help staff make the ask and invite the community to volunteer with your organization
• Gain tools to help facilitate exploring how volunteers can support staff and programs and create buy-in beyond the volunteer engagement team
• Learn about tools and resources in Iowa to support your ongoing efforts

This year, we are convening a special Local Leaders Panel to discuss the critical intersections between local government and the nonprofit sector.

Moderator: Paul Thelen, University of Iowa
North Liberty Mayor Chris Hoffman
Cedar Rapids City Councilmember Ashley Vanorny
Marion City Manager Ryan Waller
Linn County Commissioner Kirsten Running-Marquardt
Cedar Rapids Community School District School Board Member Jen Neumann

Training Track: Advocacy Track

Topic of Workshop: Advocacy for volunteers, Board members, and the general public

Title of Workshop: Empowering Supporters with a Robust Advocacy Toolkit

Workshop Description: An effective advocacy strategy requires a well-stocked tool box. Learn how the Cedar Rapids Public Library has developed a myriad of tools to engage, support, and empower their advocates. Whether board members, volunteers, partner organizations, or the general public, advocates are ready to tell your story; your role is to prepare them for success. The Library will share how they work to help their advocates understand the “who, what, where, when, why, and how” of effective advocacy, how to make on-going advocacy communication sustainable, and how to open up dialogue to gather stories from those in your community who can speak to the impact of your organization. You’ll walk out of this session with a list of options to explore and a template to start building or expanding your own advocacy toolkit. 
Learning objectives:

• Develop an advocacy plan to mobilize supporters and provide them with the tools and information to be successful
• Identify tools you already have or can easily create to foster communication with your advocates 
• Create a plan to gather stories from your stakeholders that can be shared in advocacy efforts

Training Track: Fundraising & Finance
Topic of Workshop: data, CRM, technology
Title of Workshop: CRMs and Nonprofits - a Great Match!
Workshop Description: This workshop will discuss challenges you may face with your current or planned CRM system, and what benefits you can look forward to as you work to implement or optimize your CRM. Phrases like "single source of truth" and "data governance" will take on new meaning, and you'll be excited by the possibilities for expanded out-reach and increased funds in-flow from connecting many parts of your operations into a single system.
Learning objectives:

• How to make the case to your board or leadership team for adopting a CRM solution
• How to decide when to pull in outside expertise when implementing or upgrading your CRM
• How to approach building your data foundation

Attend the special showing of UnCharitable-The Movie at the pre-conference event on Monday evening, October 21, in Cedar Rapids, and then join this session to participate in large and small group discussion about the movie and its themes. Based on the book “Uncharitable,” by Dan Pallotta, UnCharitable-The Movie introduces a radical new way of philanthropy and view of charities. Using the movie’s discussion guide, we’ll recap and clarify what we learned from the movie, help you set goals for moving forward, and consider how to advance the ideas in the movie. This session will be most beneficial to those who have screened the movie.

Training Track: Various Topics Track
Topic of Workshop: Research Opportunities
Title of Workshop: Exploring Survey Research Opportunities with the University of Iowa

Workshop Description: 
Representing numerous colleges, offices, centers, programs, and initiatives at the University of Iowa (UI), the facilitators share a common interest in working with nonprofits to answer research questions and improve nonprofit effectiveness. This session will begin with brief introductions to resources at the UI and then a review of potential for collaborative research opportunities between Iowa nonprofits and UI researchers. Specifically, before finalizing a survey that would build on the INA Salary & Benefits Study, we would love to meet with interested nonprofits to explore the potential value that a multi-organizational survey study could provide. One critical question we want to explore with nonprofit leaders is, “what information would help you be more effective, individually and organizationally?” Drawing on themes from that discussion, we will break into small group discussion to further explore interests and informational needs of nonprofit leaders.  
Learning objectives:

• Describe various models and points of contact for partnering with the University of Iowa,
• Explore different informational needs of nonprofit leaders, and
• Outline possible research questions for survey study (or studies) that benefit Iowa nonprofit organizations.

Training Track: Volunteer Engagement
Title of Workshop: Maximizing Impact: Engaging Skills-Based Volunteers for Nonprofit Success

Workshop Description: In today's dynamic nonprofit landscape, leveraging the unique talents and expertise of skills-based volunteers can significantly enhance your organization's capacity and impact. This breakout session is designed for nonprofit leaders looking to harness the full potential of skills-based volunteering.
Join us for an interactive and informative session where we will explore effective strategies for identifying, recruiting, and retaining skills-based volunteers. Learn how to match the right skills with the right projects, ensuring that both volunteers and organizations benefit mutually. Discover innovative approaches to volunteer engagement that can drive your mission forward and create lasting community change.
Who Should Attend:

• Nonprofit Executive Directors
• Volunteer Engagement Professionals
• Program Managers
• Board Members
• Anyone interested in enhancing volunteer engagement and impact within their organization

Key Takeaways:

1. Understanding Skills-Based Volunteering: Gain insights into what skills-based volunteering entails and how it differs from traditional volunteer roles.
2. Strategic Recruitment: Learn best practices for attracting and selecting volunteers with specific skill sets that align with your organization's needs and goals.
3. Effective Onboarding and Training: Explore methods for effectively integrating skills-based volunteers into your organization, including orientation and ongoing support.
4. Project Matching and Management: Discover techniques for matching volunteer skills with appropriate projects, ensuring maximum impact and satisfaction for both parties.
5. Retention and Recognition: Develop strategies for retaining skills-based volunteers and recognizing their contributions to foster long-term engagement and loyalty.

Case Studies and Success Stories: Hear examples of successfully implemented skills-based volunteer opportunities and learn from their experiences.

Keynote: Amplify Your Voice. Activate Your Vision,

Nonprofit organizations (and their leaders) were built to change the world… and that’s exactly what they are doing!
But imagine the enhanced gravity of impact if nonprofits truly amplified their voices and DREAMED BIG around their vision for the future. Nonprofits (and their leaders) weren’t built to play small ball…

What if courage replaced fear and creating connections that activate a BIG, BOLD VISION became the norm? Ready to step outside of your normal comfort zone and serve people better?

In this inspiring and interactive session, you will learn how to silence the “we can’t” voices and replace them with what you CAN do to elevate your brand equity, dream with unapologetic intention, and drive true community impact through your BIG, BOLD VISION. Those we serve deserve nothing less than big dreams coming to life!

Attendees will be motivated into action, and Courtney will provide them with tools to “turn up the volume” around sharing their stories, their needs, their challenges, their celebrations, and their BIG, BOLD VISION.

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take…Ready to take the shot? Let’s GO!