Bringing Resources to Rural Communities
Presenters: Steve Graham, Community Resource Center; Jeff Pryor, Anschutz Family Foundation
Many grantmakers, both public and private, are located in metropolitan areas, while approximately 25% of the population lives in smaller or rural communities. Grantmakers may inadvertently focus grantmaking on metropolitan locations and organizations because of proximity and familiarity. Grantmakers may find value in expanding part of their interests and activities to support rural communities. Rural communities are in transition and face a number of challenges that are unique. The Community Resource Center (CRC) and the Anschutz Family Foundation (AFF) have partnered for 14 years to work with rural communities across Colorado to produce Rural Philanthropy Days as two-day events, where urban-based funders travel to a rural region to meet with nonprofit representatives, learn about their communities, and develop relationships that will lead to opportunities for funding and collaboration. This workshop will describe these events and the planning that lead up to them, how the partnership between a management assistance organization and the funders was formed, and how these events have become institutionalized in Colorado. The workshop will present Rural Philanthropy Days as a model that can be replicated successfully across the country.
Presenters: Jennifer Ross, Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations (PANO); Kathy Crabb, California Association of Nonprofits
Are you struggling to capture a fair share of your membership market and/or moving past your current concentration? Panelists will share creative campaigns they employed to meet their goals. Designed for nonprofit state associations, this will be an interactive session where participants will be invited to discuss what has and has not worked in their state.
Sponsored by Donors Forum of Chicago
Presenter: William Ryan, Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, Harvard University
Starting with an alternative diagnosis of perennial board problems, this session proposes a new conception of governance that offers trustees more meaningful and consequential governing work. Participants will explore three governing modes — fiduciary, strategic, and generative — along with some of the major practice challenges for board members, executive directors, and consultants.
Presenter: Jennifer Lammers, Fiscal Management Associates, LLC
While few would argue that you can really judge a charity’s impact “by its numbers alone”, increasingly, donors, regulators, charity watchdogs, and even the media, are looking to nonprofit financial documents for information on which to base important decisions and headlines. Making the most of these documents is essential to gaining and maintaining the public trust, securing support, and protecting your organization’s reputation. This session will review the simple steps every organization can take to improve financial communication and use their audit, 990, and informational websites like Guidestar to tell their story.
Presenter: Kay Sohl, TACS-Technical Assistance for Community Services
Technology is becoming recognized as an area in which nonprofits must build capacity in order to be successful long-term. But what exactly do we mean by "technology capacity?" How should technology integrate with other organizational capacities? What resources exist and what has been successful in partnerships between management support organizations (MSOs) and technology assistance providers? This session explores the underlying role of technology in building nonprofit capacity and furthering mission, and how MSOs can work with existing technology assistance resources to achieve greater impact for their nonprofit customers. Participants will come away with a view of nonprofit technology, not as an afterthought to operations and service delivery, but rather as an important component that can be — and has been — successfully integrated into other capacity-building efforts.

Steve Graham
Community Resource Center

Jeff Pryor
Anschutz Family Foundation

Jennifer Ross
PA Association of Nonprofit Organizations

William Ryan
Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations,
Harvard University

Jennifer Lammers
Fiscal Management Associates, LLC

Kay Sohl
Technical Assistance for Community Services