Alliance for Nonprofit Management › Annual Conference › C03 Sessions - Friday 4:15pm

C03 Sessions - Friday 4:15pm

A Delicate Balance: The Relationship Between Funders, Capacity Builders and Nonprofits

Presenters: Kathleen Enright, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations; Jim Abernathy, Environmental Support Center; Janine Lee, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation; Rick Moyers, Meyer Foundation

Imagine what it might feel like to have your boss in the room while you get a physical exam. Even when intentions are pure, nonprofits can be left feeling naked and exposed when the relationship between capacity builder and funder is ill-defined or inappropriate. This session will challenge participants to explore the dynamics of this triangular relationship. Panelists will help illustrate the ethical dilemmas, suggest some ground rules for how funders and capacity builders share information, and react to several hypothetical situations to gain further clarity on the relationship.

Evaluating for Community Change

Presenters: April Veneracion and Ana Cortez, National Community Development Institute

This session will be a fun, interactive presentation of findings from our research and field experience of using a culturally-based approach to community research and evaluation. The session will also include a case study from our work as a capacity-building provider of a comprehensive community initiative (CCI) that is using an outcomes approach to articulate and measure community change in a largely African American and Latino community of East Palo Alto, CA. The case study will feature best practices and also acknowledge and discuss the limitations of the approach.

Structuring Your Management Support Organizations to Improve Impact

Presenters: Barbara Blumenthal, Princeton University; Valyrie Laedlein, Community Resource Exchange

This session begins with a review of the key features of high impact consulting and effective capacity building. MSO leaders will then describe important aspects of their operating structure, such as funding sources; intake procedures; type of projects; length of relationships; coaching and client candor. Session participants will evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each structure related to the requirements for effective capacity building.

The Expanding Universe: Where Capacity Building is Heading

Presenters: Tom Backer and Jane Ellen Bleeg, Human Interaction Research Institute

This session will present results from a 2003 national research study that scanned the nonprofit sector for innovative, nontraditional approaches to nonprofit capacity building. Conducted by the nonprofit Human Interaction Research Institute (HIRI), in partnership with the Alliance, the "environmental scan" study included interviews with 82 thought leaders around the U.S.

The Perfect Ship in the Perfect Storm: Promising Practices in Financial Planning

Presenter: Russell Willis Taylor, National Arts Strategies

National Arts Strategies, with funding from the James Irvine Foundation, worked with California's arts leaders in 2002-2003 to understand how effective financial management practices at leading organizations might be used across the sector to respond to the new economic environment. This presentation will outline the best financial management practices we identified, and will provide a framework that both organizations and funders could use to examine financial management strategies.

Weblogs - What's Behind the Hype? Analyzing the Potential of Blogs for Nonprofits and MSOs

Presenters: Marnie Webb, CompuMentor; Michael Gilbert, Nonprofit Online News; Jason A. Lefkowitz, Oceana

Web log pioneers and seasoned nonprofit technology consultants will take a critical look at the potential benefits of weblogs (or "blogs") for both nonprofit and management support organizations. After explaining how blogs function, the panel will identify and evaluate the wide spectrum of potential blog uses in the sector. Special emphasis will be put on exploring with the audience how organizations can use blogs as a tool for collaboration and social change. Participants will gain a solid understanding of how blogs work, and how MSOs and nonprofits can use blogs either for their individual organization or in a group setting.

Federal Capacity-Building Programs and Pending Legislation: Lessons Learned and Opportunities for Action

Presenter: Rick Cohen, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy

The federal government has been involved in nonprofit technical assistance for quite some time, and can offer useful insights for the field. This session will discuss lessons learned from federal capacity-building programs and uncover opportunities for action.

How Not to Empower the Nonprofit Sector: Under-Resourcing and Misreporting Spending on Organizational Infrastructure

Presenters: Kennard Wing, Kennard T. Wing and Company; Thomas Pollak, National Center for Charitable Statistics

Dreams of a more powerful role for the nonprofit sector are energizing but hard to bring to fruition given today's meager funding for the organizational infrastructure needed by highly effective and sustainable organizations. The problem is compounded by nonprofits' own public reporting that suggests they need even less than they get now. Presentations will cover the latest research on how nonprofits raise, spend and report dollars for administrative and fundraising infrastructure. Discussion will focus on what we might do about the issues raised.

Helping Nonprofits Collaborate to Increase their Power and Effectiveness

Presenter: Russ Linden, Russ Linden & Associates

Collaboration can be an effective way for nonprofits to increase their power and effectiveness. Most nonprofits don't wield the power they should when they seek funds, when they lobby for legislation, when they try to get their messages to the media. But, true collaboration is difficult to achieve. Participants in this session will learn the major hurdles nonprofits encounter when they try to collaborate, some strategies to address those hurdles, and certain roles and approaches capacity builders can use to help nonprofit leaders succeed at collaboration.

Back to Full Conference Schedule - Friday

Back to Schedule At-a-glance

Link to Presenters Biographies