Christian Nonprofit Leadership Academy Curriculum

Tuesday/Wednesday Courses-Sept. 25-26 (10-hour courses)

Resource Development Track:

1. Biblical Foundations of Development-Biblical Stewardship
   This course will focus on the spiritual formation of the steward, and will unpack and examine God’s call that we become steward leaders. We will examine the predominant stewardship themes in Scripture, and develop a deeper theological understanding of Christian stewardship. This course will help you as a development professional to understand and articulate the unique Scriptural call to the development profession. You will learn the key Biblical underpinning for stewardship and fundraising.
   - Mark L. Vincent, CEO, Design Group International, and R. Scott Rodin, Partner, Strategic Alliances, Artios Partners
   
   
2. Development Boot Camp
   Today, individuals with no prior training or experience are taking new development positions. Many are moving to development from other professions. This course provides a big-picture overview of development for beginners and seasoned development professionals. It will explore the fundamentals of direct mail, special events, major gift development, foundation funding, development strategy and other topics necessary to begin your development journey. This course takes a comprehensive approach to building steward relationships with your ministry partners.
   - John R. Frank, President, The Frank Group
   
   
3. Creating Contagious Capital Campaigns
   One of the greatest blessings of organizational growth is running out of space, which leads to one of the greatest challenges in ministry – raising capital dollars. Capital campaigns are not for the faint-hearted, especially in uncertain economic times. Your success depends upon a compelling case, committed leaders, willing volunteers, a good plan, and prepared donors. Learn how to raise dollars for your property, programs, and personnel needs. Discover what strategies work and what mistakes to avoid as you energize your donors to make bold moves with you to advance the Kingdom. Each attendee will receive a free copy of Pat's book, The C Factor: The Common Cure for your Capital Campaign Conundrums.
   - Patrick G. McLaughlin, Founder and President, The Timothy Group
   
   
4. Estate and Gift Design: The Major Donor/Planned Giving Alliance
   Creating sustainable philanthropy is critical. Understanding the nexus between major donors and planned giving can set your ministry on a long-term sustainable path. In this session, you will learn why major donors are the ideal planned gift donors, and how your ministry can create case statements that motivate both current and planned gifts. In the next few years, 11,000 baby boomers will retire and sell trillions in family-owned businesses, that’s not to mention the massive intergenerational transfer of wealth. This session will help you to design estate and giving plans to assist ministry partners in giving gifts of net worth.
   - Greg Ring, Co-founder/Chairman, and Richard Blackmon, Co-founder/CEO, Fulcrum Philanthropy Systems
   
   
5. Moving Fundraising Forward: Succeeding in Today's Fast-Changing Landscape of Challenges and Significant Opportunities
   There are many challenges facing ministries today: economic uncertainty, rising costs, vast generational differences, the largest wealth transfer in history, and the widespread adoption of emerging technologies in an increasingly integrated world. Yet significant opportunities for growth and engaging Donors for Life® also exist — for ministries that are able to respond to changes in today’s marketplace. Drawing upon research, trends and studies in both the macro-environment and what motivates and sustains people to give, this course will address the question: "In light of today’s current opportunities, how should ministries tailor their fundraising strategies to resonate with and engage donors and constituents who will stay around for a lifetime?”
   - Rory Starks, Sr. VP of Strategic Engagement, and Kn Moy, Sr. VP of Insight and Innovation, Masterworks

Thursday/Friday Courses-Sept. 27-28
(10-hour courses)

Resource Development Track:

9. Biblical Foundations of Development-Discipling Generous Givers
   This course will build upon the Biblical Foundations – Biblical Stewardship to equip you as a development professional to build generous givers. We will focus on the unique transformational approach to donor development that transcends the transactional approach represented in secular fundraising. We will focus on the calling that development professional have to help donors grow as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ through the ministry of giving. We will also learn to build development plans on the open-sum abundance of God rather than the closed-sum scarcity of money.
   - Gary Hoag, Spiritual and Strategic Counsel, Generosity Monk and Wes Willmer, Executive Vice President, Mission Increase Foundation
   
   
10. Social Media: Building High Value Donor Relationships
    What technologies do you use to identify and connect with your donors? Are you completely up to date on what is available? Which social media strategies work best in reaching donors today? In this course we will explore the nine practical steps to connect with high value donors using the most current technologies. You’ll also learn to implement productive ‘down the rabbit hole’ search techniques, and avoid the pitfalls that can lead to improper identification of high value donors.
    - Kris Hoots and Steve Thomas, Partners, Oneicity
    
    
11. Annual Giving: Developing a Great Plan/Engaging your Board
    What are the best practices for developing an annual giving plan that both stretches and energizes your development team? How can you best engage your board of directors in the development arena? What role should your CEO play in connecting with donors? And how can your Chief Development Officer and Chief Executive Officer work together to create and implement successful fundraising strategies.
    - Jerry Twombly, Senior Partner, BGW Development Group
    
    
12. Fundraising: Best Practices for Building a Sustainable Growth Strategy in Today's Economy
    This course will focus on best practices, proven strategies, and creative new approaches to building a sustainable growth strategy for your ministry in today’s economic times. Through proven principles and case studies, we will help you to connect with more people, increase first-time gift income, improve your cultivation results and reconnect with lapsed donors and constituents. We will cover everything from direct mail, online, social media, major gift strategies and special events for donors of all levels. Best practices related to how to build your donor database and analyze your ongoing results will also be addressed in detail. Lastly, you will be taught about a valuable strategy virtually guaranteed to raise significant gifts within the next 30 days!
    - Shane Norman, Senior Vice President, Chief Digital Officer and Michael Johnson, Senior Vice President, Douglas Shaw and Associates
    
    
13. Major Donor Development: State of the Major Donor Community
    This session will present a fresh look at the mindset of the American donor today, and more importantly how to effectively position your organization to reach and engage this audience. Packed with statistics, charts, anecdotal information that is relevant and inspirational, while also user friendly. We will explore the art of stewarding a case load of donor relationships, from Biblical principles to hands-on tools and resources. You will understand what is most important to this community in terms of stewardship, and how to best communicate and relate to major donors. You will gain strategies to build and manage your caseload with excellence.
    - Bob Westfall, President, The Westfall Group

People Management and Care Track:

6. HR 101: Eight Pillars of a Sound HR Program
   Examine the eight pillars of sound HR program development, including: HR strategic planning, HR electronic record keeping, benefits management & Affordable Care Act Implementation strategies, talent acquisition & talent development, compensation, HR program development, competency-based performance management systems and core values integration into HR processes. After completing this course you will be able to develop a biblically sound HR program for your ministry. Together we will define future HR program needs, and we’ll learn ways to integrate strategic intuition and emotional intelligence into HR planning and development for your organization.
   - Cathie Cowie, CEO and Rhonda Kline, President, Alston-Kline, Inc.
   

People Management and Care Track:

14. Employee Engagement: The Blueprint for a Better Workplace
    In today’s competitive marketplace it is absolutely critical that you develop effective strategies for engaging your employees in your mission. This will help in recruiting and retaining high performers. Best Christian Workplaces Institute research indicates that the level of staff engagement is directly correlated with organizational growth over time. Our experience indicates that there are four steps in "The 4-D" cycle an organization can take to move towards organizational health. Those steps include Discovery (appreciating and valuing), Dream (envisioning), Design (co-constructing the future), and Destiny (learning and empowering to sustain the future). This session will explore the keys to building a dynamic employee team.
    - Al Lopus, President, Best Christian Workplaces Institute

Multiple Course Areas Track

Internet & Technology
7. Web & Social Media Boot Camp: Build a Success Strategy for Any Ministry!
   Don’t waste time by pouring resources into online efforts that don’t work. Your website is the brain of your organization. Your blog is the face. Finally, social media provides your organizational voice. See how these three prongs of your online presence combine to form a powerful communication tool. This session offers unprecedented access to web and social media experts that will help you determine how to craft an online strategy for your organization. We’ll learn by doing. You’ll create a one-page strategic ministry plan while learning from the best practices of over 100 organizations. You’ll also walk away with a social media calendar that will be the playbook for getting the results you need. After attending this session you will be able to: 1.) Build a concrete social media calendar for your organization, 2.) Understand how the organizational mission and vision relate to an online strategy, 3.) Craft an effective social media strategy for your target audience, and 4.) Integrate advanced tools and content planning methods to build and maintain momentum online.
   - Justin Wise, Communications Director, Monk Development, Chris Giovagnoni, Social Media Manager, Compassion International
   
   
Board Governance
8. Building Better Boards
   With increasing emphasis on nonprofit compliance, ministry boards are trying to enhance their governance engagement. However, in the midst of increased oversight, many boards emphasize legislation over leadership, and lose their perspective on how to move their ministry into the future. In this fast-paced exchange, attendees will learn to apply a simple tool to assess where their board is today, and embrace a new framework for building a board that can partner with its CEO and grow into its preferred future. We will explore this all within a learning context of the Biblical foundations for effective board governance.
   - John B. Savage, EMBA, Founder & Principal, OneAccord NFP

Financial Management
15. Protecting Your Ministry's Finances
    Today’s legal environment and regulatory requirements increase burdens on ministry organizations more than ever before due to continuing world crises and economic pressures. In order to stay in business, ministries need concrete ways to identify and manage their risks. This course is designed to provide a better understanding of possible weaknesses in their systems and fraud signals as well as an overview of what controls are necessary both inside and outside the accounting department. At the end, the participant should have a better understanding of today’s unique legal and regulatory environment, best practices in risk management and internal controls, fraud signals, and the internal audit process to protect ministry finances.
    - Vonna Laue, Partner, Capin Crouse, LLC
    
    
Communications & Marketing
16. Building Brand Value through Strategic Integrated Marketing
    All great brands become and stay great because of consistent application of these three key principles: 1) A clear articulation of who they are, what they stand for and what sets them apart; 2) an unwavering commitment to living their brand through every person and every touch point; and, 3) understanding the balance between long- and short-term activities that purposefully build your brand value over time. Integrated marketing is one of the largest and most important ways to practically apply these three principles. In this session you will learn how to identify and apply these principles of good branding for your ministry, and how to develop an integrated marketing strategy that enables you to practically apply and reinforce these principles for maximum impact – today and in the future.
    - Steve Maegdlin, Principal/CEO, and Scott Appel, Strategic Marketing Services Director, The CSK Group

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