Strategic Planning: Creating a Roadmap to Sustainability

This interactive 90-minute online session, hosted by Frank Abdale of Abdale Consulting, will discuss how the pandemic has impacted planning for the future and identify best practices in strategic planning including:

• Readiness
• Role of the board, staff, and consultants
• Engaging all stakeholders in the process
• Key questions to ask and answer throughout the process
• Integrating a plan into your organization’s DNA
• Aligning strategic planning with other initiatives such as board development, succession planning, diversity/equity/inclusion, impact measurement, etc.

The session will give participants an opportunity to share their experiences related to planning and ask questions specific to their organization.

Frank Abdale is the principal of Abdale Consulting LLC, whose mission is to help dynamic leaders realize their vision. With 25+ years in the nonprofit sector, Frank is a proven strategist, facilitator, leader, trainer and author. As a consultant, executive director and board member he has helped a wide range of organizations develop successful strategies for sustainability through strategic planning, succession planning and board development.

Frank is a BoardSource™ Certified Governance Trainer and a Senior Associate Consultant with the Support Center for Nonprofit Management. He is the former chair of the Association of Nonprofit Specialists (ANS), a premier resource for consultants working in the nonprofit sector. You can learn more about Frank, his team and his clients at www.abdaleconsulting.com.

Program Planning for Impact

The Center for Community Leadership & Nonprofit Excellence is partnering with Laurel Molloy of Innovations Quantified to present a series of training programs entitled: “Program Planning for Impact”. This series will teach nonprofit organizations how to understand, measure, maximize, and communicate their impact in a meaningful way.

Your nonprofit organization is doing wonderful work! Now learn how to measure and share your impact on our community!

The training series will include:

• A Webinar on October 26th: Measuring Your Impact – An Overview of Key Concepts & Strategies
  • Time: 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
  • Location: Zoom
  • Registration Open Now!
• In-Person Training on December 1st: A two part, in-person training opportunity
  • Part 1: Program Planning for Impact
    • Time: 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
    • Include a continental breakfast beginning at 9 a.m.
  • Part 2: Data Collection – How to Track What Matters Most
    • Time: 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
    • Includes lunch beginning at 12:30 p.m.
    • Location is TBA
    • Registration will open soon!

*Attendees are encouraged, but not required, to attend all 3 sessions of this program

The ability to understand, measure and communicate about your impact has become increasingly important. Internal decision-making depends on it. So does funding. Yet many nonprofits understandably struggle with the process. How should we get started? Who should be involved? What if we’ve already got a system in place, but it’s not working? How can we ensure it is inclusive and equitable? In this session, we’ll explore the common challenges and worries faced by nonprofits seeking to measure their impact and offer a clear path forward – whether you’re just starting on your journey or looking to adjust your current route.

1. Understand the benefits of tracking and reporting on impact, along with common challenges and how to avoid them
2. Learn the “5 Key Steps” to a meaningful and manageable process.
3. Determine where your organization is struggling with its outcome measurement efforts, where its succeeding, and how to proceed from here.
4. Identify the other stakeholders you need to bring into the process to support your ongoing efforts.

Laurel Molloy is the founder and Lead Consultant for Innovations Quantified, serving as IQ’s backbone and driving force.

Laurel’s hands-on experience and passion for public service are complimented by her formal education. She holds an MPA in Nonprofit Management from NYU Wagner and a BA in Sociology and Women’s Studies from the College of the Holy Cross.

Laurel serves as an adjunct professor at Baruch College – The City University of New York, on the Board of the Association of Nonprofit Specialists, and on the Selection Committee for the Nonprofit Excellence Awards. She is also a member of the American Evaluation Association, Association of Nonprofit Specialists, and New York Consortium of Evaluators.

Nonprofit Advocacy and Lobbying 101

501(c)(3)s play an important role in educating the public about policy issues and actions taken by elected officials, including the President. Elected officials vote on bills, make public statements and executive decisions, and set the course for public policy on a wide range of issues. These actions may be consistent with or conflict with a nonprofit’s position on an issue.

The Center for Community Leadership & Nonprofit Excellence, in partnership with the Bolder Advocacy Program, present the following workshop to provide 501(c)(3) organizations a clear understanding of what kinds of advocacy activities they can engage in, how to maximum advocacy, and when communications can be considered lobbying.

Participants will learn:

• How federal tax law permits lobbying for charities and how lobbying is defined;
• One easy step most charities can take to maximize the amount they’re allowed to spend on lobbying;
• Yearly lobbying limits for charities; 
• Tips for taking advantage of the narrow definitions of lobbying – which will help charities make the most of their lobbying limit; and
• The application of these rules to ballot measure activities.

Tim Mooney is senior counsel with the Bolder Advocacy Program at Alliance for Justice. He provides one-on-one technical assistance for nonprofit advocates, teaches nonprofit and election law workshops and writes on these issues for Bolder Advocacy publications. This is his second tour with Alliance for Justice, having previously served as senior counsel from 2001-2006.

Tim began his legal career as co-founder and counsel for Columbia Riverkeeper, working to protect and restore the largest watershed in the Pacific Northwest. Following his first five years with Alliance for Justice, Tim was senior counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. He spent the next decade as general counsel and director of operations for Tranquil Space yoga studios and later consulted on legal, tech and business operations for entrepreneurs and nonprofits.

Tim serves on the board of directors of Pigs & Pugs Project, a charity that supports pig sanctuaries and pug rescue organizations. He earned his B.S. in Environmental Studies from Syracuse University/SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and his J.D. from Pace University School of Law.