Schedule and Sessions

Joy isn't some buzzword. Not for Women of Color. It never has been.
In this powerful panel, you'll hear directly from Women of Color who lead with joy every day, alongside panelists who'll share openly what WoC have taught them about courage and joyful leadership. Together, they'll explore how joy rooted in cultural wisdom transforms relationships from transactional to transformative, and leaders from good to exceptional!
You'll walk away with practical tools for leading more authentically, a deeper understanding of joy as an inclusive practice, and a little more permission to bring your whole self into the workplace.

At the heart of every thriving organization is a cohesive, high-performing leadership team, yet only 20% of senior executives believe their team operates at this level.The impact is undeniable: high-performing leadership teams are three times more likely to achieve financial goals, while ineffective teams drain morale, stifle innovation, and slow strategic progress. Great leadership teams aren’t born – they’re built through connection, accountability, and the operating rhythms that sustain performance over time. This interactive workshop is a call to action for CEOs, COOs, and executive teams to embrace their role as the core drivers of organizational health and performance.

Fundraising success depends on more than a strong donor strategy; it requires strong leadership continuity. This session will help development professionals move beyond reactive hiring and emergency replacement planning toward intentional leadership pipeline development. Participants will explore how to identify critical fundraising roles, assess bench strength, align professional development with organizational priorities, and engage CEOs, boards, and development leaders in shared responsibility for succession planning. The session will offer practical tools for building resilient teams, protecting donor relationships, and preparing organizations for future growth, transition, and opportunity.

Transform your internships into an industry onramp for underrepresented talent and diversify the pipeline of future leaders in your field. Internships build equity, social capital, expand networks, and make the mechanics of non-profit boards visible. Learn how The Genesee Valley Conservancy focused on contacting former interns and hearing about the impact of the internship on their career, and using their feedback and labor market data to build a business case. This session will help you explore the full financial, social, and professional impact that internships can offer your interns, your donors, and future colleagues in your field.

AI is changing fundraising, but success won’t come from adopting more tools—it will come from building teams that know how to work alongside them. Join Colin Hunter, Co-Founder of BetterWorld, for a forward-looking session on what it takes to lead in the AI era. Drawing from firsthand experience, Colin will share
how fundraising leaders can use AI to drive efficiency, rethink team structures, redefine roles, and free staff to focus on deeper donor relationships. Walk away with a practical blueprint for building a stronger, more effective fundraising team ready for what comes next.

Ready to make succession planning actually fun? This session flips the script on a topic most fear, turning it into a hands-on, collaborative strategy lab. Through Group Conversations, Breakout Groups, and our Red Flag Assessment, you’ll uncover hidden fragility points in your fundraising operations while laughing, reflecting, and sharing insights with peers. Leave with actionable tools, practical strategies, and the confidence to lead succession conversations that build trust and resilience—not anxiety. Don’t miss this chance to transform succession planning from a scary “emergency” into a mission-strengthening culture strategy.

Collaborative partnerships are often essential to nonprofit success, but they can also introduce challenges. How do leaders determine when collaboration strengthens their work and when it creates strain?
This session brings together fundraising leaders to examine how partnerships influence mission growth, funding opportunities, and organizational sustainability. As funders increasingly prioritize collective impact, leaders must understand how collaboration affects donor confidence, grant competitiveness, and long-term strategy.
Through candid insights and examples, panelists will discuss aligning expectations, defining roles, navigating power dynamics, and avoiding common pitfalls. Attendees will gain practical guidance for building partnerships that strengthen both mission impact and fundraising success.

Coaching one of the fastest ways to accelerate your direct report from ‘good’ to ‘great’. Great coaching skills are a hallmark of a superior manager because coaching is one of the best ways to develop the intangible soft skills direct reports need to grow to the next stage of their career. Great managers know good coaching questions will actually ‘coax’ the answer out of their direct report, leading to increased confidence and skill development that benefits both the manager and the employee. Are you ready to learn how to be a great coach?

Building a high-performing fundraising team isn’t about finding perfect people — it’s about leading the team you already have with intention. In this dynamic session, discover practical strategies to boost engagement, address toxic behaviors early, balance metrics with morale, and sustain resilience in anxious times. Grounded in current workforce research and nearly 30 years of fundraising leadership experience, this interactive session will equip you with actionable tools to clarify expectations, strengthen culture, and unlock extraordinary results through empowered, motivated teams.

Your board doesn’t look like it did 10 years ago — and your strategy shouldn’t either. As legacy CEOs give way to entrepreneurs and next-generation leaders, nonprofits must rethink how they engage, inspire, and win with today’s board members. Featuring insights from Ronald McDonald House Charities of San Diego and national data from the Giving USA Special Report on Generations and Giving, this session offers practical tools to thrive amid shifting board dynamics.

Some leadership challenges unfold slowly. Others arrive overnight. What happens when a decision outside your control suddenly threatens your organization’s financial future? Fundraising leaders are often expected to provide clarity, confidence, and direction in precisely these moments. This session explores how development leaders can stabilize teams, maintain ethical fundraising practices, and mobilize donor support during institutional crisis. Drawing on real-world leadership experience during a major funding disruption, participants will learn a practical framework for guiding teams through uncertainty while strengthening donor trust and long-term organizational resilience.

Fundraising leaders are often tasked with producing results inside systems that reward urgency, overextension, and constant reaction. In this interactive session, Marci Bradley, CFRE, explores how nonprofit leaders can reclaim strategic control while protecting staff wellbeing and donor trust. Participants will learn how to lead capacity-aligned planning conversations, make ethical tradeoffs, and create fundraising systems that are sustainable, inclusive, and effective—even in resource-constrained environments.

Burnout in fundraising is no longer a personal issue—it is a leadership and sustainability challenge. This interactive session invites nonprofit executives and senior leaders to rethink the “culture of sacrifice” that often defines fundraising work. Grounded in research, sector data, and lived leadership experience, the session explores why burnout occurs, who it affects most, and how leadership practices can either mitigate or intensify risk. Participants will engage in honest dialogue, reflect on real-world scenarios, and leave with practical strategies to foster healthier, more ethical, and more sustainable fundraising cultures.

What if money mindset isn’t just personal—but a leadership responsibility? This session explores how nonprofit leaders’ beliefs about money shape fundraising culture, ethics, and IDEA/Belonging. Moving beyond scarcity-based thinking rooted in fear and pressure, participants will learn how abundance-centered leadership fosters trust, shared purpose, and ethical donor engagement. Through reflection and practical application, leaders will gain tools to identify scarcity-driven behaviors, reframe limiting beliefs, and model healthier, more equitable fundraising practices that align generosity with mission and values.

Fundraising leaders often face high expectations with limited staffing, leading to missed opportunities and staff burnout. This session shows leaders how to advocate for their teams by presenting a strategic case for investment in development staff. Participants will learn how to use data to demonstrate ROI, determine which roles to add and when, and position staff to build momentum, foster collaboration, and exceed fundraising goals. Drawing on experience growing fundraising programs across multiple nonprofits, attendees will leave with practical approaches to build high-performing, sustainable teams that retain talent and maximize philanthropic impact.