Leading with Less: Non-Profit Conference for Small Organizations

The "Great Wealth Transfer" will place trillions of dollars into the hands of younger generations—but are your fundraising strategies ready? For the next generation of donors, philanthropy isn’t just about donations, it is an extension of their identity and a tool for systemic change. In this session, you will learn how to transform traditional stewardship models to meet the needs of young donors through storytelling, community building, and transparency.

Ambiguity can be detrimental to building an effective nonprofit board. When board members are unsure of their roles and responsibilities, this can result in low engagement, poor performance, and/or conflict between staff and board members. This session helps attendees bridge the expectation gap and clarify the line between board governance and staff operations.

Storytelling is an important part of how organizations communicate the work they do to our communities. But in a world that has become high-tech, how do we maintain stories that are high-touch? This session focuses on tools that bridge the gap between cold data and compelling human experiences. You will learn how to use AI and other technological tools to communicate community needs and organizational impact.

With the rapid rise of AI and increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, how does your organization build a technology toolkit that is powerful, ethical, and budget-friendly? Some of the most powerful tools are accessible to even the smallest grassroots organization. In this session, we will discuss the “must have” software for fundraising, marketing, and internal collaboration with a focus on low-cost tools that add capacity to small teams. Here, you will learn how to lead your organization through a "digital transformation" that prioritizes staff capacity and donor trust.

Too often, the nonprofit sector has designed programs for communities rather than with them. Identifying solutions for complex challenges requires us to move beyond consulting and toward co-creation. In this session, professionals will learn how to shift from being a service provider to a trusted facilitator of community-led solutions. We will focus on the relational aspects required to build authentic and sustainable partnerships with communities that are most impacted.

“Influencer culture” has shown us that the social capital of your organization’s supporters can be more valuable than their direct dollars. Learn how to turn your mission into "social currency" that supporters are eager to share and how to use modern tech tools to make giving frictionless within social platforms.

When budgets are tight and funding is limited, competition can become our natural instinct - but what if we leaned into collaboration instead? Some of the most successful nonprofits have the strongest networks and the challenges of 2026 are too large for any one organization to solve alone. This session underscores the value of collaborative grant applications including finding the right partners, the benefits and barriers to collaboration, and aligning values.

People don’t just volunteer to work, they volunteer to belong. In an era of increasing social isolation, your organization has a unique opportunity to offer community and purpose. In this session, you will expand your volunteer engagement toolkit with high impact ideas for recognition, communication, and feedback. Join us to shift your focus from filling slows to building a sustainable ecosystem of engagement that makes volunteers feel seen, valued, and like an essential part of your organization’s mission.

Struggling to keep up with developing content across four different social media platforms, two email segments, a monthly newsletter, AND a webpage? Looking to get more done in less time without losing the human touch that drives your mission? This session shows you how to use AI as a creative tool to maximize efficiency in marketing and outreach without compromising the authenticity of your organizational voice.