Customized Trainings

This engaging, 3-hour interactive program is designed to strengthen your board’s understanding of key governance principles. Board members will gain valuable insights into their role and learn best practices from nonprofits across various sectors.

Suitable for nonprofits of all sizes, this program has been delivered to hundreds of boards.

Topics include:

• Legal and social accountability
• Principles of sound financial management
• The board’s role in fundraising
• The board’s responsibilities as an employer
• Conflicts of interest
• Board conduct
• Clarifying board vs. staff roles
• Board development: recruitment, orientation, and engagement

To ensure maximum benefit, schedule this training when both new and experienced board members can attend. Participants will receive the Board Excellence Handbook to support ongoing learning.

Note: This program focuses on the board’s role, and attendance is encouraged for board members only.

This session explores fresh, innovative approaches to identifying and recruiting board members with the skills and passion your nonprofit needs.

Topics include:

• Tools for successful board participation
• Board member job descriptions and orientation manuals
• Where to find new board prospects
• How to encourage more active board engagement
• Strategies for building a diverse board that reflects your community

This training is ideal for executive directors, board presidents, and board development committee members.

This interactive workshop empowers board members to become more comfortable and effective in fundraising and promoting your organization. We’ll explore both common and hidden barriers to participation, and practical ways to overcome them.

Topics include:

• Fundraising with or without staff support
• Expanding your organizational vocabulary
• Crafting an effective elevator pitch
• Leveraging personal and professional networks

Participants will leave with customizable templates, actionable steps, and exercises to help your board get started.

Please note: This workshop focuses on individual board member participation, not on creating a full fundraising plan.

Empower your board to lead with confidence in fundraising efforts! This training helps your board understand its crucial role in leading and implementing your organization’s fundraising strategy.

Designed to empower board members as Fundraising Champions, the session covers the fundamentals of source funding, donor cultivation, and creating an effective Development Committee.

Topics include:

• Improve collaboration between board and staff to achieve fundraising goals
• Strengthening board members’ confidence and skills in fundraising
• Enhancing board members’ ability to connect with potential donors

This interactive workshop helps executive directors, staff, and board leaders boost their board members’ willingness and effectiveness in fundraising and promoting your organization.

The session will tackle common barriers to participation and provide strategies to overcome them, such as:

• Balancing work with or without staff support
• Expanding your board’s organizational vocabulary
• Crafting impactful elevator speeches
• Leveraging personal and professional networks
• Motivating board members through encouragement, not pressure

Participants will receive customizable templates, actionable steps, and exercises to engage their boards.

Please note: This session focuses on board member participation, not creating a fundraising plan.

Designed for those new to fundraising or leaders balancing multiple responsibilities, this course covers the essentials of fundraising.

Topics include:

• Crafting a compelling message about your organization
• Identifying potential donors
• Creating the right environment for asking
• Defining clear roles, expectations, and tools to make fundraising manageable and successful.

Boost your nonprofit’s ability to influence public policy and join a dynamic network of advocacy leaders.

Through this workshop you’ll gain a clear understanding of legal guidelines for nonprofit advocacy, along with a practical framework for setting goals, making decisions, and taking action. You’ll also learn how to assess policy problems, develop strategies, and lead successful advocacy campaigns.

This training will also cover:

• How public policies are shaped, from budget development to legislative processes
• The interaction between state and local governments as well as administrative/regulatory processes
• Enhancing effectiveness by building legislative relationships
• Crafting compelling advocacy messages, leveraging media, and engaging grassroots networks and coalitions.

Enhance your public policy impact by learning how to set clear advocacy goals, navigate the policy-making process, and effectively influence change.

This training covers the basics of government budgets, fiscal policy, and the legal guidelines for tax-exempt organizations engaged in advocacy.

Nonprofits play a critical role in the community, and it’s essential to assess the impact of your programs. Work directly with an experienced evaluation consultant to capture the difference you’re making.

In this course, your team will learn the fundamentals of evaluation, expand their understanding of success, and develop strategies to showcase your mission’s impact.

Topics include:

• Building a logic model
• Developing a theory of change
• Exploring different evaluation methods
• Creating evaluation plans aligned with your mission and programs

Nonprofit professionals are passionate about their causes and committed to maintaining the highest ethical standards. Donors, in turn, want confidence that their contributions support organizations with strong ethics, accountability, and effectiveness.

This session, presented by Amy Coates Madsen, Director of Maryland Nonprofits’ Standards for Excellence Institute, will explore best practices in nonprofit management and governance, as outlined in Standards for Excellence: An Ethics and Accountability Code for the Nonprofit Sector®. The session will teach you how to access these valuable resources to bolster your organization.

Discover how adopting these practices strengthens governance, improves operations, and ensures long-term sustainability. Hear real-world examples of how organizations have addressed challenges in board governance, fiscal responsibility, employee management, and more by embracing the Standards. 

This engaging program covers the most critical aspects of board governance for nonprofits of all sizes and sectors. Participants will explore the roles and responsibilities of both individual board members and the board as a whole, including legal and social accountability, financial management, fundraising, and the board’s role as “employer.”

Additional topics include managing conflicts of interest, clarifying board vs. staff roles, and board development strategies. 

To maximize the program’s impact, we recommend participation by two board members and one senior staff member. Each participant will receive a copy of the Board Excellence Handbook for continued guidance.

This course introduces the Standards for Excellence: An Ethics and Accountability Code for the Nonprofit Sector®, guiding your organization toward high performance.

Learn best practices, policies, and procedures, and discover how the board and staff can collaborate effectively to meet these standards, strengthening your nonprofit’s governance and operations.