Your Goals, Your Career
Session One: October 14    
We will overview the program and learn about each student’s goals for their career and for this program.

With W. David LeVasseur, Undersecretary, Intergovernmental Policy Division Connecticut Office of Policy and Management. He will underscore the future as he sees it—Nonprofits need to actively seek collaborations and synergies of services, and emerging leaders need to be the change makers to discard business as usual and embrace a networked future.

• Peer-to-peer web-reflection assignment.

Personality and Leadership Styles
Session Two: October 28
[The first 15 minutes of each class we have a Calling Out where we discuss key observations that struck home during the online discussion.]

With Doe Hentschel, Vice President, Leadership Greater Hartford
We are all complex beings. Using the process of an Enneagram Profile, we will examine our personalities—our motivations, needs and desires—and reflect how these traits impact our problem solving and communication styles. With this knowledge we gain insights into how we can strengthen, adjust and maximize our leadership potential.

• Peer-to-peer web-reflection assignment.

Leading
Session Three: November 4
With Ted Carroll, President, Leadership Greater Hartford
An overview of the State of Leading in the Nonprofit Sector—intersecting the findings of key research and thought leaders—is laid out by Dr. Garvey. This is followed by Ted Carroll’s workshop of the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, as developed by Kouzes and Posner. The five practices, all of which contribute to participatory leadership, are introduced in the context of expanding one’s personal repertoire of leadership skills beyond what is “instinctive”. Through a self-assessment exercise, participants will identify ways to grow beyond their current skill set and explore those practices less frequently used.

• Peer-to-peer web-reflection assignment.

It's the People First: Guiding Your Board, Staff and Volunteers
Session Four: Nov 18   
This session is based on the practice of creating a culture of excellence within your Nonprofit, as articulated in Good to Great and the Social Sectors. You will learn human resource value of getting the right people on the bus, before you decide where to drive it. You will learn how this philosophy impacts your entire organization; from board, staff to volunteers. In addition we will discuss the fundamentals of good governance, the difference between managing and leading your staff using the Management Map approach, and how the volunteers—their goals, recruitment and management—have changed in this boomer generation.

• Peer-to-peer web-reflection assignment.

Vision, Mission and Building a Strategic Framework
Session Five: Dec. 2
We will start our discussion of vision by viewing and reflecting on National Geographic photographer Dewitt Jones’ video Celebrate What’s Right with the World. We move to mission through a discussion of the mission-based management practices of Brinckerhoff—doing what, for whom, towards what ends, to achieve high impact results. We then tie vision and mission to building a strategic framework to accomplish “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” advocated by Collins in Good to Great. Our closing discussion will focus on perspective of Paul Light and how the need to be cognizant of how strategic strategies and goals need to adapt to the perpetual growth cycle of the organization.              

• Peer-to-peer web-reflection assignment.

Aligning Practice to Plans:  Achieving the Outcomes You Want
Session Six: Dec 16
We will explore the Collins’ Good to Great Hedgehog Concept and its value for creating the underpinning for reaching your envisioned outcomes. With a Hedgehog Concept in place we will examine how to create strategic plans that drive daily operations, followed by the outcome measurement practices of Friedman of designing for improvement.  Guest speaker Mike Bangser, of Bangser Consulting and former President of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, will guide the closing of our discussion with his personal insights into best practices of outcome and program evaluation.

• Peer-to-peer web-reflection assignment.

Human Resource Planning
Session Seven: Jan 6
We will move into core fundamentals of human resource management, examining theoretical transactional, managerial and strategic HR models. Fundamentals will be supported with a discussion of the sharing of leadership and the empowerment of the employee practices outlined in Forces for Good. Continuing on an employee strengthening focus, best practices of coaching, mentoring and creating personal development plans for the employee will be discussed and reflected upon. We will close by exploring diversity and cultural competence within the organization with a guest lecturer Ellen Boynton, Training Coordinator of the Office of Multi-cultural Affairs of the CT Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

• Peer-to-peer web-reflection assignment.

Understanding Budgets and Nonprofit Accounting
Session Eight: Jan. 13
With Paul R. Ballasy, CPA, Partner with the accounting firm of Haggett Longobardi, and Mitch Beauregard, Access Community Action Agency’s Director of Finance—who work together as client and provider and who will discuss the dynamics of their working relationship.

Paul will outline the fundamentals of Nonprofit accounting, including, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), accounting for contributions, program versus indirect costs; financial reporting—including statements of financial position, activities, and cash flows; closing with a discussion of the audit process. With a landscape of core financial practices outlined, Mitch will discuss building budgets that work, including designing them (matching program goals with projected revenue and expenses) and tracking them (agency versus program, and projected versus actual) 

• Peer-to-peer web-reflection assignment.

Governance: Working with Your Board 
Session Nine: Jan. 27
With Mike Burns, Partner of the national governance consulting firm of Brody Weiser Burns

Based on the board approaches of Richard Chait and Mike’s decades of experience we will cover and discuss the fundamental fiduciary, policy and oversight responsibilities of a voluntary Nonprofit board in a world of Sarbanes Oxley. Mike will then move to art and science of building effective boards, including composition, recruitment, leadership development, strategic planning, resource development and ambassadorship, and focusing on the big picture for long-term results.

• Peer-to-peer web-reflection of a governance case study.

Fund Development Principles and Practice
Session Ten: Feb. 10
With Sandra Wood, Philanthropic Consultant to Organizations and Families, founding director of Philanthropic Services for Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

Sandy will cover the three core fundamentals of fund development for your organization:

1. creating a culture of philanthropy throughout your organization,
2. principles of good development, and
3. best practices of good development, including prospect management, cultivation strategies, solicitation structures and solicitation strategies, and above all stewardship.

• Peer-to-peer web-reflection of a development practice your Nonprofit should address differently.

Managing External Relationships I
Session Eleven: Feb. 24
With Shawn Lang, Director of Public Policy, CT AIDS Resourc Center

In part one of our closing two part series we will first examine the best practices of outstanding customer service focused on a strength-based approach of serving customers not clients and creating a customer-friendly infrastructure within your organization. We will then move to the external stakeholder, examining the Forces for Good practices of working with commercial markets and adding advocacy to your service strategies. Guest lecturer Shawn Lang will then work with participants in a nuts and bolts discussion of advocating and lobbying in Connecticut.      

• Peer-to-peer web-reflection of a client, market outreach or advocacy approaches your Nonprofit should consider adjusting.

Managing External Relationships I & Concepts On the Horizon
Session 12: Mar. 10    
We are looking at the future, and the future is adaption and using strategic networks to sustain impact. In our closing class we will examine how organizations adapt to rapidly changing environments, focusing on the adaption practices outlined in Forces for Good and the eight step process of successful change Kotter. We will then move to nurturing and using networks to survive and thrive: examining the best practices and fundamental dynamics of successful collaborations.

We then close our work with reflections on what we have learned and of course…celebrate.