Day 2 – Thursday, October 19, 2023

8:00am

Registration Open & Breakfast Roundtables

9:15 – 10:15am

Breakout Session #1

Defining Impact with Your Board

Lisa K. Schalla, CFLeads

This workshop is for participants who are looking for ways to engage the board in feeling closer to the impact that they are helping to create. Building on last year’s “Small Size, Deep Impact” session and based on learning from the Connecting Communities in the Americas (CCA) initiative at CFLeads, you will practice a hands-on activity to collectively identify five dimensions of impact that are easily communicated to your stakeholders. It is an excellent way to foster deeper conversations about the programs and services that your organization provides and co-create a strong sense of vision. Come with one of your organization’s programs or services in mind to work on in small groups.

Changing the Purpose of a Fund

Remy Barnwell, Council on Foundations

Does your community foundation have donor-advised funds with no living advisors? Designated funds that have served their designated purpose with funds to spare? This session will explore the options for changing the purpose of both endowed and non-endowed funds in the face of change. Plan to learn when it is appropriate for your board to invoke its variance power, what variance power enables you to do, and when to apply the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA).

Unlocking Impact Investing: Insights from Community Foundation CEOs

Marsha Pope, Topeka Community Foundation & Dawn Brown, Community Foundation of Grant County

Is your community foundation committed to building bold new ways to accelerate positive social outcomes, but don’t know exactly how an impact investing program could serve as an extension of your community grantmaking and leadership efforts? Learn from two community foundation CEO’s who are unlocking investment capital to make socially impactful loan investments that provide a financial return on investment as well.

Strategies for Reducing Toxic Polarization

Kristen Cambell, PACE-Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement

Toxic polarization can create challenges for community foundations and their grantees. To address this issue, it’s essential to assess how a foundation approaches decision-making and conflict resolution. By doing so, we can identify strategies to mitigate toxic polarization and promote social cohesion. Key questions to consider include: What is toxic polarization, and how might philanthropy inadvertently contribute to it? Why is it important for philanthropy to address polarization? What alternatives exist for resolving conflict within your organization? We will provide tools for you to take back to your foundation that will help you build a more cohesive way to support your community.

Simplify Language to Advance Equity and Inclusion

Lee Shainis, Simplify Language

Workshop participants will learn and practice 15 actionable skills to immediately improve spoken and written communication with diverse audiences. These skills impact equity, access, inclusion, recruitment, retention, belonging, and trust at foundations and nonprofits. Participants will learn to simplify and reduce written communication by 20-40% without “dumbing it down” or removing important content. Many foundations want to support nonprofits that have staff who are non-native English speakers or who come from diverse academic backgrounds. However, foundations often unknowingly exclude their intended audiences by using unnecessarily complex language in everything from requests for proposals to face-to-face conversations. Even translations can be inaccessible if they are long and complex.
Participants will:
- Gain an awareness of the challenges of simplifying language, and issues of language power and privilege.
- Learn about using ChatGPT and other technology to support accessible communication.
- Discuss the impacts of making communication easier to understand and how it impacts target audiences at each participant’s organization.
- Learn and practice simplifying skills individually and in small groups using real Foundation communication.

CF Basics: Where Did We Come From?

Terri Johnson, Indiana Philanthropy Alliance (retired); Diane Miller, CEO Net; Steve Joul, CG Consulting Group
& Nancy Van Milligen, Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque

Community foundations have come a long way from the single unrestricted fund of the original community foundations. Our history has had a big impact on how a modern community foundation operates. Join us for conversations about the key elements of our history including how government has affected the operations of a community foundation. We will close with the path we have taken that resulted in the community leadership role embraced by today’s community foundations.

10:15 – 10:30am

Networking Break and Visit Exhibitors

10:30 – 11:30am

Breakout Session #2

Key Elements In Building and Maintaining a High-Performance Foundation Team!

Stephen P Warren, Community Foundation of West Texas

What do you have in common with Michael Jordan? Superstars like M.J. have talent, ability, knowledge, and drive. Add passion, and such stars push to their personal and team limits then recover. I call this the 75-110% Rule. Much like a workout, push to 110% personal capacity and cool off after to 75%. It works great in athletics and in business. The rule examines mannerisms, routines, rewards, performance, and rewards and then creates a balance when seeking 110% and recovery of 75%. Whether in sports arenas or foundation offices, high-performance can be a normal function of your daily methodologies. In our ever-increasing responsibilities serving our communities, our budgets grow slowly, so increasing performance allows your foundation to achieve more with fewer staff. Yet, how do you accomplish this feat without burnout? This session will discover how to perform at 110%, discover our creative side, and help you reduce the effects of burnout.

Delivering High Impact When Financial Returns Are Low

Brad Ward, Foundant Technologies; Sarah McKinney, Athens Area Community Foundation; Chris Quaka, Benton Community Foundation & Aubrey Patterson, Hutchinson Community Foundation

Join our panel of community foundation leaders representing diverse sizes and community types, as they share their experiences of delivering outsized impact within the recent evolving financial landscape. This session will delve into key considerations before implementing changes due to financial downturns, effective communication strategies with stakeholders, and measures to safeguard your organization in the face of uncertainty. Come away with valuable insights and practical advice to help your community foundation thrive, no matter the economic climate.

Supported by Graystone Consulting

Faith in Community: A Guide for Philanthropic Investment

Kristen Cambell , PACE-Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement

Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) just completed a three-year grant making and learning initiative exploring philanthropic investment at the intersection of faith and democracy (FIAD). One of its most important findings demonstrates the critical civic infrastructure and support for community resilience that faith organizations provide, especially in rural America and communities of color. In this interactive session, PACE will share its learnings and findings and offer practical guidance from its own investment experience.

Grantee Feedback: How To Listen, Reflect, and Redirect

Candace Krell, The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation

You may think your grantees are happy with your grantmaking process, but have you asked them? Find out what happens when you do, with insight from one community foundation -the largest in Appalachia- that sought to discover exactly how they might be unintentionally discouraging diversity and creating barriers to funding. You’ll learn about their initial grantmaking strategy and the pain points they encountered within it, the organized approach they took to gather grantee feedback, and the practical steps they took to incorporate that feedback and other lessons in their new direction. Come ready to reflect on your own grantmaking process, and to leave with a better understanding of the pain points within it, as well as how to resolve them in step with your grantee partners’ needs and wishes.

Succession Planning: Why It’s Never Too Early to Start Thinking About It

Steve Alley, Ekstrom Alley Clontz and Associates

As perpetual organizations, community foundations face several specific, unique challenges related to succession planning. These challenges can be particularly acute for foundations that are replacing long-time staff leaders at the executive director level and elsewhere within the organization, and even replacing board members. We’ll bring examples from our experience working with a number of foundations that have gone through this transition, as well as hear from staff leaders who are confronting the challenge today.

CF Basics: Fund Management

Terri Johnson, Indiana Philanthropy Alliance (retired) & Sarah Aguirre Origer, New Pluralists Collaborative

Fund management is complicated and often confusing. This session will review the types of funds community foundations handle, how each fund is defined, and the management issues involved in each type of fund. The presenters will review the laws and regulations that are relevant to different fund types.

11:30am – 1:00pm

Lunch Plenary | Julia Fabris McBride, Kansas Leadership Center

When Everyone Leads: How Our Toughest Challenges Get Seen and Solved

Leadership is not about authority and position. Leadership is actually an activity—small actions taken in moments of opportunity. That means everyone can lead. You can lead, no matter where you sit in your company or community. And when more people feel empowered to see, and seize our moments to lead, we make more progress on our most important challenges. When Everyone Leads is a new book from Bard Press and the Kansas Leadership Center. It’s a resource that helps tap your power and unleash capacity among your peers and teams. Check out this video. Then, join us in conversation with the co-author. Discover new ways to move forward on what matters most.
Leave with energy and insight about
• Leadership in The Gap between big concerns and bold aspirations.
• Common barriers to leadership and how to get around them.
• Leadership starts with you and must engage others.
• Moving forward on what matters most.
• Making leadership less risky for others.
• Building cultures where everyone leads.

1:00 –2:00pm

Meet the Exhibitors

1:30-2:00pm | Unleash Your Stress: Join Foundant Technologies and Hapi Dog Therapy for a Pawsome Stress Relief Break!

2:00 – 3:00pm

Breakout Session #3

From Vision to Victory: Mastering the Art of Community Project Execution

Abby Stockebrand, CrossAlign Consulting, LLC & Kari Mailloux, Hutchinson Community Foundation

Discover the keys to successful community improvement projects with our enlightening session. This informative presentation aims to equip community foundations with the tools and strategies necessary to bring their visions to life, ensuring that every project achieves its full potential. Acknowledging the challenges many community projects face during project execution, our session delves into a comprehensive overview of the process, sharing examples and highlighting common pitfalls. You’ll learn valuable insights on structuring your projects for success, keeping stakeholders engaged, and navigating the complexities that often arise during implementation. Throughout the session, we’ll discuss the essential elements of community project management and share proven techniques for overcoming obstacles. By mastering the art of execution, your community foundation will be well-prepared to transform ambitious ideas into tangible, lasting improvements for the communities you serve. Join us for this valuable learning experience and embark on the journey from vision to victory, fostering a brighter future for your community.

Working Across Sectors to Advance Collaborative Impact

Len Bartel, Mary Thomas, CFLeads & Scott Marquardt, Southwest Initiative Foundation

As local leaders and connectors, community foundations understand that no single organization can solve the complex issues our communities face and that they must work with a variety of community partners to influence the policies, systems, and structures in the communities they serve.  This session will explore the building blocks for doing this work in a thoughtful, inclusive way to create lasting positive change. Participants will learn how to leverage tools like the Framework for Community Leadership and the Community Leadership Assessment Tool to build strong cross-sector partnerships that lead to community impact. This will be a moderated panel discussion exploring practical examples of successful cross-sector partnerships.

How to Avoid Random Acts of Marketing

Lori Bower & Caitlin King, BowerComm

Feel like your communications are scattered? Wishing people knew your Foundation exists? Creating awareness and moving people to action takes careful thought and planning. Using examples from several community foundations, Lori will show you how to develop a killer communications plan that makes real impact. You’ll see how to set measurable objectives, get inside your audiences’ heads, create a compelling narrative, and deploy proven tactics that move donors, nonprofits, community partners, and professional advisors to action.

Giving Circles at Community Foundations: A People- Powered Approach to Building Trust, Equity & Community Impact

Tyeshia “Ty” Wilson, Philanthropy Together

Discover the potential of giving circles as a flexible and powerful philanthropic tool for your organization. Join us to explore how this community-led model can help your foundation increase community engagement, diversify your donor base, build close partnerships with grassroots nonprofits, and promote trust-based philanthropy principles. Philanthropy Together will guide you through the ways in which giving circles can help community foundations (regardless of size or type) connect with their purpose, people, programs, and position in the community. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to enhance your grantmaking efforts with the help of giving circles.

Community Foundation Assessment Tool

Karl Samp & Steve Joul, CG Consulting Group

How do you know whether or not your board, staff and daily work are moving the needle. This session will provide an opportunity for participants to use the Community Foundation Assessment Tool to assist them with understanding their foundation’s core strengths and opportunities for improvement. This tool is ideal for assisting a community foundation with strategic planning and creating a path forward for their foundations. Tools for assessing phases of development and a framework to understand the growth and development of community foundations.

CF Basics: Technical Stuff You Need to Know

Terri Johnson, Indiana Philanthropy Alliance (retired) & Sarah Aguirre Origer, New Pluralists Collaborative

Tax code, Treasury regulations, UPMIFA, variance power, Pension Protection Act, FASB guidelines! Community foundations operate in a complex world of laws and regulations. This session will cover each of these including how to craft a fund agreement to meet the laws and regulations. Bring your questions.

3:00 – 5:45pm

Networking Break and Visit Exhibitors

3:00-3:30pm | Unleash Your Stress: Join Foundant Technologies and Hapi Dog Therapy for a Pawsome Stress Relief Break!

3:00 – 5:45pm

The Lawyer Is In | Council on Foundations Staff

3:15 – 4:15pm

Kansas Community Foundations Annual Meeting

5:45pm

Day 2 Adjourn

Dinner on your own