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August 2019
Grantwriting for Success
Go beyond the basics of grantwriting with Tamela Spicer. Gather with other grantseekers and nonprofit professionals in this workshop curated to give you the opportunity to develop your grantwriting skills. Bring your ideas for potential grant proposals to this full-day seminar where we'll go step-by-step through the process of writing a grant — with Tamela’s professional experience to assist you along the way! To supplement your skills, this class will provide in-depth guidance on proposal development, tips on grantwriting language…
Find out more »Nonprofit Board Certification
The Nonprofit Board Certification Program offers guidance for those serving or planning to serve on nonprofit boards. This engaging training, led by Tamela Spicer, provides opportunities for learning, discussion, and practice. Regardless of experience, you'll gain valuable knowledge on how to become a more strategic organizational leader. The program covers the following topics: The challenges facing nonprofits and their boards The roles, responsibilities and legal duties of the board Nonprofit board structures and effective practices Nonprofit strategies for funding and…
Find out more »Equitable Evaluation: Whose Voice Counts?
Join us as we explore how working together can benefit both the foundation and the nonprofit, and make evaluation practices more equitable for all.
Find out more »Harnessing the Power of Giving Tuesday
You know that Giving Tuesday is an annual day of generosity, but how does fit within your organization’s fund development strategy? And how can you maximize the effectiveness of your Giving Tuesday campaign to build social capital, development capital, and mission awareness? Join the Johnson Center's Tamela Spicer and Karen Hoekstra as they share best practices for leveraging the “megaphone effect” of Giving Tuesday for your own local campaign. You’ll walk away with simple, actionable ideas for harnessing the power of the…
Find out more »Getting the Word Out: Media Services for Nonprofit Organizations
This event is part of the Johnson Center's FREE Brown Bag Lunch & Learn series The Community Media Center (CMC) offers a wide variety of communication tools to local nonprofit organizations, many free of charge — and many you may recognize from listening to WYCE, reading The Rapidian, or catching a program on GRTV. Since their last presentation at the Johnson Center in 2015, the CMC has added new opportunities and programs to help nonprofit professionals further their mission. Join…
Find out more »September 2019
Leadership Lab Series: Building a Culture of Inclusive Leadership
The Nonprofit Leadership Lab series is designed to help you elevate your workplace practice and grow your capacity for strong, adaptive leadership. This higher-level training program will prepare nonprofit practitioners of every background to build dynamic, collaborative organizations for change.
Find out more »How to Use Data Tools to Advance Your Mission
How to Use Data Tools to Advance Your Mission will help you understand how to use data in the daily life of your organization. You’ll leave prepared to make the case for data-informed decision making and able to point to and use a variety of online tools for finding and learning from data.
Find out more »Build and Maintain Grantee Relationships (webinar)
As the issues that foundations address become more complex, so too become the relationships that grantmakers must build and maintain with grantees. When nonprofits begin to collaborate, partner and scale, grantmakers must adapt to become connectors and conveners while still managing the power dynamics of being the one with the checkbook. If this is one of the issues that keeps you up at night, join this webinar to hear from your grantmaking peers who have advice to share from their…
Find out more »The “You” Portfolio: How to Invest in Yourself
This event is part of the Johnson Center's FREE Brown Bag Lunch & Learn series In the nonprofit sector, it is common to hear conversations about the importance of cultivating diversified funding streams to build sustainable organizations. But how can we apply that same concept in our own personal and professional lives? How can we build more sustainable financial selves? According to CNN Money, more than 44 million Americans have a side hustle. The days of depending on one source of…
Find out more »October 2019
How to Tell Your Story to Maximize Impact
Help you identify your organization's best story and explore ways to share it with your donors and stakeholders to drive your mission forward.
Find out more »Philanthropy 101
Philanthropy 101 is a two-day learning experience that helps ground new professionals in the basics of foundations, nonprofits, and grantmaking and the field of philanthropy. As a participant in this course, you will gain a deeper understanding of what philanthropy is, what makes it distinct, and why it’s important. You will also examine how your role fits within the broader philanthropic ecosystem and how the sector interacts with other sectors. The course introduces many concepts essential to philanthropic work, including…
Find out more »November 2019
What It Really Means to Be an Executive Director
Learn how to move out of the role of chief hero and into the role of chief host, facilitating the success of your entire team.
Find out more »December 2019
Nonprofit Board Certification
The Nonprofit Board Certification Program offers guidance for those serving or planning to serve on nonprofit boards. This engaging training, led by Tamela Spicer, provides opportunities for learning, discussion, and practice. Regardless of experience, you'll gain valuable knowledge on how to become a more strategic organizational leader. The program covers the following topics: The challenges facing nonprofits and their boards The roles, responsibilities and legal duties of the board Nonprofit board structures and effective practices Nonprofit strategies for funding and…
Find out more »Financial Analysis in Grantmaking
Learn how to conduct a thorough, effective analysis of your organizational and programmatic financial information to improve funding decisions.
Find out more »Managing Your Annual Fund
Is your annual fund program adequately meeting your organization's fiscal needs? Do you have a systematic plan in place to identify prospects, request for support, involve your board, and increase gifts from one year to the next? In this workshop led by Tamela Spicer, participants will walk through a step-by-step process to managing a more effective annual fund program. Key Concepts: Effective annual fund planning for sustainability Tips for writing fundraising appeals Cultivating and stewarding donors Cost: $60 Free for…
Find out more »Research Meets Practice
This event is part of the Johnson Center's FREE Brown Bag Lunch & Learn series Please join us for a showcase of the research of alumni of the GVSU’s School of Public, Nonprofit and Health Administration. This presentation will fuel a discussion for how research can influence practice and how nonprofit organizations can be better consumers of research. The student papers will be published in the SPNHA Review, and free copies will be distributed to all event attendees. Presenters and their…
Find out more »January 2020
Advancing Equity: A Case Study
This course will help illuminate what’s involved in integrating an explicit equity focus into your grantmaking, from highlighting key decision points to navigating potential trade-offs and challenges.
Find out more »February 2020
Grantwriting for Success
Go beyond the basics of grantwriting with Tamela Spicer. Gather with other grantseekers and nonprofit professionals in this workshop curated to give you the opportunity to develop your grantwriting skills. Bring your ideas for potential grant proposals to this full-day seminar where we'll go step-by-step through the process of writing a grant — with Tamela’s professional experience to assist you along the way! To supplement your skills, this class will provide in-depth guidance on proposal development, tips on grantwriting language…
Find out more »Nonprofit Executive Coaching (7 sessions)
The Johnson Center's small-group Executive Coaching Program brings together a cohort of leaders from different backgrounds and experience levels to forge a professional support network that will last well beyond our final session. By learning with — and from — each other over the course of eight weeks, we find new ways to tackle intractable challenges within our organizations and embrace our own professional development.
Find out more »Proposal Analysis in Grantmaking
Explore how proposal analysis contributes to your foundation’s broader strategy and acquire the tools necessary for conducting a thorough proposal review.
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