The Nonprofit Alliance: Essential Leadership Lab

January 2025 | Essential Leadership Lab Reunion
All past, current, and registered-for-the-future Lab participants are INVITED and WELCOME! The Lab Reunion will be a time to learn, network, and celebrate the leaders of our sector.

February 2025 | Leading in a Polarized World
Our world feels more polarized every day. As leaders, we need to be able to navigate this reality to ensure that our teams work together respectfully, regardless of personal opinions. We are responsible for maintaining the integrity of our missions, for ourselves and for our many constituencies. When do we open discussions, when do we set them aside, and how do we guide ourselves, our teams, and our organizations through these polarized times?

March 2025 | Women in Leadership (Not Just for Women!)
Studies show that women often do not feel supported in the workplace. Although nonprofit staffing is more than 75% female, fewer than half of the C-level leadership positions are held by women in nonprofits. Together, we will explore how that lack of support manifests in our teams and organizations, what better support and development could look like, and what we can do it about – both as women and as allies.

April 2025 | HOT TOPIC
What is the most perplexing, vexing, or critical topic you must grapple with right now? Lab participants have input and one HOT TOPIC will be selected for the focus for April.

May 2025 | Creating Culture in a Remote World: What have we learned?
We will be 5 years away from the start of the pandemic and hybrid and remote work have become the norm. This session will be a chance to step back, assess best practices, and consider how our colleagues have tackled some of the challenges.

June 2025 | Ethical Storytelling
Telling the story of missions has evolved radically over the past few years, impacted by the pandemic, the rising awareness of ongoing inequities in our society, and the role that storytelling can play in furthering our organizations’ missions and creating a more responsible world. Join us to learn the most up-to-date state of ethical storytelling, including the ethical use of AI in generating those stories.

July 2025 | Motivating a Workforce
We have got our eyes on the prize, stretching to meet our goals. We expect a lot from our staff, and we cannot do it without each of them. How can you motivate a diverse team of individuals to keep them productive, efficient, and committed to the work? This session will explore current shifts in workforce motivation theory, with real-world discussion of what other organizations and agencies find effective.

August 2025 | HOT TOPIC
What is the most perplexing, vexing, or critical topic you must grapple with right now? Lab participants have input, and one HOT TOPIC will be selected as the focus for August.

September 2025 | Navigating Change
Do you feel like the rate of new approaches to our work has accelerated? Are you facing a shift in your personal work or in the structure of your team or organization? Change is inevitable, but how you manage that change will determine your (and your team’s or organization’s) future success. Learn cutting-edge concepts of change management and how to guide teams through change. Work with your Lab cohort to determine how these ideas apply to your current work.

October 2025 | Leadership Pipeline and the Next Generation of Leaders
As leaders, it is our job to regularly step back from the day-to-day and envision our work—and our teams—in the future. Are you identifying your next generation of leaders? What can we do now to ensure there are top-notch people ready to lead our organizations five, ten, or even twenty years from now?

November 2025 | Breaking Down Silos
We all know how successful a campaign can be with buy-in from more than one department. Our own team’s work can be stronger with support from other teams. In this session, we will explore success stories of work “across silos,” the factors that made it possible, and the results. We will identify places in our own work that would benefit from the input or support of someone outside our department and steps to overcome the perceived barriers.

December 2025 | Providing Challenging Feedback
It’s only human to avoid giving difficult feedback. Yet, it is crucial to deliver that feedback to help your staff grow, deliver, and be the best contributors they can be. In this session, we will consider recent research on best practices in giving feedback, and each develop our own style for giving feedback that feels authentic – and do-able.