Outcomes
Conference

April 6-8, 2027
Jacksonville, FL

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Outcomes Conference Learning Experiences 2027

Discover the transformative learning experiences available at The Outcomes Conference 2027.

Our expert thought leaders bring their best to equip you for excellence in Christian nonprofit leadership!

Breakthrough Workshops

107, 1.5-hour workshops in 9 core educational tracks

The Leadership Track

Influence the thinking, behavior, and development of self, teams, and boards.

Personal Leadership

17 workshops

1. Renewing your Mind and Soul

An interactive workshop designed to help leaders identify sources of weariness, engage in biblical rhythms that renew the mind, and develop daily practices that refresh the soul. Through key passages of Scripture, guided reflection, and practical application, participants will be encouraged to live and lead from the wellspring of living water. Outcomes: 1) Identify patterns of spiritual weariness, 2) Engage with biblical truths to renew mindsets, and 3) Develop daily practices for spiritual refreshment.

FACULTY: Gina Holm | Director, Navigators Life & Leadership Coaching, The Navigators, and | Margaret Fitzwater | Director of Strategic Partnerships | The Navigators

Basic

2. Renewing the Foundations of Leadership

Leadership erosion often starts unseen – in worldview, ethics, character, and eroded expectations. This session unpacks the deep foundations beneath leadership, showing how renewing them restores trust, clarity, and life-giving leadership. Outcomes: 1) Identify how their own worldview unconsciously shapes their leadership decisions and actions, 2) Recognize how mismatched expectations erode trust, credibility, and belief systems over time, and 3) Commit to one practice that renews clarity, character, or faith in their leadership.

FACULTY: Bill Darpino | CEO | Superhero Sidekick

Intermediate

3. Renewal for Sustainable Leadership

Drawing from Alan Fadling’s book An Unhurried Leader, discover practical rhythms that help leaders overcome chronic depletion, lead from spiritual fullness, and sustain healthy, effective leadership over time. Outcomes: 1) Recognize signs of leadership depletion before burnout occurs, 2) Distinguish healthy leadership from chronic overfunctioning, and 3) Create a practical plan for sustainable renewal.

FACULTY: Alan Fadling | Founder | Unhurried Living

Basic

4. Spacious Leadership & Emotional Intelligence

Toxic leadership has no space to notice, pause, or empathize. Emotional intelligence needs that space. Learn how spacious leadership renews your interior life, so you respond like Christ rather than react under pressure. Outcomes: 1) Analyze how reactive, toxic leadership patterns diminish emotional intelligence and erode relational trust, 2) Evaluate the interdependence between spacious leadership and the four domains of emotional intelligence, and 3) Construct a self-regulation practice to expand the interval between emotional stimulus and response.

FACULTY: Dr. Yulee Lee | Chief Executive Officer | Khora Collective

Intermediate

5. Leading through Story

In a world hungry for authenticity, leaders who share their personal stories – especially those rooted in faith – create deeper trust, model humility, and multiply their influence. This workshop explores how storytelling, particularly sharing personal testimony, can be a transformative leadership tool. Outcomes: 1) Perceive the biblical and relational power of testimony in leadership, 2) Be able to use storytelling to build trust and express humility, 3) Apply techniques for sharing personal stories with clarity and purpose.

FACULTY: Tricia Bell | Chief Legal Officer | Christian Care Ministry (MediShare)

Intermediate

6. Renewing Trust Through Authentic Presence

Many Christian nonprofit leaders quietly trade their God-given calling for a role that simply works. This workshop helps leaders excavate their authentic experience and voice, learning to show up without showing off in ministry leadership. Outcomes 1) Reflect honestly on where ministry demands have buried your God-given design, gifts and calling, 2) Apply the RENEW framework to excavate your original leadership calling and voice, and 3) Develop habits to embody and sustain authentic presence with boards, donors, staff, and teams.

FACULTY: Jessica Lalley | President | Jessica Lalley International

Intermediate

7. Trust the Updraft

Isaiah 40 encourages you to “mount up with wings like eagles.” How do you “lock-in” and wait for the Spirit’s updraft to make you soar? Outcomes: 1) Eagles don’t flap their wings, they “lock” them. Discover trust as the lock for leaders to soar, 2) Eagles wait for the updraft. Recognize how leaders gain wisdom in life’s waiting periods, 3) Uneven surface heat and wind create updrafts. See how God uses “uneven” areas of life to ready you to soar.

FACULTY: Dr. Linda Cunning | CEO | New Horizons of SW Florida

Intermediate

8. Before You Pour Out

Christian leaders spend their lives pouring into others—but what is pouring into them? Discover practical ways to engage, remember, pray, and live God’s Word so Scripture renews you and overflows into those you lead. Outcomes: 1) Identify how God’s Word renews our minds, hearts, prayers, and leadership, 2) Practice engaging Scripture through prayer, meditation, application, and memory, 3) Develop sustainable Scripture rhythms that foster personal renewal and overflow into others.

FACULTY: Jeremy Kluth | Founder & Bible Memory Coach | Scripture Alive

Basic

9. The Leaders We’re Becoming

A highly interactive, Gen Z-led session creating space for emerging Gen Z leaders to connect, share real leadership experiences, and learn from one another. Featuring peer discussion and community-building, the session reminds young leaders that they do not have to navigate leadership alone. Outcomes: 1) Build meaningful connections with other Gen Z leaders navigating similar leadership challenges and seasons, 2) Learn from experiences, challenges, and lessons of other Gen Z leaders, 3) Identify areas for personal leadership growth.

FACULTY: Natalie Loos | Director of Ministry Advancement | IHS Global

Basic

10. Renew Your Leadership Impact

Your leadership has an effect beyond your intentions. Explore how stress responses, blind spots, and self-preservation shape trust, communication, and culture—and learn how renewed self-awareness strengthens the people you lead. Outcomes: 1) Identify how your leadership tendencies and stress responses affect others, 2) Evaluate how self-awareness shapes communication, trust, and team culture, and 3) Select practical actions that renew leadership health and employee engagement.

Basic

11. The R.E.S.T. You Need for the Life You Lead

Leaders carry a unique weight. They shoulder responsibility, vision, and the constant pull of caring for others. Yet often, the very people who pour out the most are running on empty. The R.E.S.T. You Need for the Life You Lead is a transformative workshop designed to help leaders reclaim God-given rest without abandoning their calling or momentum. Outcomes: 1) Recognize the warning signs of exhaustion, 2) Reframe R.E.S.T. as a leadership strength, and 3) Gain practical rhythms for real life.

FACULTY: Nathan LaGrange | Executive Director | Oasis Rest International

Basic

12. When Calling and Crisis Collide

This workshop equips key ministry leaders with practical and biblical tools to navigate personal crisis without abandoning their calling. This session strengthens resilience, clarifies calling, and equips leaders to move forward with faith and steadiness. Outcomes: 1) Apply a biblical framework for understanding trials and testing in leadership, 2) Implement strategies to lead others with integrity while navigating personal storms, and 3) Stay spiritually anchored in seasons of instability, recognizing Christ’s presence and help in crisis.

FACULTY: Dr. Peggy Banks | Anchored Virtual Trauma Counselor | Anchored Virtual

Intermediate

13. The Life/Work Rhythms of Jesus

Jesus modeled sustainable leadership by weaving intentional rhythms of prayer, purpose, rest, deep relationships, and servant empowerment throughout his ministry. Leading like Jesus means protecting your soul to ensure lasting impact. Outcomes: 1) Recognize how Jesus wove ministry demands with communion with the Father, demonstrating that intimacy with God preceded and sustained his work, 2) Recognize common cultural and personal habits (e.g., busyness, hurry, self-reliance, performance) that disrupt healthy spiritual rhythms, and 3) Craft your personal Life Rhythm Story.

FACULTY: Dr. Johnny Parker | Director of the Hope Counseling and Coaching Center | First Baptist Church of Glenarden International

Basic

14. Learning From the Underlines

We’re inundated with information; podcasts, articles, tweets, and books telling us what to do to improve our leadership. Vonna shares key takeaways she has underlined in materials from a veritable “Who’s Who” of leadership authors in one jam-packed session. Outcomes 1) Process and synthesize information to apply it in your context, 2) Determine one or two specific next steps to positively influence your leadership, and 3) Apply insights from discussion on best practices in leadership.

FACULTY: Vonna Laue | CCNL | Global Director of Operations/CFO | TEAM

Basic

15. Study Deeply, Think Biblically, Soar

By learning to study Scripture deeply, participants renew their thinking through God’s truth, gaining wisdom, clarity, and spiritual strength to soar in their faith individually while contributing to greater unity, discernment, and impact corporately. Outcomes: 1) Discover inductive Bible study principles to observe, interpret, and apply Scripture effectively, 2) Practice techniques to accurately interpret biblical passages and apply God’s truth to everyday life, and 3) Grow in your ability to teach and encourage others through Scripture.

Basic

16. Spiritual Warfare for Organizational Leaders

When the enemy targets our missions through fear, division, and lies, we need more than awareness — we need practice. Learn to recognize personal and organizational strongholds and actively tear them down through Scripture and community. Outcomes: 1) Recognize biblical truth about the enemy, who we are, and our mighty warrior God, 2) Experience an intentional learning community and gain tools to start one in your organization, and 3) Practice discerning and tearing down organizational strongholds using Scripture-based group exercises.

Basic

17. Evangelism made Practical

Leaders will receive practical steps to renew their vision and fulfill Christ’s mission to “seek and save the lost.” Effective and non-threatening ways to share your faith will strengthen your ministry and build a thriving spiritual culture. Outcomes: 1) Discover a simple, practical way to confidently and naturally begin a gospel conversation with anyone, 2) Discover the biblical foundation for courageously sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, and 3) Apply the power of “passion” in making Christ known to unbelievers

FACULTY: Eddy Hallock | CEO | Stoller Foundation

Basic

Executive Leadership

16 workshops

1. 8 Facets of Mosaic Leadership

A faith-driven leadership model, inspired by the life of Moses, designed to assist leaders in navigating criticism and delegation while building sustainable capacity for renewal for their organizations. Outcomes: 1) Identify your organization’s current leadership facet using the 8 Facets model, 2) Gain strategies to lead through uncertainty and criticism without absorbing it as personal leadership failure, and 3) Perceive the necessary steps to build a delegation structure that removes single leader dependency.

Intermediate

2. Multiplying Mission through a Thriving Culture

Discover research-backed leadership practices that help Christian organizations build flourishing workplaces where people thrive, teams align, and mission impact grows. Leave with practical tools you can apply immediately. Outcomes: 1) Identify leadership practices that create flourishing workplaces and strengthen mission effectiveness, 2) Assess your culture to identify the highest-impact opportunities for flourishing, and 3) Develop a practical action plan to strengthen culture, engagement, and kingdom impact.

FACULTY: Jay Bransford | President and CEO | Best Christian Workplaces

Basic

3. From Mission to Momentum

Growing organizations often outpace their systems. Learn a practical framework to assess organizational health and strengthen leadership, people, finances, governance, and operations so your mission can grow without creating burnout, confusion, or unnecessary risk. Outcomes: 1) Assess organizational health across leadership, people, finances, governance, and operations, 2) Identify capacity constraints preventing sustainable growth and mission effectiveness, and 3) Build a practical organizational health action plan for long-term impact.

FACULTY: Nicole Kirkorian Elmes | President | Missionwell

Intermediate

4. Don’t Let AI Automate Ambiguity

AI will not repair an unclear operating model – it will accelerate it. This practical workshop equips leaders to clarify outcomes, decision rights, workflows, and accountability so innovation strengthens rather than distorts their mission. Outcomes: 1) Participants will identify one source of operational ambiguity in a mission-critical workflow, 2) Participants will use root-cause analysis to distinguish operational symptoms from underlying causes, and 3) Participants will define one targeted improvement with an owner, measure, and human safeguard.

FACULTY: Stewart Severino | Head of Innovation & Digital Mission | The Navigators

Advanced

5. Clear Roles, Real Trust: Healthy Teams

Barna’s team health work points to two drivers: clarity of roles and the level of internal trust among leadership. This session turns that research into a practical redesign for mission-driven teams, drawn from Fervor’s own rebuild. Outcomes: 1) Understand Barna’s two drivers, role clarity and internal trust, 2) Diagnose where ambiguity and mistrust are costing your mission, and 3) Apply a practical model for redesigning roles and rebuilding trust.

FACULTY: Mike Farag | CEO + Chief Strategy Officer | Fervor Marketing

Basic

6. Leadership from the Shepherd’s Perspective

The timeless responsibilities in God’s Word related to shepherding well are key to leading and influencing effectively. Join us to develop a common leadership language grounded in Scripture and based on three pillars of shepherding well – Provision, Protection, and Presence. Outcomes: 1) Recognize shepherding as a universal godly leadership principle, 2) View Provision, Protection, and Presence as key responsibilities of genuine shepherding, and 3) Establish absolute surrender to the Father as a requirement to be godly shepherds.

Advanced

7. Longevity with Vivacity

In a world where leadership tenures are shrinking, apply tools and insights to extend them. Learn the signs of burnout and practical tools to push against it. The goal is not only to stay in a position, but to thrive. Outcomes: 1) Discover statistics and trends in executive leadership positions for nonprofits, 2) Identify characteristics of burnout and how it appears to those around you, and 3) Acquire practical tools to implement boundaries and care to lengthen tenures.

FACULTY: Dr. Ashley Graves | CEO | Woman To Woman Pregnancy Center

Advanced

8. Scale Without Breaking

Growth can expand impact or expose weakness. Learn how the J-Curve helps Christian nonprofits pause, prune, pilot, and renew capacity before scaling mission impact faithfully. Outcomes: 1) Identify why sustainable growth often requires a season of renewal first, 2) Apply the J-Curve Tool to assess organizational readiness for scale, and 3) Choose a next step to renew capacity before expanding mission impact.

Basic

9. Expedite Mission-Aligned Decision Making

How often does your board or leadership team get bogged down discussing what your organization should or should not do? Get clarity and avoid mission drift by defining guiding principles to ensure mission-aligned decision-making continues for decades to come. Outcomes: 1) Evaluate your organization’s level of mission clarity and resilience, 2) Define mission drift, and discern areas that are not clear, where there is debate or differing opinions, and 3) Draft guiding principles.

FACULTY: Becca Spradlin | Founder, Author, & Podcast Host | On Mission Advisors

Advanced

10. Equipping Gen-Z Employees for Success

Taught by a Gen-Z employee, this class introduces principles and strategies to help organization leaders/supervisors invest in younger employees to help them achieve success. This can also help increase longevity of an institution. Outcomes: 1) Be equipped to explain values and workplace expectations that commonly influence Gen-Z employees, 2) Be equipped to apply practical coaching strategies that foster growth for Gen-Z workers, and 3) Be equipped to reform workplace communication practices to better support trust and accountability.

Basic

11. Re: New Engagement & Performance

The way you lead is a powerful lever on your people’s commitment and contributions. This session reveals three things’ people need to be their best and give their best. Explore leadership practices to unlock your team’s maximum buy-in, resilience, and potential. Outcomes: 1) Purpose: Redirect focus to turn busywork into worthywork and unlock resilience, 2) Power: Redirect leader’s role and practices to increase potency and ownership, and 3) Pause: Create and direct oscillation (exertion/recovery) for peak performance and resilience.

FACULTY: Dr. Andrew Johnston | Owner | Johnston Consulting / DRJC

Advanced

12. The Power of C.H.E.

The Power of C.H.E. challenges leaders to renew their minds through Curiosity, Humility and Empathy. This stirs innovation, builds trust, and deepens connections as we grow together and steward Christ-like team cultures. Outcomes: 1) Discover how curiosity drives growth through innovation as leaders empower others to think boldly, 2) Recognize humble leadership behaviors that build trust and influence across your organization, and 3) Discover empathy as strength that creates connection and flexible cultures of reciprocity without favoritism.

Basic

13. Kingdom Collaboration for Maximal Outcome

The very nature of God’s kingdom is collaboration. Why is it still hard to do if it is God’s will? And what is the best way to maximize outcomes? Let’s learn about the barriers and the opportunities together. Outcomes: 1) Discover God’s desire on collaboration, 2) Recognize the opportunities of good kingdom collaboration, and 3) Know how to best identify and handle the difficulties of collaboration.

Basic

14. Renewing Processes for Greater Effectiveness

Do delays, unmet expectations, bottlenecks, or ineffective tools slow your ministry? This workshop will help you improve consistency, reduce effort and cost, and renew your processes for greater impact. Outcomes: 1) Discover a proven method to increase ministry effectiveness, 2) Map processes that need renewal to reveal delays, breakdowns, and inefficiencies, and 3) Apply practical tools to refresh priorities, renew workflows, and improve outcomes.

FACULTY: Nate Miller | Team Leader – Transformation Center of Excellence | Cru

Basic

15. Renew Leadership, Revive Ministry Culture

Christian nonprofit executives face relentless pressure that can drain leaders and weaken culture. This workshop uses biblical wisdom and workplace research to help leaders renew personal capacity, rebuild trust, strengthen teams, and cultivate flourishing ministries. Outcomes: 1) Diagnose pressures draining leader capacity and weakening trust, morale, and organizational resilience, 2) Identify research-based inspirational leadership behaviors that renew engagement and strengthen flourishing ministry culture, and 3) Apply biblical practices to renew personal leadership, rebuild trust, and strengthen team resilience.

FACULTY: Al Lopus | Cofounder & Board Chair | Best Christian Workplaces

Basic

16. A New Path: Succession Success

What would successful succession look like? Gain insight from our experience and a blueprint of succession planning that addresses the incoming and outgoing CEO intentionally and collaboratively working with the Board, donors, staff, and volunteers. Outcomes: 1) A new job description: writing current and future CEO job descriptions, 2) A renewed trust: building trust between the new and old CEO, board, and donors, and 3) A new map: charting and navigating future value and orienting your current balance sheet.

Advanced

Board Governance

8 workshops

1. Around the Board Table

The greatest challenges around the board table aren’t governance, they’re relational. Discover practical strategies to build trust, strengthen board-executive partnerships, and increase mission impact. Mission impact is strengthened when boards are built on trust. Outcomes: 1) Discover what creates trust and meaningful engagement around the board table, 2) Explore ways board members and executive leaders can build stronger partnerships, and 3) Apply practical ideas to create a board culture where people thrive and the mission flourishes.

Basic

2. Renewing the Table: Recruiting a Healthy Board

A healthy board is crucial to organizational success, but board development and recruitment often take a back seat. Explore essentials of board development from recruitment to onboarding to board culture. Build an energized board, ready to advance the mission. Outcomes: 1) Discern what your church or ministry board really needs, 2) Develop a strategy to recruit members based on your unique needs, and 3) Apply insights for onboarding new board recruits to ensure success from day one.

FACULTY: Jake Lapp | Senior Vice President, Member Accountability | ECFA

Intermediate

3. Governing Wisely Through Major Change

Whether responding to external disruption or pursuing a mission-critical transformation strategy, high stakes expose whether a board’s discernment considers the unique demands, its resolve is real, and its oversight is sufficient. Outcomes: 1) Recognize the characteristics that distinguish major, mission-critical change from typical strategies, 2) Apply framework to assess magnitude of change and weigh mission impact against cost of commitment, and 3) Assess whether board discernment, commitment, and oversight meet demands of high-stakes change and required shifts.

FACULTY: Holly Pendleton | Founder and Managing Partner | Kinetic Partners

Advanced

4. When Policies Require a Scalpel, not a Band-Aid

Board governance is the framework through which leaders are chosen, authority is shared and exercised, and large decisions are weighed and made. It is not a separate, “secular” layer atop spiritual leadership. Done rightly, governance is a primary way we practice spiritual stewardship. Outcomes: 1) Be able to manage organizational board dynamics, 2) Recognize the role a board plays versus the role of leadership, 3) Embrace the dance between the sacred and structural side of ministry.

Intermediate

5. Future-Ready Governance for Leaders

Boards ought to focus on the future, but they tend to quickly dive into the weeds. Scenario planning is a useful tool— not by predicting the future, but by preparing for several plausible ones. Outcomes: 1) Discover why it’s difficult for boards to focus on the future, 2) Implement a ten-step scenario planning process, and 3) Mine the scenarios for strategic insight and bold action.

FACULTY: Dr. James Galvin | President | Galvin & Associates, Inc.

Advanced

6. The Four Board Blind Spots

Most boards are missing something, but few can name what it is. This workshop gives CEOs and boards a simple way to assess board makeup, board function, and the next step “forward” toward healthier governance. Outcomes: 1) Identify who and what your board is missing before pressure exposes it, 2) Assess how your board currently leads, reacts, or avoids, and 3) Create one next step toward healthier, more proactive governance.

FACULTY: Ron Henry | Chief Succession Officer | Ministry Transitions, and Vonna Laue | Global Director of Operations / CFO | The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM)

Basic

7. Boardroom EQ: Strengthening Kingdom Governance

Renewal begins within. Discover how emotionally healthy leadership strengthens board relationships, transforms conflict, builds trust, and equips boards and executive leaders to steward God’s mission with wisdom, resilience, and lasting impact. Outcomes: 1) Develop emotionally healthy leadership skills that renew board culture and strengthen differentiated leadership, 2) Identify and overcome relational and structural obstacles that hinder healthy governance and faithful stewardship, 3) Apply emotional intelligence and communication practices that transform conflict, strengthen trust, and cultivate unity.

Intermediate

8. The Renewing Board: Cultivating Healthy Governance

This breakout session is companion to the workshop “Boardroom EQ: Strengthening Kingdom Governance.” It focuses on strengthening trust between boards and leaders through accountability, and implementing proactive governance practices to ensure faithful, long-term stewardship and impact. Outcomes: 1) Know the board’s unique responsibility to renew and safeguard ministry health and mission, 2) Evaluate accountability practices to strengthen trust between boards and executive leaders, 3) Identify intentional governance practices that protect mission through proactive planning and faithful execution.

Intermediate

Sessions offered subject to change, see site for updates.

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The Stewardship Track

Cultivate the resources and talent God provides with transparency and excellence.

Financial Management

9 workshops

1. Fiduciary Excellence Under Financial Constraint

Strategic allocation, risk management, performance evaluation, and reporting are fiduciary pillars, but financial stress changes the stakes. This workshop renews a practical framework for trustees navigating deficits, reserve draws, and spending-policy pressure. Outcomes: 1) Review the four pillars of fiduciary oversight under real financial pressure, 2) Embrace the need for fiduciary excellence in times of financial stress, and 3) Balance liquidity needs against long-horizon investing without abandoning fiduciary discipline.

FACULTY: Bryan Taylor | CEO and Chief Investment Officer | Cornerstone Management

Basic

2. 10 Commandments of Ministry Finance

Financial stewardship is a ministry responsibility that reflects faithful leadership. Learn how to strengthen integrity, transparency, and accountability through sound financial practices, effective communication, and internal controls that build trust and advance kingdom impact. Outcomes: 1) Embrace biblical and organizational stewardship of finances, 2) Strengthen financial integrity through accurate recordkeeping and transparency, and 3) Implement controls and accountability practices for financial oversight.

FACULTY: Joel Santiago | Chief Corporate Banking Officer | ACCU

Basic

3. Measure What Matters

How do ministry leaders measure what truly matters? We will share practical approaches for connecting financial stewardship, operational effectiveness, and ministry outcomes into meaningful metrics that advance mission impact and leadership decision-making. Outcomes: 1) Define key financial, operational, and impact metrics for ministry performance measurement, 2) Recognize common challenges and best practices for integrating metrics across organizational functions, and 3) Develop a practical framework for measuring mission impact within your ministry context.

Advanced

4. Six Numbers every CEO Watches

You don’t need a finance background to read your organization’s vital signs. Discover six numbers that measure financial health: how to calculate them, what each tells you, and where to set your warning line. Outcomes: 1) Calculate six numbers that give a clear picture of your organization’s financial health, using typical finance reporting, 2) Interpret what each number tells you, and where to set your warning line, 3) Create a one-page monthly dashboard your finance team can produce going forward.

FACULTY: Jonathan Chan | Fractional CFO | Trustward

Basic

5. Renew Your Fraud Prevention Defenses

Only 35% of Christian organizations surveyed feel very confident about detecting fraud. Gain practical insights to help you identify common risks in Christian organizations, strengthen your controls, and proactively safeguard your mission. Outcomes: 1) Assess gaps in fraud prevention and controls within Christian nonprofits and churches, 2) Recognize common fraud schemes, red flags, and emerging risks, and 3) Apply proactive controls to renew and strengthen fraud prevention practices.

FACULTY: Nathan Salsbery | Partner | CRI CapinCrouse

Basic

6. Financial Strength and Resiliency Strategies

Financial strength and resiliency help nonprofits navigate changing funding environments, meet growing accountability expectations, and make informed decisions in support of current needs and future opportunities. Outcomes: 1) Identify key practices for strengthening financial health and resiliency, 2) Apply strategies to improve accountability, transparency, and decision-making, and 3) Develop financial practices that prepare organizations for opportunities and challenges.

FACULTY: Melodi Bunting | Senior Manager | Wegner CPAs

Basic

7. Financial Clarity as a Leadership Advantage

Renew your financial clarity. Discover how timely, trustworthy financial information helps ministry leaders make confident decisions, reduce unnecessary leadership burden, and determine which responsibilities to manage internally and which to entrust to others. Outcomes: 1) Recognize the difference between accurate financial reporting and financial information that supports leadership decisions, 2) Evaluate where financial processes create unnecessary delays, uncertainty, and leadership burden, and 3) Apply a stewardship framework for which financial responsibilities to manage internally or entrust externally.

FACULTY: Clay Sandoz | CEO | Wellstead Solutions

Intermediate

8. Accounting, Auditing, and Tax Update

Learn about the latest accounting, financial reporting, and tax developments affecting nonprofits. We’ll discuss accounting standards, new legislation, and IRS updates, with insight to help you plan effectively and strengthen and renew your organization’s impact. Outcomes: 1) Review recent accounting and financial statement reporting changes, 2) Identify tax challenges affecting ministries and plan for the changing environment for exempt organizations, and 3) Formulate strategies for efficient and effective planning and implementation to help ensure compliance.

Basic

9. What the Bank Sees When Reviewing Your Ministry

Every ministry leader has asked a bank for money. Almost none have seen the write-up the bank produced about them afterward. This workshop will put you on the other side of the table! Outcomes: 1) Do the math the bank does: Walk through the simple calculation that determines whether your ministry can afford a loan, 2) See what counts besides the numbers, and 3) Find weak spots before the bank does: Use a short self-review to spot what a bank would flag and what you can fix in six-to-twelve months.

FACULTY: Joel Santiago | Chief Corporate Banking Officer | ACCU

Intermediate

Legal and Risk

8 workshops

1. Two Advisors, One Crisis

When a crisis arrives, your attorney may say, “say nothing.” Your communications advisor may say, “you must respond.” This session puts both advisors in the room — and shows how they reach alignment. Outcomes: 1) Understand what attorney-client privilege protects — and what it doesn’t — during a public crisis, 2) Recognize when silence becomes the story and when legal caution and communications instincts align, and 3) Apply a decision framework for navigating legal and reputational risk when advisors’ instincts differ.

Intermediate

2. Assessing Your Religious Liberty in 2027

The legal terrain for religious entities is evolving, through emerging legislative trends and key Supreme Court cases in this coming term. Understand the landscape and what it means for your ministry organization, including what legal stewardship looks like in response. Outcomes: 1) Glean insights from significant legal updates affecting religious liberty, 2) Recognize how these legal updates practically impact your organization, 3) Identify best practices for stewarding a ministry in light of those legal updates, including common mistakes and pitfalls.

Intermediate

3. One Ministry, Many Risks

Follow one ministry case through cyber, liability, financial, and board questions. Leave with an integrated risk profile, advisor questions, and board-ready summary. Outcomes: 1) Identify connected risks across ministry activity, 2) Integrate coverage, benefits, mission, and governance questions, and 3) Build one board-ready risk summary.

4. Kingdom Lessons from Legal Developments

Glean ministry insights from transformative and encouraging legal developments of the past 30-plus years. Apply renewed kingdom perspectives for more effective cultural engagement and for greater religious exercise protection. Outcomes: 1) Recognize how the law now better protects religious exercise and prohibits discrimination against religious organizations, 2) See how themes underlying these developments align with biblical teaching and can inform effective communication, and 3) Leverage these developments as applied to difficult topics such as sexuality and marriage.

FACULTY: Stuart Lark | Attorney

Basic

5. Watchful & Faithful: Cyber Wisdom in the AI Age

Christian nonprofit leaders will examine emerging AI-agent cyber risks, practice a verification-centered response, and build a 30-60-90-day plan that addresses responsible oversight, protects sensitive data, and preserves human judgment. Outcomes: 1) Recognize how frontier AI models and AI agents create new ministry cyber, privacy, and liability risks, 2) Apply the SHIELD disciplines and verification reflex and protocols to real world ministry scenarios, and 3) Build a practical 30-60-90-day plan for safer and more secure AI ministry operations.

FACULTY: Dr. K McReynolds | Founder & CEO | Attention Inc.

Intermediate

6. When Ministries Become Foreign Agents

Foreign-agent and foreign-funding laws increasingly threaten international ministries. Participants in this session will use a practical framework to assess country exposure, restructure relationships, protect local leaders, and preserve mission continuity without abandoning prudent stewardship. Outcomes: 1) Distinguish registration, funding, agency, and political-activity restrictions across jurisdictions, 2) Apply a country-risk screen before funding or expanding ministry operations, and 3) Develop response options that protect local leaders and preserve mission continuity.

FACULTY: Steve Oakley | Attorney | Oakley Global Consulting, LLC

Intermediate

7. Called To Mitigate Risk?

Christian organizations are called to be wise stewards, but they are also called to advance the Gospel. How do leaders know when prudent risk management protects the mission and when it unintentionally prevents it? Outcomes: 1) Distinguish between legal risk, operational risk, reputational risk, and gospel risk, 2) Develop a framework for evaluating whether a proposed safeguard protects or hinders the organization’s mission, and 3) Discover how courageous leaders balance stewardship, compliance, and faithful witness.

FACULTY: Peter Demos | President | Peter Demos

Intermediate

8. Latest from Capitol Hill, the Courts, and Beyond

It’s a complex time to lead within a church or ministry. Recent developments on Capitol Hill and court decisions are directly impacting how Christ-centered ministries handle everything from hiring practices and tax-exempt status to donor engagement and religious liberty. Outcomes: 1) Consider how your ministry should respond to the latest developments, 2) Apply insights from table discussion on what peers are doing in this area, 3) Discover some of the latest trends and research that impact your ministry.

Intermediate

People Management and Care

13 workshops

1. Renewing HR Culture – It’s Everyone’s Job!

Build a people-care environment. Human Resources is everyone’s responsibility, with all contributing to culture, communication, compliance, and care. There is specialized and dedicated HR work, but everyone shapes the daily environment, creating vitality, health, and safety. Outcomes: 1) Apply five biblically based principles to encourage embracing HR as a systemic and core organizational responsibility, 2) Recognize obstacles and break through biases that keep HR compartmentalized, and 3) Create a plan for integrating empowered self-care principles.

FACULTY: Joelle DeGenaro | Principal / Consultant | DeGenaro Peelgren Associates

Basic

2. The Leadership Pipeline: A Leadership Factory

Leveraging a framework for Integrated Talent Management, we will do a deep dive on The Leadership Pipeline. This is a systematic methodology for developing leaders and uniquely equipping them for your organizational context. Outcomes: 1) Gain perspective on the Integrated Talent Management Framework, 2) Gain insight regarding the value of The Leadership Pipeline, and 3) Recognize how to apply The Leadership Pipeline in your organizational context.

FACULTY: Karen McDonald | Executive Director, Employee Success | Dallas Theological Seminary

Intermediate

3. Thriving Remote Teams and Organizations

Learn practical strategies for creating remote work environments that improve productivity, strengthen trust, protect organizational culture, and reduce burnout while maintaining accountability across distributed teams. Outcomes: 1) Identify practices that strengthen trust and accountability across remote teams, 2) Build rhythms that improve communication, collaboration, and employee well-being, and 3) Evaluate policies that support sustainable remote and hybrid work.

FACULTY: Kevin White | Chief Operating Officer | Awana

Basic

4. Renewing Leadership Through Followership

Explore how effective leadership and followership work together to strengthen mission capacity. Participants will assess critical thinking, active engagement, and the C.A.S.T. conditions—clarity, autonomy, safety, and trust—that help people contribute, grow, and lead. Outcomes: 1) Explain how critical thinking and active engagement strengthen leadership and followership, 2) Assess whether leaders create clarity, autonomy, safety, and trust for meaningful contribution, and 3) Identify one action to strengthen leadership, followership, and mission capacity.

FACULTY: Dr. Julie Armstrong | Founder & Principal | 3H Leadership Consulting, LLC

Intermediate

5. Know Them. Lead Better.

Great leaders adapt to each person’s needs, motivations, and communication style. This interactive workshop equips leaders with practical tools and repeatable processes to build greater leadership adaptability and drive larger impacts for their mission. Outcomes: 1) Recognize each employee’s motivators, stressors, communication preferences, recognition needs, and development goals, 2) Adapt coaching, feedback, accountability, communication, and appreciation to each employee’s needs, and 3) Use 1:1s, stay interviews, and development plans to strengthen engagement and performance.

Intermediate

6. Staff Discipleship: Biblical Organic Succession

Every ministry must regenerate its leadership across generational turnover. Studies show an internally developed leader is far more likely to be successful than an outside hire. The Staff Discipleship Model shows you why, and how. Outcomes: 1) Apply biblical disciple principles to develop your staff, 2) Transform your leadership style from “manager” to Christ-centered mentor and coach, and 3) Leverage the Staff Discipleship Model and discover how it can fill the Discipleship gap in your ministry.

FACULTY: Bill Tom | CEO/Chief Ministry Officer | Ministry Transitions

Advanced

7. Invisible Taxes That Kill Culture

When did you last lose someone you didn’t expect? Invisible taxes can kill your faith-based culture and lead to the loss of employees. Outcomes: 1) Address Tax 1: The Mission Tax – Passion for mission treated as a substitute for compensation and structure, 2) Address Tax 2: The Comfort Tax – Artificial harmony isn’t a sign of health. It’s a warning sign, 3) Address Tax 3: The Advocacy Tax – When HR is an afterthought, it’s hard to attract and maintain good people.

FACULTY: Michael Yoder | President & CEO | Servant HR, Inc

Basic

8. Powerful and Productive Performance Reviews

Turn the dread of performance reviews into an opportunity for spiritual and professional growth. The unique size, make-up, and purpose of churches and nonprofit ministries calls for a process different from the corporate world. Outcomes: 1) Discover that a performance review can be a significant part of staff discipleship, 2) Explore simple and effective methods to identify staff members’ strength and limitations in both character and performance, and 3) Apply a biblical model for addressing difficult performance reviews.

FACULTY: Dan Bolin | President | Refueling in Flight Ministries, Inc.

Basic

9. 5 Fundamentals of Volunteer Leadership

You will learn how to inspire, recruit, motivate, lead, and reward volunteers to serve with enthusiasm and retain them for a lifetime of service. You will learn the 5 Fundamentals of Volunteer Leadership and be able to apply those insights to go broader and deeper into inviting and keeping volunteers into your organization. Outcomes: 1) Apply the 5 Fundamentals of Volunteer Leadership, 2) Investigate your organization’s opportunities to grow volunteerism, and 3) Create your punch-list of volunteer opportunities.

Intermediate

10. Renewing Healthy Teams

Equip Christian nonprofit leaders to recognize burnout risk, strengthen people-care practices, and build team rhythms that renew staff capacity, retention, trust, and mission effectiveness. Outcomes: 1) Recognize burnout patterns affecting retention, trust, and mission effectiveness, 2) Apply people-care practices that renew staff capacity and engagement, and 3) Create team rhythms that strengthen resilience, communication, and accountability.

FACULTY: Nisaa Robinson | Life & Leadership Alignment Strategist | Aligned Life & Leadership Solutions

Intermediate

11.Followership First: Fueling Ministry Renewal

Who are your followers really following? True ministry renewal begins when we cultivate flourishing followers. Discover biblical principles, current research, and best practices to re-anchor, reframe, and restore spiritual and organizational health. Outcomes: 1) Discover how to create a “renewal cycle” that restores organizational health and mission alignment, 2) Reframe leadership and followership to promote clarity, belonging, and life-giving community, and 3) Discover accessible, curated resources to foster rest and renewal for yourself and your followers.

FACULTY: Dr. Teresa Moon | President/CEO | Institute for Cultural Communicators

Basic

12. Renew Your Team: Avoid Traps That Derail Culture

Even healthy teams can fall into patterns that undermine trust, alignment, and effectiveness. Identify common traps that derail culture and keep teams from reaching full potential. Outcomes: 1) Recognize common team traps and identify where they show up in your leadership and team culture, 2) Discern leadership practices and team dynamics that help prevent unhealthy patterns from taking root, and 3) Apply practical strategies to renew team health, strengthen culture, and remove obstacles that keep teams from advancing their mission.

Intermediate

13. Terminating Staff with Dignity and Clarity

This presentation equips Christian leaders to prevent unnecessary terminations and, when necessary, conduct them with biblical wisdom, compassion, legal awareness, and practical HR best practices that uphold dignity, accountability, and organizational integrity. Outcomes: 1) Prevent terminations through proactive leadership, coaching, and regular employee feedback, 2) Conduct termination conversations with biblical compassion, clarity, and professionalism, and 3) Apply scriptural principles and HR best practices to difficult employment decisions.

Intermediate

Sessions offered subject to change, see site for updates.

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The Relationship Track

Connect generous hearts to the ministry’s mission and purpose.

Resource Development

16 workshops

1. Growing Next Generation Generosity

Want proven tips for growing next generation generosity? This session maps them based on research and testing. Participants get biblical tips and practical tools to help your board and staff understand and do this important work. Outcomes: 1) Discern characteristics and preferences of next generation givers and ideas for engaging them, 2) Apply biblical teaching for helping next generation givers grow in this grace! and 3) Implement practical tools and strategies for engaging next generation givers.

FACULTY: Dr. Gary Hoag | Generosity Monk, and | Mizraab Khawar | Digital Media Strategist | Generosity Monk

Intermediate

2. AI and Relationship Fundraising

Fundraisers fear automation will cool donor relationships. It can do the opposite. Using new midlevel donor research, learn to surface signals, personalize outreach in your voice, and free staff for high-touch conversations. Outcomes: 1) Apply new midlevel donor research to identify who is ready for personal outreach, 2) Build AI prompts that personalize donor communication while protecting your organization’s authentic voice, and 3) Create a 90-day plan to redirect staff time toward major donor relationships.

Basic

3. From First Gift to Forever

Winning a new donor is only the beginning. Learn research-backed strategies to optimize donor acquisition pathways, strengthen their first impressions, and build a 90-day donor journey that grows generosity to sustain your ministry. Outcomes: 1) Identify acquisition improvements that attract more committed, mission-minded donors, 2) Improve first 90-day communications to build donor trust and loyalty, and 3) Create an integrated donor journey across digital and offline channels.

FACULTY: Amy Sewell | Senior Vice President of Creative Services | Douglas Shaw & Associates

Basic

4. Giving Forms: A/B Test Your Way to Success

Learn how Midwest Food Bank partnered with iDonate to use A/B testing strategies that optimized their giving form, improved donor conversion, and uncovered insights nonprofits can apply to create better digital giving experiences. Outcomes: 1) Discover how A/B testing can improve donation form performance and increase online giving conversion rates, 2) Discern best practices for creating, launching, and measuring effective giving form experiments, and 3) Apply data-driven strategies to optimize donor experiences and maximize fundraising results.

Intermediate

5. Open for Business: Gift Options

Move beyond cash gifts to asset-based gifts, CGAs, trusts, DAFs, and legacy gifts. Learn when each vehicle fits. Recognize donor signals and know when to engage a gift-planning partner. Apply practical tools to broaden development opportunities and strengthen donor relationships. Outcomes: 1) Identify charitable giving vehicles beyond cash, discerning when each may benefit donors and ministries, 2) Recognize donor signals that indicate opportunities for asset-based, planned, or legacy gifts, and 3) Discover how gift-planning partners can expand ministry development opportunities.

FACULTY: Winters Richwine | Chief Operating Officer | Cornerstone Management

Basic

6. Renewing Generosity Through Excellent Events

Most events fill the room with the wrong people. Learn the funnel, hospitality practices, and emotional arc that turns fundraisers into renewal experiences – building lasting donor passion instead of one-time gifts. Outcomes: 1) Apply the four-stage donor funnel to evaluate their next event’s guest list, 2) Identify three hospitality elements that renew and elevate the donor experience, and 3) Map an event’s emotional arc alongside a simple, frictionless giving process.

Basic

7. Funding God’s Mission Together

International ministries must move beyond one-directional funding models. As Paul learned in Macedonia, generosity is present in every culture and should be nurtured for healthy discipleship. Explore how local giving is transforming mission. Outcomes: 1) See local churches and believers not simply as beneficiaries, but as generous participants in God’s mission, 2) Identify practical ways to strengthen partners’ fundraising capacity without exporting a US model, and 3) Initiate constructive conversations with international partners about local generosity and fundraising.

FACULTY: Rob Bullock | Executive Vice President – Advancement | Bible League International

Basic

8. Blueprints for Planned Giving

Planned gifts are powerful. They increase individual donor giving capacity, strengthen loyalty and generate new sources of ministry revenue. Discover proven tactics for launching, sustaining and measuring success of a planned giving program. Outcomes: 1) Be able to share with your board and senior leadership the power of planned gifts to transform your fundraising, 2) Identify your target planned-giving audience and incorporate planned-giving messaging into your marketing plan, and 3) Determine staffing, resources, systems, and metrics for long-term success.

Intermediate

9. Renewal for Stewardship Ministry

Development professionals face increasing pressure to meet ambitious goals while faithfully shepherding ministry partners. Discover biblical and practical concepts to prevent burnout, lead through change, cultivate spiritual resilience, and serve from a place of renewed strength and lasting kingdom impact. Outcomes: 1) Renew Heart: Apply practices that prevent burnout while sustaining effective stewardship leadership, 2) Renew Soul: Apply biblical and practical principles to navigate fundraising demands, 3) Renew Mind: Develop rhythms of spiritual/vocational renewal for long-term effectiveness.

Basic

10. AI isn’t the Major Donor Easy Button

As AI evolves, many nonprofit leaders mistakenly search for shortcuts to philanthropy. AI can help, but major donor fundraising remains relational. Discover practical strategies for building transformational donor partnerships in a digital world. Outcomes: 1) Recognize why major gifts are earned, not marketed, 2) Realize how relationship fundraising helps you stand out in an AI-driven world and what major donors really want from nonprofit leaders, and 3) Master the CEO’s role in philanthropy, countering myths of fundraising shortcuts.

Basic

11. Grant Writing Beyond the Basics

Go deeper into grant research, funder fit, and storytelling in this practical workshop designed to help ministries find stronger opportunities, write with greater purpose, and create proposals that connect more clearly and competitively. Outcomes: 1) Find grant opportunities that fit your ministry using simple, effective research strategies, 2) Use storytelling to make proposals clearer, stronger, and more meaningful to funders, and 3) Build stronger grant requests by connecting mission, need, and impact more effectively.

FACULTY: Tammy Briggs | Senior Consultant | Visionworks Consulting Inc.

Intermediate

12. Fundraising as a Team Sport

This session is for senior development officers who carry the sole responsibility for organizational fundraising. It will help them discover others, inside and outside the organization, who can be allies to support development efforts. Outcomes: 1) Leverage the power of a team, lessen stress, and maximize results, 2) Identify those with the passion and perspective to supplement the work of the development team, and 3) Define expectations and design ways others can leverage their positioning to support fundraising.

FACULTY: Tom MacAdam | Vice President & Senior Consultant | The FOCUS Group

Basic

13. Strategic Listening follows Strategic Asking

Raising major gifts unlocks doors for ministry, mission, and stewardship. What we hear during donor calls is shaped largely by the questions we ask and how we ask those questions. Be prepared to renew your approach with transformative strategies. Outcomes: 1) Discern the difference between ‘asking’ and ‘telling’ when it comes to fundraising, 2) Reshape your approach to donor conversations in ways that spawn Abundant Generosity, and 3) Create your new, personal Conversational Fundraising™ asking style.

Intermediate

14. Crossing Cultures: Reaching More Donors

Cultural lenses — guilt, shame, and fear — shape how donors hear our message. This session starts a conversation: practical questions and framework to help you discover donors you may have overlooked. Outcomes: 1) Identify the three cultural lenses — guilt/innocence, shame/honor, fear/power — and how they shape donor communication, 2) Explore how contextualization can help appeals resonate across diverse donor cultures and communities, and 3) Identify blind spots keeping entire donor communities from seeing themselves in your ministry.

Basic

15. The Case for Ministry Endowments

A ministry endowment is a living expression of long-term stewardship, providing stability across generations. This session explores the biblical foundation, addresses common concerns and outlines how to build an endowment aligned with your ministry’s mission. Outcomes: 1) Examine biblical stewardship principles, 2) Explore how endowments renew a ministry’s ability to plan boldly, and 3) Implement governance and investment practices that keep your endowment aligned with your church’s mission/beliefs.

Basic

16. Disciple Generous Givers: Renew the Heart

Move beyond transactional fundraising to transformational discipleship. Explore biblical stages of stewardship maturity and proven tools to disciple board, staff, and donors from self-centered giving to Christlike generosity – renewing both leader and giver in the process. Outcomes: 1) Identify stages of faith and stewardship maturity, 2) Distinguish transactional versus transformational generosity models, and 3) Apply Participation Architecture and “What We Want FOR our Supporters” framework.

FACULTY: Chris McDaniel | Chief Revenue Officer | vTECH io

Intermediate

Marketing and Communications

13 workshops

1. The One-Person Content Engine

One person. One calendar. Everything to do. The One-Person Content Engine gives solo communicators or small teams a batching rhythm, a repurposing method, and a template set that ends the Monday scramble! Outcomes: 1) Build a repeatable four-week content calendar, start live in the session, 2) Apply a batching and repurposing method that turns one anchor piece into a full week across channels, and 3) Set an email cadence a team of one can sustain, and measure.

FACULTY: Maci Flood | Content Marketing Specialist | Fervor

Basic

2. Building Your Ministry’s Fanbase

Your ministry needs more than supporters—it needs fans. When your marketing strategy prioritizes their experience, it builds loyalty and lifelong advocates. Inspired by Jesse Cole’s Savannah Bananas’ “Fans First” model, we’ll explore how to energize, motivate and grow your ministry’s fan base. Outcomes: 1) Create milestone moments to revitalize your ministry’s brand and excite fans, 2) Remove knowledge gaps so fans can confidently support your mission, and 3) Maximize stories across all platforms while decreasing workload.

FACULTY: Laci Cagle | AVP for Marketing & Communications | HighGround Advisors

Basic

3. Renew Your Message

Christian ministries can lose clarity as they grow. This interactive, biblically grounded workshop helps leaders renew their message, communicate mission in plain language, and create clearer pathways for donors, volunteers, partners, and those they serve. Outcomes 1) Diagnose communication gaps that prevent outsiders from quickly understanding the organization’s mission, 2) Translate complex ministry language into clear, biblically faithful language that inspires trust, and 3) Build a repeatable framework guiding audiences from understanding to meaningful action.

Intermediate

4. Marketing Priorities for Small Ministries

Overwhelmed and underfunded? Effective marketing isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing the right things. Cut through the noise, focus on what matters most, and develop a practical marketing strategy for greater impact with time and resources you already have. Outcomes: 1) Identify audiences most aligned to your ministry’s mission and impact, 2) Craft a clear message that connects your ministry’s work with audience needs, and 3) Prioritize marketing efforts to steward limited time, energy, and resources.

FACULTY: Heather Day | Founder/CEO | Daylight Creative

Basic

5. Successful Opinion Writing and Pitching

This workshop will provide you with tips and strategies for writing and placing opinion pieces effectively, an important tool for getting your message out. Outcomes: 1) Recognize how to effectively draft and submit opinion pieces, 2) Know how to follow up with editors, and 3) Be equipped to handle edits, acceptances, and declines.

FACULTY: Eric Finley | Senior News and Editorial Manager | Alliance Defending Freedom

Basic

6. Social Media for Ministry Impact

Learn how to create a successful brand presence and meaningful connections with your constituents through your social media presence. We’ll break down actionable strategies to boost engagement, expand your reach, and multiply impact. Outcomes: 1) Discover how to use social media as a relationship and brand-building tool, 2) Apply best practices, strategies, and recommended tools for your content planning, and 3) Expand your reach and impact through native tools and features.

FACULTY: Amy Hurtado | Vice President, Marketing & Engagement | Joni and Friends

Intermediate

7. From Attention to Action

You got their attention. Now what? Discover how to turn scattered communications and disconnected touchpoints into an intentional journey that builds trust, invites action, inspires generosity, and moves people into deeper relationship with your mission. Outcomes: 1) Map an audience journey from initial awareness through engagement, meaningful action, and long-term relationship, 2) Spot the gaps between your communications and audience actions you desire, and 3) Build an integrated pathway connecting audience, story, message, channel, action, and next steps.

FACULTY: Shelley Komoszewski | Vice President of Strategic Engagement | Sightline (a ministry of Cru), and | Brock Anderson, Vice President of Content, Sightline

Intermediate

8. Disrupting Apathy: Building a Campaign People

Reach new donors by reframing your cause and standing out. Using brand research, behavioral psychology, and real-world examples, this workshop offers a practical framework for building bold campaigns that drive measurable fundraising growth. Outcomes: 1) Differentiate between demand generation and demand capture to drive long-term revenue growth, and know key KPIs, 2) Identify what makes your nonprofit different and how to communicate it, and 3) Use various ad types to build a brand campaign that grows revenue.

FACULTY: Mark Miller | Executive Vice President, Agency | Masterworks

Intermediate

9. What’s The Value of an Email?

You work hard and spend a lot of money to grow your email list. But does it pay off? We tracked 17 million emails over 3 years to answer: “What is an acquired email address worth?” Explore the newest research study from NextAfter on long-term revenue impact of emails. Outcomes: 1) Discover how email subscribers become donors? 2) Recognize how long it takes for them to make their first gift? and 3) Maximize your long-term revenue impact.

Basic

10. The Clarity Advantage

Research shows organizations with clear brands make a greater impact. This practical, hands-on presentation helps ministry leaders sharpen focus, clarify brand and message, renew teams, and strengthen trust at every touchpoint. Outcomes: 1) Achieve revenue growth, stakeholder alignment, and mission advancement, 2) Identify and clarify every ministry touchpoint, and 3) Strengthen and renew your team and stakeholders.

FACULTY: Justin Eklund | CEO & Chief Brand Strategist | Grove9

Basic

11. Craft Better Fundraising Stories Faster

You don’t need to become a master storyteller to craft effective stories that deliver fundraising wins. This session offers a practical playbook for turning raw story material into stories donors can’t ignore. Outcomes: 1) Know why some stories work and others don’t, drawing on neuroscience of narrative and emotion, 2) Discover how to find four ingredients every effective fundraising story need, and 3) Be able to draft your story faster using a simple structure to hold attention.

FACULTY: Katie Whitehorn | Senior Copy Director and Creative Lead | Historic Agency

Basic

12. Surviving the Golden Hour

The amount of time, organization and effort that goes into your organization’s crisis planning will largely determine how successful you are when faced with a “golden hour” between life and death. This crisis planning deep dive will help prepare your ministry to endure no matter what crisis comes. Outcomes: 1) Discover various components of a thorough crisis plan, 2) Be able to choose a crisis management team, and 3) Spot vulnerabilities in your organization before they escalate to crises.

FACULTY: Anna Hutsell | Communications Strategist | Guardian

Basic

13. Dare to Disrupt with Global Brand Strategy

Rethink everything you believe about branding and nonprofits! Drawing on decades of experience with globally recognized brands (adidas, K-Swiss, Dickies) Donna will reveal how brand strategy, done with clarity, courage, and long-range vision, can become the engine of mission growth. Outcomes: 1) Discover why branding is not cosmetic but catalytic, 2) Flip the script on fundraising and cultivation using brand as the driver, and 3) Reimagine how you build, steward, and scale your mission… starting with your brand.

FACULTY: Donna Lucas | Chief Marketing and Development Officer | Joni and Friends

Intermediate

Internet and Technology

7 workshops

1. Your Ministry’s AI Game Plan

AI is already in your organization. Learn to lead it with a clear plan across three essentials: governance, security, and adoption. You’ll leave with the framework to build your own. Outcomes: 1) Assess where AI already operates in your organization today, 2) Build governance and security guardrails before expanding AI use, and 3) Choose low-risk, high-value AI starting points that serve your mission.

FACULTY: Grant Cummings | CEO | Infact5

Basic

2. Design a Better Security Stack

Help IT and/or Operations leaders design a practical, secure technology stack by aligning identity, backup, cloud, governance, AI, and security decisions within nonprofit capacity and mission needs. Outcomes: 1) Identify essential nonprofit technology stack components and ownership responsibilities, 2) Evaluate where nonprofits commonly overbuy, under secure, or lack governance, and 3) Prioritize practical improvements that strengthen resilience without overwhelming staff.

Basic

3. The Strategic Role of AI in Nonprofits

Explore how nonprofits can leverage AI to advance their mission, enhance efficiency, improve decision-making, deepen engagement, and increase impact. Examine how to use AI with wisdom, integrity, and accountability to honor our stakeholders’ trust. Outcomes: 1) Recognize what AI can and cannot do for nonprofits, 2) Explore strategic opportunities to use AI to expand reach and engagement, improve decision-making, and enhance execution, and 3) Discern risks and ethical considerations for a values-based, on-mission, AI framework.

FACULTY: Joseph Vijayam | CEO | Olive Technology, Inc.

Basic

4. Future of AI and Mission

AI will continue reshaping ministry for decades to come. This session will map four phases of technological development and their long-term impact on mission. We will then discuss the strategic choices leaders can make now. Outcomes: 1) Discern the four phases of technological development transforming ministry through 2100, 2) Identify where AI can advance mission and where human presence remains essential, and 3) Determine strategic investments that position your ministry to leverage AI faithfully.

FACULTY: Robert Yi | Chief Operating Officer | Global Leadership Network

Intermediate

5. Renewing Ministry Through AI Tools

Discover how ChatGPT, NotebookLM and Suno can help Christian leaders refresh existing programs, update marketing materials, and reignite passion for their mission while saving time and creating new opportunities for engagement. Outcomes: 1) Turn outdated documents and marketing materials into fresh, engaging resources using ChatGPT, 2) Unlock hidden knowledge and transform existing content into new materials with NotebookLM, and 3) Encourage creativity and fun with memorable songs that can be used to refresh current media.

FACULTY: Dr. Brittany Kretz | Program Director | Masters of Organizational Leadership, Associate Professor | York University

Basic

6. Model AI Stewardship: Renew Leadership

Ministry leaders exhausted by AI hype and internal resistance can renew their strength. This interactive workshop equips you to break leadership constraints, embrace biblical stewardship of technology, and build a practical adoption plan using four ministry-specific entry points. Outcomes: 1) Identify personal and organizational leadership constraints around AI adoption, 2) Explore four practical entry points (governance, productivity, operations, donor experience) tailored for ministries, and 3) Develop an actionable personal and team plan to lead wise technology stewardship.

FACULTY: Chris McDaniel | Chief Revenue Officer | vTECH io

Intermediate

7. Whose Data Really Counts?

Every nonprofit collects donor and program data. Few ask whether it supports real fundraising or fundable grant reports. Grounded in 1 Kings 7 and case studies, this session connects data stewardship to mission performance. Outcomes: 1) Audit whether your donor data is structured for moves management or just for recording gifts, 2) Identify whether your program data can produce impact reports funders require, and 3) Leave with a 90-day action plan connecting both CRM pillars to fundraising and grant outcomes.

Intermediate

Sessions offered subject to change, see site for updates.

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CEO Forum, AI Summit, and More

1. CEO Forum: 5-hour

The annual CLA CEO Forum is a highly interactive day designed exclusively for today’s Christian nonprofit CEOs, Presidents, Executive Directors and Senior Pastors.

FACULTY: Led by The Sage Group Collective team | including Executive Advisor Dr. Mark L Vincent | CCNL | Founding Member and Facilitator | The Sage Group Collective

More Information Coming Soon!

2. AI Summit: 3-hour

Back by popular demand – the dynamic AI Summit exploring the latest trends, thinking and touchpoints on AI and Christian nonprofit leadership! This fast-paced and engaging exploration of the world of AI and your ministry returns with new insights, ideas and practical steps for leaders like you.

More Information Coming Soon!

3. Intensive: 5-hour

More Information Coming Soon!

Sessions offered subject to change, see site for updates.

Leadership Roundtables

These fast-paced, interactive, 1.5-hour roundtables are an opportunity to connect with peers, collaborate, and explore vital trends impacting Christian nonprofits. They are a terrific way to connect with peers who share your interests and expertise. We are offering three roundtables this year. Outcomes: 1) Recognize and discuss key trends, 2) Apply shared insights on ways to RENEW your Christ-honoring impact, and 3) Connect while growing your leadership acumen. Led by Alliance board and advisory council members.

1. Leadership Roundtable: Financial Management

These fast paced, interactive, 1.5-hour roundtables are an opportunity to connect with peers, collaborate and explore vital trends impacting Christian nonprofits. This leadership roundtable focuses on financial management trends and opportunities. Outcomes: 1) Recognize and discuss key financial management trends, 2) Apply shared insights on ways to renew your Christ-honoring impact, and 3) Connect while growing your leadership acumen.

2. Leadership Roundtable: People Management and Care

These fast paced, interactive, 1.5-hour roundtables are an opportunity to connect with peers, collaborate and explore vital trends impacting Christian nonprofits. This leadership roundtable focuses on people management and care trends and opportunities. Outcomes: 1) Recognize and discuss key people management and care trends, 2) Apply shared insights on ways to renew your Christ-honoring impact, and 3) Connect while growing your leadership acumen.

3. Leadership Roundtable: Marketing and Communications

These fast paced, interactive, 1.5-hour roundtables are an opportunity to connect with peers, collaborate and explore vital trends impacting Christian nonprofits. This leadership roundtable focuses on marketing and communications trends and opportunities. Outcomes: 1) Recognize and discuss key marketing and communications trends, 2) Apply shared insights on ways to renew your Christ-honoring impact, and 3) Connect while growing your leadership acumen.

HOSTS: Carly Berna | (CLA Advisory Council), and Michelle Beckham-Corbin | Founder & Chief Digital Strategist | C3. Creating Connection Consulting, LLC. (CLA Advisory Council)

Sessions offered subject to change, see site for updates.

Special Events

Women’s Luncheon

More Information Coming Soon!

Men’s Luncheon

More Information Coming Soon!

Sessions offered subject to change, see site for updates.

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Outcomes Conference

April 6-8, 2027 Jacksonville, FL