Classroom Experience

Here’s how The Center for Social Leadership’s experiential, hands-on philosophy will translate into your classroom experience:

Breakout Sessions

  • You will have opportunities to work through some of the specific leadership and managerial challenges you are currently facing in the office through Breakout Sessions where 3-4 other senior nonprofit executives and roving consultants/resource people will dedicate their time entirely to consulting with you and helping you to find solutions to the challenges you’ve identified.

Sharing of Best Practices

  • Through facilitated discussions with panels of nonprofit leaders (you will have the opportunity to be on a panel to discuss one of your strength areas) you will distill what truly are the Best Practices in nonprofit leadership. A renowned Best Practices Leader – author, trainer, noted speaker – will lead part of each session and will participate in panels, discussions and Breakout Sessions.

Facilitated Group Discussions

In addition to learning concrete skills crucial to nonprofit management, there will be facilitated group discussions on nonprofit leadership focusing on such key questions as:

  • What are the characteristics of an effective nonprofit leader?
  • How can a nonprofit leader align the organization’s mission, vision and core values with its everyday practices?
  • How do nonprofit leaders maintain balance between their social visions and the other facets of their lives and avoid burnout?

The nonprofit practitioners who visit our classes will not participate using a traditional lecture/’talking heads’ model, but a circular discussion in which you feel included.

Case Studies

  • Many of the Best Practices Leaders will use case studies of real nonprofit organizations in crisis designed to address common nonprofit organizational issues. The class will first read Part A of the case study – the organization’s history and the current crisis; second, participants will discuss the pro’s and con’s of the options available to the nonprofit director and will share their recommendations for how she or he should move forward. Finally, the Best Practices Leader will share Part B of the case study:
  • what course of action the nonprofit director actually took – and what the consequences were.

Funder Panel

  • Do you ever wonder what donors are looking for when approached by nonprofit directors – and what turns them off? Now you can ask them! There will be a Funder Panel where 4-5 program officers from major foundations and corporate giving programs visit us for a candid discussion about best (and worst) practices in fundraising.

Contact CSL if you are interested in setting up a Transform – Certificate of Executive Nonprofit Leadership for nonprofits in your region, focus area or funding area.

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