Join 1,000 nonprofit professionals on November 5, 2026 for New York City’s foremost gathering for nonprofit leadership, management, and movement-building. This full-day, in-person convening is designed to co-create real solutions for our sector’s challenges, spark collaboration, and strengthen community resilience.
Registration closes October 27
This year’s theme, “Stay Relentless,” is a call to action. It asks us to remain steadfast, determined, and solution-focused in a moment that continues to challenge and reshape our work. It’s about staying in motion, grounded in community, in communication with one another, and committed to delivering high-quality, high-impact support and services to all New Yorkers.
Through timely discussions, shared resources, and space for reflection, the 2026 Annual Conference brings people together to reconnect with what matters and with each other. Whether you’re leading an organization, shaping strategy, managing programs, or supporting behind the scenes, this conference is designed for you. Come for the insights, stay for the connection, and leave moving forward, relentlessly.
Overview
Plan Your Visit: Nonprofit New York Annual Conference attendees get a discounted rate of $399 per night for a Marquis Deluxe Room, either King or 2 Double Beds. Reserve your room now!
Keynote Speakers
Keynote Speaker Name
Vu Le (“voo lay”) writes the blog NonprofitAF.com. He is the former executive director of RVC, a nonprofit in Seattle that promotes social justice by supporting leaders of color, strengthening organizations led by communities of color, and fostering collaboration among diverse communities. Read more…
Keynote Speaker Name
Diane is a nationally renowned nonprofit leader with nearly 30 years of experience advancing housing and social justice, including nine years as President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, where she led transformative campaigns. Read more…
Morning Keynote
New York State Nonprofit Compensation Study Report
This keynote presentation and panel will dive into the report's key findings, exploring real-time strategies for equitable pay structures, talent retention, and long-term fiscal health across the state's nonprofit workforce.
Presenters
Diana Neelman
Senior Director, Compensation Resources
Mary Rizzuti
Practice Leader, Compensation Resources
Panelists
Jacqueline M. Ebanks
President & CEO, Nonprofit New York
Megan Allen
CEO, New York Council of Nonprofits
Afua-Attah Mensah
NYC Chief Equity Officer & Commissioner
NYC Mayor's Office of Equity & Racial Justice
Madeline Neighly
Chief of Policy & Research, FPWA
Agenda
Coaching Sessions
Take part in one 20-minute coaching sessions with experienced nonprofit professionals. Get practical advice and insights from years of sector experience. Space is limited—sessions are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Register early to secure your spot.
To register, first purchase your ticket for the 2026 Annual Conference on Eventbrite. You will receive a confirmation with the link to register for coaching sessions.
SESSION 1: 10:15 — 11:25 am
SESSION 2: 11:35 — 12:45 pm
Coach Name
Key Areas of Nonprofit Management
Equity is our throughline and is woven throughout each conference session. Each track will integrate questions and practices that center equity in meaningful and actionable ways.
INTRODUCING LEARNING PATHWAYS
New this year, four Learning Pathways connect sessions across Key Areas to help you build your day around what you want to learn, explore, and accomplish. Start with a question or challenge that matters to you, then use the pathways to explore it from different perspectives, make meaningful connections, collaborate with others, and turn learning into action.
Leading Through Uncertainty
Navigate uncertainty and pressure while staying steady and mission-centered.
Building Sustainable Organizations
Build resilient systems, finances, people, and infrastructure for the long term.
Mobilizing People and Resources
Engage people, partners, and resources to move your mission forward together.
Adapting for the Future
Plan, test, and adapt so your organization is ready for what comes next.
Session Guide
Below is a list of conference sessions modeled on the days activities and Key Areas of Nonprofit Management ensuring an engaging day for leadership and staff alike.
This Session Guide is subject to change.
Advocacy
Advocacy is how nonprofits transform mission, community knowledge, and moral clarity into collective action. In a moment of political uncertainty, shifting public policy, and rising community need, advocacy cannot sit in one department or with one specialist. This track equips executives, board members, staff, communicators, and program leaders to understand their advocacy role, build coalitions, navigate risk, and move from concern to organized action in defense of communities, equity, justice, and democracy.
Advocacy
Advocacy is how nonprofits transform mission, community knowledge, and moral clarity into collective action. In a moment of political uncertainty, shifting public policy, and rising community need, advocacy cannot sit in one department or with one specialist. This track equips executives, board members, staff, communicators, and program leaders to understand their advocacy role, build coalitions, navigate risk, and move from concern to organized action in defense of communities, equity, justice, and democracy.
Advocacy in a Polycrisis
Moderator
Laura Wolff | Laura Wolff Strategic Consulting | Consultant
Speaker
Matthew Camp | Campfire Strategies | Founder
Morgan Monaco | Prospect Park Alliance | Park Administrator and President of Alliance
McGregor Smyth | New York Lawyers for the Public Interest | Executive Director
Audience: CEO/EDs, policy staff, communications staff, program leaders, board members
Nonprofit leaders are facing a polycrisis of federal, state, and city policy pressures. This session grounds participants in the history of nonprofit advocacy during moments of crisis, reviews lessons learned, and explores what it means for every role across an organization to lean into advocacy now. Participants will hear practical strategies, discuss real-world risks and choices, and leave with tools to move from paralysis to disciplined action.
Making Meaning of the Moment (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Lisa Cowan | The Haven Fund | Director
Joanne Smith | Girls for Gender Equity | President and CEO
Audience: Policy leads, CEO/EDs, communications leads, coalition partners
Before organizations can act together, leaders need space to make meaning of what has changed. This session gives advocacy, policy, and strategy leaders a structured place to interpret recent political developments, share reactions, surface implications, and prepare for practical planning. Participants will leave clearer, steadier, and ready to engage in collective strategy.
The Role of the Sector in a Multiracial Democracy
Moderator
Drew Gabriel | CAMBA Inc. | Vice President, Intergovernmental Affairs
Speaker
Elizabeth Angeles | Angeles Impact Advising | Principal Consultant
Tiloma Jayasinghe | Community Resourcre Exchange | President and CEO
Audience: CEO/EDs, policy staff, communications staff, program staff, board members
The everyday work of nonprofits in building strong and resilient communities is directly connected to protecting and advancing democracy. Across the sector, organizations are beginning to embrace this as part of their mission. This session explores how even organizations without large policy teams can use community proximity, mission credibility, and moral authority to mobilize people and defend a multiracial democracy. Participants will connect their individual missions to the broader democracy movement and identify who inside their organizations can engage, in what way, and to what end.
Forging a Way Forward (Action Forum)
Speakers: TBD
Audience: Policy leads, CEO/EDs, communications leads, coalition partners
This Action Forum turns reflection into strategy. Participants will identify shared sector priorities, test scenarios, name the infrastructure needed for collective advocacy, and develop practical language for boards, staff, constituents, and elected officials. The session will produce tactical next steps, outreach ideas, and an initial advocacy strategy that can continue beyond the conference.
Communications
In challenging times, clarity is courage. Effective communications require more than just occasional messages; they demand discipline, authenticity, and a steadfast commitment to organizational values. From storytelling and brand strategy to message discipline, mission narrative, crisis response, and advocacy campaigns, participants will learn how intentional, consistent, and values-driven communication builds trust, inspires action, and sustains momentum.
Communications
In challenging times, clarity is courage. Effective communications require more than just occasional messages; they demand discipline, authenticity, and a steadfast commitment to organizational values. From storytelling and brand strategy to message discipline, mission narrative, crisis response, and advocacy campaigns, participants will learn how intentional, consistent, and values-driven communication builds trust, inspires action, and sustains momentum.
Breaking Through the Noise
Moderator
Joy Lau | Storyjoy | Founder
Speaker
Ross Connard | We2 | Founder & Creative Director
Benjamin Nathan | All of Us Films | Founder, Director
Ray Shah | Think Design, Inc. | Founder/CEO
Audience: CEO/EDs, communications staff, development leaders
Attention is one of the nonprofit sector’s scarcest resources. With so much noise online, nonprofits must have a tested strategy to make their voice heard. This interactive case study panel will help participants understand today’s attention economy and why organizational goals must come before communications tactics. Using real nonprofit campaigns, the session will examine why some efforts break through while others do not, and how campaigns can be assessed through a simple framework: compelling, consequential, and clear.
Achieving Message Discipline (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Coniqua Johnson-Reed | Fearless Spaces Consulting | Founder and Principal Consultant
Vanessa Wakeman | The Wakeman Agency | Principal
Audience: Board members, CEO/EDs, Communications staff
When uncertainty increases, the challenge is responding without losing consistency, credibility, authenticity, or organizational voice. This session will help nonprofit leaders and communicators discuss real communications challenges through sample scenarios and structured peer exchange. Participants will explore how to prepare staff, board leaders, and spokespeople to stay on message before an issue becomes an uproar.
Using Mission to Guide Decisions
Moderator
Ashley Lanfer | Wellspring Consulting | Partner
Speaker
Jheramis A. H. Collado | Student Leadership Network | Director, Marketing and Communications
Farra Trompeter | Big Duck | Co-Director
Audience: Communications staff, CEO/EDs, Development staff, Program staff
A mission statement is a strategic tool for focusing organizational activity. It gives leaders, staff, and boards a shared basis for deciding what to prioritize, pursue, and decline. This interactive workshop will help participants distinguish mission, vision, and values, and recognize how to use that clarity to align community needs, programs, evidence, and purpose through clear language that guides decisions and action.
Crisis Communications Response (Action Forum)
Facilitator
Michael Gordon | Gordon Group | Chief Executive
Marykate Mattiello | Gordon Group | Senior Vice President, Strategy
Audience: Executives, communications staff, board leaders, senior managers
Communications crises rarely happen on a schedule, but organizations can prepare for them. This action forum will begin by helping participants distinguish between a difficult issue, a reputational threat, and a true communications crisis. Participants will examine a framework to help them identify risks, assign roles, determine what to do first, and how to draft an initial response and talking points. The session will take participants through a realistic nonprofit crisis scenario involving media attention, staff concerns, community questions, funder anxiety, and social media pressure.
Finance
Financial leadership is critical to a relentless pursuit of long-term sustainability and day-to-day operations. Nonprofits are navigating cash flow pressure, contract risk, revenue volatility, infrastructure costs, cybersecurity exposure, and heightened expectations for transparency and accountability. This track helps leaders and finance professionals align resources with mission, understand financial models, plan for uncertainty, fund the infrastructure that makes impact possible, and build resilient organizations prepared for both risk and opportunity.
Finance
Financial leadership is critical to a relentless pursuit of long-term sustainability and day-to-day operations. Nonprofits are navigating cash flow pressure, contract risk, revenue volatility, infrastructure costs, cybersecurity exposure, and heightened expectations for transparency and accountability. This track helps leaders and finance professionals align resources with mission, understand financial models, plan for uncertainty, fund the infrastructure that makes impact possible, and build resilient organizations prepared for both risk and opportunity.
The Relentless CFO
Moderator
David Ashenfarb | SAX Advisory Group | Senior Advisor
Speaker
Ronald Tompkins | TurnAround Executive Coaching | Principal
Rachel DeMatteo | Your Part-Time Controller, LLC | Director
Digant Bahl | Accounting Solutions of NY | Founder and President
Travis Carey | Carey & Co | Founder & CEO
Audience: Finance executives, CEO/EDs, board members, senior leaders
Financial leadership requires far more than budget oversight. This session brings experienced CFOs and finance leaders into conversation about cash flow, contract management, financial modeling, revenue diversification, and the choices required to steer organizations through uncertainty. Participants will leave with insights into navigating these challenges and a framework for strengthening financial decision-making and sustainability.
Mission-Aligned Money (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Dara Kagan | Amalgamated Bank | First Vice President, Social Impact Banking
Nina Bahazhevska | NCheng | Partner
Faizan Younus | NCheng | Managing Principal
Audience: CEO/Eds, Development staff, Finance staff, HR/Operations staff
Money is never neutral. This session invites participants to examine where organizational resources come from, how they are spent, and whether those choices align with mission and values. Participants will discuss banking and financial services, vendors, internal investments, funder relationships, and tradeoffs, leaving with a framework for more mission-aligned financial choices.
Funding Infrastructure, Not Just Programs
Moderator
Katy Brown | Armanino Advisory LLC | Partner
Speaker
Andrew Perumal | BTQ Financial | Partner and Director of Client Operations
Stephen Powers | OPEN Impact Real Estate | Co-Founder
Sabrina Stratton | Amalgamated Bank | Senior Vice President, Northeast Regional Director
Jana Reed | Nonprofit Finance Fund | Chief Operating Officer
Audience: CEO/EDs, Finance staff, Development staff, Board members
Nonprofits cannot deliver strong programs without strong infrastructure. This session explores how to make the case for investing, real estate, technology, staff, finance systems, and cultivating a culture of financial management. Participants will learn how organizations have framed infrastructure as mission-critical and leave with language and examples to use with boards and funders.
Scenario Planning for Financial Resilience (Action Forum)
Facilitator
George Andrezzi | TDBank | Regional Group Manager, Government, Education & Non-Profit Banking
Lacey Chadbourne | TDBank | Market Commercial Credit Manager, Non-Profit Banking
Hilda Polanco | BDO | Nonprofit & Grantmaker Advisory
Samantha Schaefer | BDO | Manager, Industry Specialty Services, Nonprofit & Grantmaking Advisory
Audience: Finance executives, CEOs, Development staff, Program staff, Board members
This Action Forum helps participants plan for financial uncertainty without becoming frozen by it. Using best-case, likely-case, and worst-case scenarios, participants will identify tools, triggers, decisions, and communication practices that support financial resilience. Participants will leave with a scenario planning template and next steps for nimble, mission-aligned financial management.
Fundraising
Fundraising is the practice of building relationships, trust, and shared investment in mission. Staying relentless in fundraising requires more than urgency; it requires stewardship, board engagement, donor strategy, a healthy development culture, and sustainable revenue systems. This track helps organizations activate board members, assess and strengthen their development programs, cultivate next-generation donors, and support fundraisers in ways that sustain both mission and people.
Fundraising
Fundraising is the practice of building relationships, trust, and shared investment in mission. Staying relentless in fundraising requires more than urgency; it requires stewardship, board engagement, donor strategy, a healthy development culture, and sustainable revenue systems. This track helps organizations activate board members, assess and strengthen their development programs, cultivate next-generation donors, and support fundraisers in ways that sustain both mission and people.
Building a Culture that Activates Board Members
Moderator
Pinky Vincent Shubert, CFRE | Clarezza Insights LLC | Principal
Speaker
Christie Ko | Fiver Children's Foundation | Executive Director
Danielle Moss Cox | Oliver Scholars | President and CEO
Susan Sharer | Sharer Strategies | Principal
Audience: Board members, CEO/EDs, Development staff
Board fundraising works best when everyone understands their role. Participants will explore how to harness board enthusiasm in ways that support staff, strengthen donor relationships, and move beyond the myth that only a few people are responsible for revenue.
Fundraising Without Burnout (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Rachel Pardoe | The New York Community Trust | Program Director
Ronnie Plasters | Consulting Ronnie | Founder and President
Audience: Development staff, CEO/EDs, Board members
Fundraising can be deeply meaningful and deeply exhausting. This session creates space for development professionals and leaders to acknowledge the emotional challenges of workload, donor expectations, internal pressure, and sustainability, and approach them through a lens of action and care. Participants will identify practical ways to build healthier fundraising cultures, clarify roles, share the work, and protect the people responsible for sustaining the mission.
Assessing Your Development Program to Build a More Sustainable Future
Moderator
Davina Angus | Social Impact Strategist | Consultant
Speaker
Katie Solomon | Armanino | Manager, Nonprofit Advisory
Samantha Koon | Guttmacher Institute | Senio Development Associate
Audience: CEO/EDs, Development staff, Board members
Organizations often know they need more revenue but lack a clear picture of what needs to change. This workshop provides participants with a framework for assessing their fundraising mix, staffing, systems, donor pipeline, board engagement, and external trends. Participants will leave with a tool they can use as a development diagnostic to set priorities for building a more sustainable revenue engine.
The Next Generation Donor (Action Forum)
Facilitator
Will Schrepferman | DonorAtlas | Executive Director, CEO
Brittany Morrison | B. Spoke Advisory | Founder
Tess McCain | DonorAtlas | Director of Client Solutions
Meg George | George Philanthropy Group | Co-Founder and President
Audience: CEO/Eds, Communications staff, Development staff, Board members
Donor behavior, generational expectations, and civic engagement are changing. This Action Forum explores how nonprofits can build relationships with emerging donors, younger supporters, giving circles, corporate partners, and community-based philanthropists. Participants will identify engagement strategies, test messaging, and leave with a donor cultivation experiment they can launch after the conference.
Governance
Nonprofit boards own ultimate legal and ethical responsibility for the organization's governance, financial health, and mission fulfillment. To meet this obligation, they must ask better questions, make informed decisions, steward resources, support executives, prepare for succession, ensure fidelity to values, and lead with purpose, clarity, and accountability. Through solutions-based, interactive sessions, this track equips board members, CEOs, and senior leaders with practical tools and governance practices that strengthen board-executive partnerships and prepare organizations to navigate complexity with purpose.
Governance
Nonprofit boards own ultimate legal and ethical responsibility for the organization's governance, financial health, and mission fulfillment. To meet this obligation, they must ask better questions, make informed decisions, steward resources, support executives, prepare for succession, ensure fidelity to values, and lead with purpose, clarity, and accountability. Through solutions-based, interactive sessions, this track equips board members, CEOs, and senior leaders with practical tools and governance practices that strengthen board-executive partnerships and prepare organizations to navigate complexity with purpose.
Building a Board That Meets This Moment
Moderator
Traci Lester | The Opportunity Agenda | Final President
Speaker
Karin Kunstler Goldman | Office of the New York State Attorney General | Deputy Bureau Chief, Charities Bureau
David Rhode | PennPAC | Deputy Director
Ramona Thomas | Community Resource Exchange | Director of Programs
Audience: Board members, CEO/EDs, Staff who support or partner with Boards
Effective boards must be prepared for more than routine oversight. This session explores how boards move beyond the basics by asking better questions, recruiting for the future, planning for leadership transitions, assessing their own performance, aligning around shared values, and strengthening long-term organizational resilience. Participants will leave with a leading practices checklist, essential questions every board should be asking, and a clearer sense of the governance conversations that cannot be postponed.
Practical Strategies for Strengthening the Board-CEO-Staff Partnership (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Keith Little | Kemili Solutions | Principal
Barbara Paxton | BoardStrong | Director
Christopher Turner | Denham Wolf Real Estate Services | Managing Director, Transaction Services
Audience: CEO/EDs, Board members, Staff who support or partner with Boards
Strong governance depends on trust, communication, clarity, and shared expectations among boards, CEOs, and staff. This session creates space to explore common governance tensions, including information sharing, board-staff relationships, and why executives may hesitate to raise difficult issues. Participants will practice strategies for strengthening communication, building trust, and fostering productive board-executive partnerships.
Governance and Transitions: Succession, Founder Challenge, and Continuity
Moderator
David C. Harris | Interim Executive Solutions | Managing Partner
Speaker
Diana Breen | Diana Breen Consulting LLC | Interim Executive Leadership
Peggy Farber | Office of New York State Attorney General | Assistant Attorney General
Amy M Smitherman | Kiwi Partners | CFO
Audience: Board members, CEO/EDs, Staff who support or partner with Boards
Board and staff leadership transitions can either strengthen or destabilize an organization. Through a panel discussion featuring real-world examples and lessons learned, this session explores succession planning, founder transitions, emergency leadership coverage, board evolution, term limits, and continuity planning. Panelists will share strategies for navigating leadership transitions while maintaining organizational stability and mission continuity. Participants will leave with practical insights and guiding questions to help boards prepare for leadership transitions before they become crises. Those wishing to apply these ideas to their own organizations can continue the work during the Action Forum (Session IV), where they will develop strategies to strengthen their organization's resilience and readiness.
Board Scenario Planning for Institutional Resilience (Action Forum)
Facilitator
Renée Jones | Red Hills Consulting Group, LLC | Founder & CEO
Anne Sherman | Anne Sherman Consulting | Principal
Keith Timko | Support Center for Nonprofit Management | Executive Director
Audience: Board members, CEO/EDs, Staff who support or partner with Boards
Boards need practical approaches to preparing for uncertain futures. In this Action Forum, participants will apply insights from Session III (or bring their own governance challenge) to work through governance-level scenarios, identify key decision points and risks, and develop strategies for navigating leadership transitions and organizational change. Board and executive leaders will clarify governance versus management responsibilities, consider communication strategies, and practice making values-aligned decisions under changing conditions. Participants will leave with concrete next steps to strengthen their organization's resilience and readiness for future transitions.
Programs
Programs are where mission becomes lived experience. As communities change and external conditions shift, organizations must adapt without losing purpose or extracting wisdom from the people they serve. This track explores strategic pivots, community voice, human-centered design, collaboration, and program decision-making so organizations can remain responsive, mission-aligned, and grounded in the needs and leadership of their communities.
Programs
Programs are where mission becomes lived experience. As communities change and external conditions shift, organizations must adapt without losing purpose or extracting wisdom from the people they serve. This track explores strategic pivots, community voice, human-centered design, collaboration, and program decision-making so organizations can remain responsive, mission-aligned, and grounded in the needs and leadership of their communities.
Strategic Pivot Workshop: Adapting Without Losing Purpose
Moderator
Laurel Molloy | Innovations Quantified | Founder
Speaker
Sherazade Langlade | WPTI | CEO
Tony Pillari | Excelis Consulting | Founder
Christine Rodriguez | VIP Mujeres | Director of Housing Programs
Audience: CEO/EDs, Board members, Program Staff
Programs must evolve as community needs, funding, policy, and internal capacity change. This workshop helps participants identify the factors that signal a need to pivot, the data needed to assess what they are responding to, and decide how to adapt while preserving mission and centering community. Participants will leave with a scenario-based decision tool for program pivots.
Community Voice and Program Development (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Carmen Pineiro | The Bronx Defenders
Natasha Capers | Roots of Joy Consulting | Founder
Barbara Prevatt | Consultant
Audience: CEO/EDs, Program Staff, Board members
Community voice should shape program design, implementation, and decision-making, not simply be extracted for reports. This session explores what community voice means, how to capture it responsibly, and how to use it in ways that are meaningful and non-exploitive. Participants will leave with practical tools for activating community voice in program strategy.
Collaborate to Persevere
Moderator
Arielle Kandel | New Women New Yorkers | Founder & CEO
Speaker
Sophia Holly | Exhale to Inhale | Program Director
Aleciah Anthony | The Bronx Defenders | Director, Community Engagement
Freeman Fields | Hope for NY | Senior Director of Programs
Rosaana Conforme | VIP Mujeres | Deputy Executive Director of Programs
Audience: CEO/EDs, Program staff, Operations staff, Board members
Collaboration can help organizations respond to complex community needs, but it requires clarity, trust, power-sharing, and operational discipline. This session explores when to collaborate, how to choose partners, what agreements are needed, and how to avoid collaborations that drain capacity. Participants will leave with a collaboration readiness checklist.
Collaborate or Build: Creating Responsive Programs (Action Forum)
Facilitator
Lisa Gale | LVG Strategy Group, LLC | Founder and Principal
Kate Harris | Kate Harris Group | Founder
Amanda Perez | Bronx HYPE | Director
Audience: CEO/EDs, Program staff
When facing new needs, organizations must decide whether to build internally, partner, refer, advocate, or stop doing something. This Action Forum helps participants apply decision criteria to real program challenges. Participants will leave with a draft action plan that names the problem, centers community, identifies partners or internal capacity needs, and defines the next decision point.
Talent
People make mission possible. Nonprofit leaders face the challenge of building sustainable, adaptable organizations with values-aligned cultures amid enormous resource constraints. This track focuses on the practices that support leadership pipelines and retention, strengthen management and equity, and make talent strategy an essential part of organizational resilience.
Talent
People make mission possible. Nonprofit leaders face the challenge of building sustainable, adaptable organizations with values-aligned cultures amid enormous resource constraints. This track focuses on the practices that support leadership pipelines and retention, strengthen management and equity, and make talent strategy an essential part of organizational resilience.
Workforce Reality Check: Retention, Capacity, and Sustainability
Moderator
Marcella McKoy | Graham Windham | VIce President, People, Experience, Learning & Volunteeris
Speaker
Lisa Brauner | Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP | Partner
Julian Chender | 11A Collaborative | Consultant
Marti Fischer | Marti Fischer Group | Principal
Audience: CEO/EDs, HR/Operations staff, Organizational leaders, Board members
Nonprofits are navigating compensation pressure, retention challenges, limited management capacity, and staff exhaustion. This session examines what leaders must understand about the current workforce environment and how to make talent decisions that are realistic, equitable, and mission-aligned. Participants will leave with key questions for assessing workforce capacity and risk.
Leadership Pipeline Exchange (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Elise Bernhardt | Executive Search and Rescue | Director
Coach Dora Mendez | Coach Dora Mendez | Principal
Claas Ehlers | Support Center for Nonprofit Management | Director of Executive Transition
Audience: CEO/EDs, HR/talent staff, organizational leaders
Leadership development cannot wait until a vacancy appears. This session gives participants a space to discuss management, mentorship, career pathways, succession planning, and career development opportunities across different organization sizes. Participants will exchange practices and leave with ideas for strengthening leadership pipelines absent large HR departments and/or facing limited resources.
Supporting Staff Well-Being to Build Organizational Accountability
Moderator
Trenia Parham | Sustainable Leadership Coaching | Principal
Speaker
Allison Mislow | MetLife | Program Director, Financial Wellness
Jake Sari | MetLife | Account Executive
Kristina Bustos | West Side Federation for Seniors and Supportive Housing | Managing Director of DEI
Monica Steffey | Dance/NYC | Director, Programming and Operations
Audience: CEO/EDs, HR/Talent staff, Organizational leaders, Board members
Staff well-being and organizational accountability are often treated as competing priorities. This session explores how leaders can set clear expectations, support sustainable workloads, improve supervision, and build cultures where people can thrive while mission work remains strong. Participants will leave with management practices that support both care and performance.
Strategies to Address Talent Challenges (Action Forum)
Facilitator
Robert Guimento | Interim Executive Solutions | Associate
Kristen Illes | 3D Leadership Solutions | Founder
Michelle Lewis | The Urban Assembly | Deputy Chief of Staff-People
Audience: CEO/EDs, HR/talent staff, Organizational leaders
This Action Forum helps participants translate workforce concerns into a concrete people strategy. Participants will identify a talent challenge, map root causes, name decision-makers, and choose near-term actions related to retention, supervision, compensation, professional development, or succession. The session will produce a draft action plan that can be refined after the conference.
Technology
Technology is core infrastructure for mission delivery, organizational effectiveness, risk management, and community engagement. From AI and cybersecurity to data governance and digital tools, nonprofit leaders must make informed decisions without losing sight of trust, equity, privacy, and purpose. This track helps organizations use technology strategically, manage risk, and build the digital capacity needed to stay relentless in pursuit of mission.
Technology
Technology is core infrastructure for mission delivery, organizational effectiveness, risk management, and community engagement. From AI and cybersecurity to data governance and digital tools, nonprofit leaders must make informed decisions without losing sight of trust, equity, privacy, and purpose. This track helps organizations use technology strategically, manage risk, and build the digital capacity needed to stay relentless in pursuit of mission.
Technology as Strategy: What Nonprofit Leaders Need to Know Now
Moderator
Leslie Zemnick | Kotter International/The Modus Project | Principal Consultant
Speaker
Jared Carroll | Community Resource Exchange | Senior Consultant
Dave Crusoe | DoSomething | Vice President, Product & Engineering
Tiffany Polk | JPMorganChase | Head of Technology for Corporate Responsibility
Audience: CEO/EDs, Operations staff, Technology staff, Board members
Technology is no longer only an IT concern; it shapes mission delivery, risk, efficiency, communications, fundraising, and community trust. This session gives nonprofit leaders a strategic overview of AI, cybersecurity, data, digital infrastructure, and vendor decisions. Participants will leave with a leadership-level technology question set to guide smarter decisions.
AI, Data, and Cybersecurity Clinic (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Peter Fidler | WCA Technologies | President
Andres Pazmino | Affila Technology | Founder and Principal
Remy Reya | Compass Pro Bono | Director of AI and Thought Leadership
Audience: CEO/EDs Technology staff, operations staff, Compliance/Data Management staff
Organizations are experimenting with AI, managing sensitive data, and facing cybersecurity risk with uneven capacity. This community of practice gives participants space to discuss real concerns, compare practices, and identify what they need from leaders, boards, vendors, and funders. Participants will leave with peer-tested risk questions and practical next steps.
Data Governance Under Fire
Moderator
Kiran Bhujle | SVAM International | President
Speaker
Matt Mitchell | Safety Sync Group | CEO
Christina Natividad Pagan | The Door | Managing Director of Datat and Evaluation
Danacea Vo | Cyberlixir | CEO
Audience: CEO/EDs, Technology staff, Operations staff, Program staff, Compliance/Data Management staff
Data can advance mission, but poor data governance can undermine trust. This session explores how nonprofits make responsible decisions about data collection, access, security, privacy, AI use, and community impact. Participants will work through scenarios and leave with a starter data governance checklist that connects risk management to mission and equity.
Digital Resilience (Action Forum)
Facilitator
Raghav Khurana | SVAM International | Network and Systems Engineer
Mark O'Brien | Scale Justice | Co-Founder
Audience: CEO/EDs, Operations staff, Technology staff, Finance staff, Program staff, Compliance/Data Management staff
This Action Forum helps participants identify the technology infrastructure most essential to their organization’s resilience. Participants will assess one technology risk or opportunity, name capacity gaps, identify decision-makers, and develop a next-step plan for investment, policy, training, or vendor action. The session will help organizations move from technology anxiety to actionable digital strategy.
Advocacy in a Polycrisis
Moderator
Laura Wolff | Laura Wolff Strategic Consulting | Consultant
Speaker
Matthew Camp | Campfire Strategies | Founder
Morgan Monaco | Prospect Park Alliance | Park Administrator and President of Alliance
McGregor Smyth | New York Lawyers for the Public Interest | Executive Director
Audience: CEO/EDs, policy staff, communications staff, program leaders, board members
Nonprofit leaders are facing a polycrisis of federal, state, and city policy pressures. This session grounds participants in the history of nonprofit advocacy during moments of crisis, reviews lessons learned, and explores what it means for every role across an organization to lean into advocacy now. Participants will hear practical strategies, discuss real-world risks and choices, and leave with tools to move from paralysis to disciplined action.
Breaking Through the Noise
Moderator
Joy Lau | Storyjoy | Founder
Speaker
Ross Connard | We2 | Founder & Creative Director
Benjamin Nathan | All of Us Films | Founder, Director
Ray Shah | Think Design, Inc. | Founder/CEO
Audience: CEO/EDs, communications staff, development leaders
Attention is one of the nonprofit sector’s scarcest resources. With so much noise online, nonprofits must have a tested strategy to make their voice heard. This interactive case study panel will help participants understand today’s attention economy and why organizational goals must come before communications tactics. Using real nonprofit campaigns, the session will examine why some efforts break through while others do not, and how campaigns can be assessed through a simple framework: compelling, consequential, and clear.
The Relentless CFO
Moderator
David Ashenfarb | SAX Advisory Group | Senior Advisor
Speaker
Ronald Tompkins | TurnAround Executive Coaching | Principal
Rachel DeMatteo | Your Part-Time Controller, LLC | Director
Digant Bahl | Accounting Solutions of NY | Founder and President
Travis Carey | Carey & Co | Founder & CEO
Audience: Finance executives, CEO/EDs, board members, senior leaders
Financial leadership requires far more than budget oversight. This session brings experienced CFOs and finance leaders into conversation about cash flow, contract management, financial modeling, revenue diversification, and the choices required to steer organizations through uncertainty. Participants will leave with insights into navigating these challenges and a framework for strengthening financial decision-making and sustainability.
Building a Culture that Activates Board Members
Moderator
Pinky Vincent Shubert, CFRE | Clarezza Insights LLC | Principal
Speaker
Christie Ko | Fiver Children's Foundation | Executive Director
Danielle Moss Cox | Oliver Scholars | President and CEO
Susan Sharer | Sharer Strategies | Principal
Audience: Board members, CEO/EDs, Development staff
Board fundraising works best when everyone understands their role. Participants will explore how to harness board enthusiasm in ways that support staff, strengthen donor relationships, and move beyond the myth that only a few people are responsible for revenue.
Building a Board That Meets This Moment
Moderator
Traci Lester | The Opportunity Agenda | Final President
Speaker
Karin Kunstler Goldman | Office of the New York State Attorney General | Deputy Bureau Chief, Charities Bureau
David Rhode | PennPAC | Deputy Director
Ramona Thomas | Community Resource Exchange | Director of Programs
Audience: Board members, CEO/EDs, Staff who support or partner with Boards
Effective boards must be prepared for more than routine oversight. This session explores how boards move beyond the basics by asking better questions, recruiting for the future, planning for leadership transitions, assessing their own performance, aligning around shared values, and strengthening long-term organizational resilience. Participants will leave with a leading practices checklist, essential questions every board should be asking, and a clearer sense of the governance conversations that cannot be postponed.
Strategic Pivot Workshop: Adapting Without Losing Purpose
Moderator
Laurel Molloy | Innovations Quantified | Founder
Speaker
Sherazade Langlade | WPTI | CEO
Tony Pillari | Excelis Consulting | Founder
Christine Rodriguez | VIP Mujeres | Director of Housing Programs
Audience: CEO/EDs, Board members, Program Staff
Programs must evolve as community needs, funding, policy, and internal capacity change. This workshop helps participants identify the factors that signal a need to pivot, the data needed to assess what they are responding to, and decide how to adapt while preserving mission and centering community. Participants will leave with a scenario-based decision tool for program pivots.
Workforce Reality Check: Retention, Capacity, and Sustainability
Moderator
Marcella McKoy | Graham Windham | VIce President, People, Experience, Learning & Volunteeris
Speaker
Lisa Brauner | Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP | Partner
Julian Chender | 11A Collaborative | Consultant
Marti Fischer | Marti Fischer Group | Principal
Audience: CEO/EDs, HR/Operations staff, Organizational leaders, Board members
Nonprofits are navigating compensation pressure, retention challenges, limited management capacity, and staff exhaustion. This session examines what leaders must understand about the current workforce environment and how to make talent decisions that are realistic, equitable, and mission-aligned. Participants will leave with key questions for assessing workforce capacity and risk.
Technology as Strategy: What Nonprofit Leaders Need to Know Now
Moderator
Leslie Zemnick | Kotter International/The Modus Project | Principal Consultant
Speaker
Jared Carroll | Community Resource Exchange | Senior Consultant
Dave Crusoe | DoSomething | Vice President, Product & Engineering
Tiffany Polk | JPMorganChase | Head of Technology for Corporate Responsibility
Audience: CEO/EDs, Operations staff, Technology staff, Board members
Technology is no longer only an IT concern; it shapes mission delivery, risk, efficiency, communications, fundraising, and community trust. This session gives nonprofit leaders a strategic overview of AI, cybersecurity, data, digital infrastructure, and vendor decisions. Participants will leave with a leadership-level technology question set to guide smarter decisions.
Making Meaning of the Moment
Facilitator
Lisa Cowan | The Haven Fund | Director
Joanne Smith | Girls for Gender Equity | President and CEO
Audience: Policy leads, CEO/EDs, communications leads, coalition partners
Before organizations can act together, leaders need space to make meaning of what has changed. This session gives advocacy, policy, and strategy leaders a structured place to interpret recent political developments, share reactions, surface implications, and prepare for practical planning. Participants will leave clearer, steadier, and ready to engage in collective strategy.
Achieving Message Discipline
Facilitator
Coniqua Johnson-Reed | Fearless Spaces Consulting | Founder and Principal Consultant
Vanessa Wakeman | The Wakeman Agency | Principal
Audience: Board members, CEO/EDs, Communications staff
When uncertainty increases, the challenge is responding without losing consistency, credibility, authenticity, or organizational voice. This session will help nonprofit leaders and communicators discuss real communications challenges through sample scenarios and structured peer exchange. Participants will explore how to prepare staff, board leaders, and spokespeople to stay on message before an issue becomes an uproar.
Mission-Aligned Money
Facilitator
Dara Kagan | Amalgamated Bank | First Vice President, Social Impact Banking
Nina Bahazhevska | NCheng | Partner
Faizan Younus | NCheng | Managing Principal
Audience: CEO/EDs, Development staff, Finance staff, HR/Operations staff
Money is never neutral. This session invites participants to examine where organizational resources come from, how they are spent, and whether those choices align with mission and values. Participants will discuss banking and financial services, vendors, internal investments, funder relationships, and tradeoffs, leaving with a framework for more mission-aligned financial choices.
Fundraising Without Burnout
Facilitator
Rachel Pardoe | The New York Community Trust | Program Director
Ronnie Plasters | Consulting Ronnie | Founder and President
Audience: Development staff, CEO/EDs, Board members
Fundraising can be deeply meaningful and deeply exhausting. This session creates space for development professionals and leaders to acknowledge the emotional challenges of workload, donor expectations, internal pressure, and sustainability, and approach them through a lens of action and care. Participants will identify practical ways to build healthier fundraising cultures, clarify roles, share the work, and protect the people responsible for sustaining the mission.
Practical Strategies for Strengthening the Board-CEO-Staff Partnership
Facilitator
Keith Little | Kemili Solutions | Principal
Barbara Paxton | BoardStrong | Director
Christopher Turner | Denham Wolf Real Estate Services | Managing Director, Transaction Services
Audience: CEO/EDs, Board members, Staff partnering with Boards
Strong governance depends on trust, communication, clarity, and shared expectations among boards, CEOs, and staff. This session creates space to explore common governance tensions, including information sharing, board-staff relationships, and why executives may hesitate to raise difficult issues. Participants will practice strategies for strengthening communication, building trust, and fostering productive board-executive partnerships.
Community Voice and Program Development
Facilitator
Carmen Pineiro | The Bronx Defenders
Natasha Capers | Roots of Joy Consulting | Founder
Barbara Prevatt | Consultant
Audience: CEO/EDs, Program Staff, Board members
Community voice should shape program design, implementation, and decision-making, not simply be extracted for reports. This session explores what community voice means, how to capture it responsibly, and how to use it in ways that are meaningful and non-exploitive. Participants will leave with practical tools for activating community voice in program strategy.
Leadership Pipeline Exchange
Facilitator
Elise Bernhardt | Executive Search and Rescue | Director
Coach Dora Mendez | Coach Dora Mendez | Principal
Claas Ehlers | Support Center for Nonprofit Management | Director of Executive Transition
Audience: CEO/EDs, HR/talent staff, organizational leaders
Leadership development cannot wait until a vacancy appears. This session gives participants a space to discuss management, mentorship, career pathways, succession planning, and career development opportunities across different organization sizes. Participants will exchange practices and leave with ideas for strengthening leadership pipelines absent large HR departments and/or facing limited resources.
AI, Data, and Cybersecurity Clinic
Facilitator
Peter Fidler | WCA Technologies | President
Andres Pazmino | Affila Technology | Founder and Principal
Remy Reya | Compass Pro Bono | Director of AI and Thought Leadership
Audience: CEO/EDs, Technology staff, operations staff, Compliance staff
Organizations are experimenting with AI, managing sensitive data, and facing cybersecurity risk with uneven capacity. This community of practice gives participants space to discuss real concerns, compare practices, and identify what they need from leaders, boards, vendors, and funders. Participants will leave with peer-tested risk questions and practical next steps.
The Role of the Sector in a Multiracial Democracy
Moderator
Drew Gabriel | CAMBA Inc. | Vice President, Intergovernmental Affairs
Speaker
Elizabeth Angeles | Angeles Impact Advising | Principal Consultant
Tiloma Jayasinghe | Community Resourcre Exchange | President and CEO
Audience: CEO/EDs, policy staff, communications staff, program staff, board members
The everyday work of nonprofits in building strong and resilient communities is directly connected to protecting and advancing democracy. Across the sector, organizations are beginning to embrace this as part of their mission. This session explores how even organizations without large policy teams can use community proximity, mission credibility, and moral authority to mobilize people and defend a multiracial democracy. Participants will connect their individual missions to the broader democracy movement and identify who inside their organizations can engage, in what way, and to what end.
Using Mission to Guide Decisions
Moderator
Ashley Lanfer | Wellspring Consulting | Partner
Speaker
Jheramis A. H. Collado | Student Leadership Network | Director, Marketing and Communications
Farra Trompeter | Big Duck | Co-Director
Audience: Communications staff, CEO/EDs, Development staff, Program staff
A mission statement is a strategic tool for focusing organizational activity. It gives leaders, staff, and boards a shared basis for deciding what to prioritize, pursue, and decline. This interactive workshop will help participants distinguish mission, vision, and values, and recognize how to use that clarity to align community needs, programs, evidence, and purpose through clear language that guides decisions and action.
Funding Infrastructure, Not Just Programs
Moderator
Katy Brown | Armanino Advisory LLC | Partner
Speaker
Andrew Perumal | BTQ Financial | Partner and Director of Client Operations
Stephen Powers | OPEN Impact Real Estate | Co-Founder
Sabrina Stratton | Amalgamated Bank | Senior Vice President, Northeast Regional Director
Jana Reed | Nonprofit Finance Fund | Chief Operating Officer
Audience: CEO/EDs, Finance staff, Development staff, Board members
Nonprofits cannot deliver strong programs without strong infrastructure. This session explores how to make the case for investing, real estate, technology, staff, finance systems, and cultivating a culture of financial management. Participants will learn how organizations have framed infrastructure as mission-critical and leave with language and examples to use with boards and funders.
Assessing Your Development Program to Build a More Sustainable Future
Moderator
Davina Angus | Social Impact Strategist | Consultant
Speaker
Katie Solomon | Armanino | Manager, Nonprofit Advisory
Samantha Koon | Guttmacher Institute | Senio Development Associate
Audience: CEO/EDs, Development staff, Board members
Organizations often know they need more revenue but lack a clear picture of what needs to change. This workshop provides participants with a framework for assessing their fundraising mix, staffing, systems, donor pipeline, board engagement, and external trends. Participants will leave with a tool they can use as a development diagnostic to set priorities for building a more sustainable revenue engine.
Governance and Transitions: Succession, Founder Challenge, and Continuity
Moderator
David C. Harris | Interim Executive Solutions | Managing Partner
Speaker
Diana Breen | Diana Breen Consulting LLC | Interim Executive Leadership
Peggy Farber | Office of New York State Attorney General | Assistant Attorney General
Amy M Smitherman | Kiwi Partners | CFO
Audience: Board members, CEO/EDs, Staff partnering with Boards
Board and staff leadership transitions can either strengthen or destabilize an organization. Through a panel discussion featuring real-world examples and lessons learned, this session explores succession planning, founder transitions, emergency leadership coverage, board evolution, term limits, and continuity planning. Panelists will share strategies for navigating leadership transitions while maintaining organizational stability and mission continuity. Participants will leave with practical insights and guiding questions to help boards prepare for leadership transitions before they become crises. Those wishing to apply these ideas to their own organizations can continue the work during the Action Forum (Session IV), where they will develop strategies to strengthen their organization's resilience and readiness.
Collaborate to Persevere
Moderator
Arielle Kandel | New Women New Yorkers | Founder & CEO
Speaker
Sophia Holly | Exhale to Inhale | Program Director
Aleciah Anthony | The Bronx Defenders | Director, Community Engagement
Freeman Fields | Hope for NY | Senior Director of Programs
Rosaana Conforme | VIP Mujeres | Deputy Executive Director of Programs
Audience: CEO/EDs, Program staff, Operations staff, Board members
Collaboration can help organizations respond to complex community needs, but it requires clarity, trust, power-sharing, and operational discipline. This session explores when to collaborate, how to choose partners, what agreements are needed, and how to avoid collaborations that drain capacity. Participants will leave with a collaboration readiness checklist.
Supporting Staff Well-Being to Build Organizational Accountability
Moderator
Trenia Parham | Sustainable Leadership Coaching | Principal
Speaker
Allison Mislow | MetLife | Program Director, Financial Wellness
Jake Sari | MetLife | Account Executive
Kristina Bustos | West Side Federation for Seniors and Supportive Housing | Managing Director of DEI
Monica Steffey | Dance/NYC | Director, Programming and Operations
Audience: CEO/EDs, HR/Talent staff, Organizational leaders, Board members
Staff well-being and organizational accountability are often treated as competing priorities. This session explores how leaders can set clear expectations, support sustainable workloads, improve supervision, and build cultures where people can thrive while mission work remains strong. Participants will leave with management practices that support both care and performance.
Data Governance Under Fire
Moderator
Kiran Bhujle | SVAM International | President
Speaker
Matt Mitchell | Safety Sync Group | CEO
Christina Natividad Pagan | The Door | Managing Director of Datat and Evaluation
Danacea Vo | Cyberlixir | CEO
Audience: CEO/EDs, Technology staff, Operations staff, Program staff, Compliance staff
Data can advance mission, but poor data governance can undermine trust. This session explores how nonprofits make responsible decisions about data collection, access, security, privacy, AI use, and community impact. Participants will work through scenarios and leave with a starter data governance checklist that connects risk management to mission and equity.
Forging a Way Forward
Speakers: TBD
Audience: Policy leads, CEO/EDs, communications leads, coalition partners
This Action Forum turns reflection into strategy. Participants will identify shared sector priorities, test scenarios, name the infrastructure needed for collective advocacy, and develop practical language for boards, staff, constituents, and elected officials. The session will produce tactical next steps, outreach ideas, and an initial advocacy strategy that can continue beyond the conference.
Crisis Communications Response
Facilitator
Michael Gordon | Gordon Group | Chief Executive
Marykate Mattiello | Gordon Group | Senior Vice President, Strategy
Audience: Executives, communications staff, board leaders, senior managers
Communications crises rarely happen on a schedule, but organizations can prepare for them. This action forum will begin by helping participants distinguish between a difficult issue, a reputational threat, and a true communications crisis. Participants will examine a framework to help them identify risks, assign roles, determine what to do first, and how to draft an initial response and talking points. The session will take participants through a realistic nonprofit crisis scenario involving media attention, staff concerns, community questions, funder anxiety, and social media pressure.
Scenario Planning for Financial Resilience
Facilitator
George Andrezzi | TDBank | Regional Group Manager, Government, Education & Non-Profit Banking
Lacey Chadbourne | TDBank | Market Commercial Credit Manager, Non-Profit Banking
Hilda Polanco | BDO | Nonprofit & Grantmaker Advisory
Samantha Schaefer | BDO | Manager, Industry Specialty Services, Nonprofit & Grantmaking Advisory
Audience: Finance executives, CEOs, Development staff, Program staff, Board members
This Action Forum helps participants plan for financial uncertainty without becoming frozen by it. Using best-case, likely-case, and worst-case scenarios, participants will identify tools, triggers, decisions, and communication practices that support financial resilience. Participants will leave with a scenario planning template and next steps for nimble, mission-aligned financial management.
The Next Generation Donor
Facilitator
Will Schrepferman | DonorAtlas | Executive Director, CEO
Brittany Morrison | B. Spoke Advisory | Founder
Tess McCain | DonorAtlas | Director of Client Solutions
Meg George | George Philanthropy Group | Co-Founder and President
Audience: CEO/Eds, Communications staff, Development staff, Board members
Donor behavior, generational expectations, and civic engagement are changing. This Action Forum explores how nonprofits can build relationships with emerging donors, younger supporters, giving circles, corporate partners, and community-based philanthropists. Participants will identify engagement strategies, test messaging, and leave with a donor cultivation experiment they can launch after the conference.
Board Scenario Planning for Institutional Resilience
Facilitator
Renée Jones | Red Hills Consulting Group, LLC | Founder & CEO
Anne Sherman | Anne Sherman Consulting | Principal
Keith Timko | Support Center for Nonprofit Management | Executive Director
Audience: Board members, CEO/EDs, Staff partnering with Boards
Boards need practical approaches to preparing for uncertain futures. In this Action Forum, participants will apply insights from Session III (or bring their own governance challenge) to work through governance-level scenarios, identify key decision points and risks, and develop strategies for navigating leadership transitions and organizational change. Board and executive leaders will clarify governance versus management responsibilities, consider communication strategies, and practice making values-aligned decisions under changing conditions. Participants will leave with concrete next steps to strengthen their organization's resilience and readiness for future transitions.
Collaborate or Build: Creating Responsive Programs
Facilitator
Lisa Gale | LVG Strategy Group, LLC | Founder and Principal
Kate Harris | Kate Harris Group | Founder
Amanda Perez | Bronx HYPE | Director
Audience: CEO/EDs, Program staff
When facing new needs, organizations must decide whether to build internally, partner, refer, advocate, or stop doing something. This Action Forum helps participants apply decision criteria to real program challenges. Participants will leave with a draft action plan that names the problem, centers community, identifies partners or internal capacity needs, and defines the next decision point.
Strategies to Address Talent Challenges
Facilitator
Robert Guimento | Interim Executive Solutions | Associate
Kristen Illes | 3D Leadership Solutions | Founder
Michelle Lewis | The Urban Assembly | Deputy Chief of Staff-People
Audience: CEO/EDs, HR/talent staff, Organizational leaders
This Action Forum helps participants translate workforce concerns into a concrete people strategy. Participants will identify a talent challenge, map root causes, name decision-makers, and choose near-term actions related to retention, supervision, compensation, professional development, or succession. The session will produce a draft action plan that can be refined after the conference.
Digital Resilience
Facilitator
Raghav Khurana | SVAM International | Network and Systems Engineer
Mark O'Brien | Scale Justice | Co-Founder
Audience: CEO/EDs, Operations staff, Technology staff, Finance staff, Program staff, Compliance/Data Management staff
This Action Forum helps participants identify the technology infrastructure most essential to their organization’s resilience. Participants will assess one technology risk or opportunity, name capacity gaps, identify decision-makers, and develop a next-step plan for investment, policy, training, or vendor action. The session will help organizations move from technology anxiety to actionable digital strategy.
Leading Through Uncertainty
Navigate uncertainty and pressure while staying steady and mission-centered.
Navigate uncertainty and pressure while staying steady and mission-centered.
Advocacy in a Polycrisis
Moderator
Laura Wolff | Laura Wolff Strategic Consulting | Consultant
Speaker
Matthew Camp | Campfire Strategies | Founder
Morgan Monaco | Prospect Park Alliance | Park Administrator and President of Alliance
McGregor Smyth | New York Lawyers for the Public Interest | Executive Director
Audience: CEO/EDs, policy staff, communications staff, program leaders, board members
Nonprofit leaders are facing a polycrisis of federal, state, and city policy pressures. This session grounds participants in the history of nonprofit advocacy during moments of crisis, reviews lessons learned, and explores what it means for every role across an organization to lean into advocacy now. Participants will hear practical strategies, discuss real-world risks and choices, and leave with tools to move from paralysis to disciplined action.
The Relentless CFO
Moderator
David Ashenfarb | SAX Advisory Group | Senior Advisor
Speaker
Ronald Tompkins | TurnAround Executive Coaching | Principal
Rachel DeMatteo | Your Part-Time Controller, LLC | Director
Digant Bahl | Accounting Solutions of NY | Founder and President
Travis Carey | Carey & Co | Founder & CEO
Audience: Finance executives, CEO/EDs, board members, senior leaders
Financial leadership requires far more than budget oversight. This session brings experienced CFOs and finance leaders into conversation about cash flow, contract management, financial modeling, revenue diversification, and the choices required to steer organizations through uncertainty. Participants will leave with insights into navigating these challenges and a framework for strengthening financial decision-making and sustainability.
Strategic Pivot Workshop: Adapting Without Losing Purpose
Moderator
Laurel Molloy | Innovations Quantified | Founder
Speaker
Sherazade Langlade | WPTI | CEO
Tony Pillari | Excelis Consulting | Founder
Christine Rodriguez | VIP Mujeres | Director of Housing Programs
Audience: CEO/EDs, Board members, Program Staff
Programs must evolve as community needs, funding, policy, and internal capacity change. This workshop helps participants identify the factors that signal a need to pivot, the data needed to assess what they are responding to, and decide how to adapt while preserving mission and centering community. Participants will leave with a scenario-based decision tool for program pivots.
Workforce Reality Check: Retention, Capacity, and Sustainability
Moderator
Marcella McKoy | Graham Windham | VIce President, People, Experience, Learning & Volunteeris
Speaker
Lisa Brauner | Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP | Partner
Julian Chender | 11A Collaborative | Consultant
Marti Fischer | Marti Fischer Group | Principal
Audience: CEO/EDs, HR/Operations staff, Organizational leaders, Board members
Nonprofits are navigating compensation pressure, retention challenges, limited management capacity, and staff exhaustion. This session examines what leaders must understand about the current workforce environment and how to make talent decisions that are realistic, equitable, and mission-aligned. Participants will leave with key questions for assessing workforce capacity and risk.
Making Meaning of the Moment (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Lisa Cowan | The Haven Fund | Director
Joanne Smith | Girls for Gender Equity | President and CEO
Audience: Policy leads, CEO/EDs, communications leads, coalition partners
Before organizations can act together, leaders need space to make meaning of what has changed. This session gives advocacy, policy, and strategy leaders a structured place to interpret recent political developments, share reactions, surface implications, and prepare for practical planning. Participants will leave clearer, steadier, and ready to engage in collective strategy.
Achieving Message Discipline (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Coniqua Johnson-Reed | Fearless Spaces Consulting | Founder and Principal Consultant
Vanessa Wakeman | The Wakeman Agency | Principal
Audience: Board members, CEO/EDs, Communications staff
When uncertainty increases, the challenge is responding without losing consistency, credibility, authenticity, or organizational voice. This session will help nonprofit leaders and communicators discuss real communications challenges through sample scenarios and structured peer exchange. Participants will explore how to prepare staff, board leaders, and spokespeople to stay on message before an issue becomes an uproar.
Practical Strategies for Strengthening the Board-CEO-Staff Partnership (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Keith Little | Kemili Solutions | Principal
Barbara Paxton | BoardStrong | Director
Christopher Turner | Denham Wolf Real Estate Services | Managing Director, Transaction Services
Audience: CEO/EDs, Board members, Staff who support or partner with Boards
Strong governance depends on trust, communication, clarity, and shared expectations among boards, CEOs, and staff. This session creates space to explore common governance tensions, including information sharing, board-staff relationships, and why executives may hesitate to raise difficult issues. Participants will practice strategies for strengthening communication, building trust, and fostering productive board-executive partnerships.
AI, Data, and Cybersecurity Clinic (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Peter Fidler | WCA Technologies | President
Andres Pazmino | Affila Technology | Founder and Principal
Remy Reya | Compass Pro Bono | Director of AI and Thought Leadership
Audience: CEO/EDs Technology staff, operations staff, Compliance/Data Management staff
Organizations are experimenting with AI, managing sensitive data, and facing cybersecurity risk with uneven capacity. This community of practice gives participants space to discuss real concerns, compare practices, and identify what they need from leaders, boards, vendors, and funders. Participants will leave with peer-tested risk questions and practical next steps.
The Role of the Sector in a Multiracial Democracy
Moderator
Drew Gabriel | CAMBA Inc. | Vice President, Intergovernmental Affairs
Speaker
Elizabeth Angeles | Angeles Impact Advising | Principal Consultant
Tiloma Jayasinghe | Community Resourcre Exchange | President and CEO
Audience: CEO/EDs, policy staff, communications staff, program staff, board members
The everyday work of nonprofits in building strong and resilient communities is directly connected to protecting and advancing democracy. Across the sector, organizations are beginning to embrace this as part of their mission. This session explores how even organizations without large policy teams can use community proximity, mission credibility, and moral authority to mobilize people and defend a multiracial democracy. Participants will connect their individual missions to the broader democracy movement and identify who inside their organizations can engage, in what way, and to what end.
Crisis Communications Response (Action Forum)
Facilitator
Michael Gordon | Gordon Group | Chief Executive
Marykate Mattiello | Gordon Group | Senior Vice President, Strategy
Audience: Executives, communications staff, board leaders, senior managers
Communications crises rarely happen on a schedule, but organizations can prepare for them. This action forum will begin by helping participants distinguish between a difficult issue, a reputational threat, and a true communications crisis. Participants will examine a framework to help them identify risks, assign roles, determine what to do first, and how to draft an initial response and talking points. The session will take participants through a realistic nonprofit crisis scenario involving media attention, staff concerns, community questions, funder anxiety, and social media pressure.
Building Sustainable Organizations
Build resilient systems, finances, people, and infrastructure for the long term.
Build resilient systems, finances, people, and infrastructure for the long term.
Breaking Through the Noise
Moderator
Joy Lau | Storyjoy | Founder
Speaker
Ross Connard | We2 | Founder & Creative Director
Benjamin Nathan | All of Us Films | Founder, Director
Ray Shah | Think Design, Inc. | Founder/CEO
Audience: CEO/EDs, communications staff, development leaders
Attention is one of the nonprofit sector’s scarcest resources. With so much noise online, nonprofits must have a tested strategy to make their voice heard. This interactive case study panel will help participants understand today’s attention economy and why organizational goals must come before communications tactics. Using real nonprofit campaigns, the session will examine why some efforts break through while others do not, and how campaigns can be assessed through a simple framework: compelling, consequential, and clear.
Building a Board That Meets This Moment
Moderator
Traci Lester | The Opportunity Agenda | Final President
Speaker
Karin Kunstler Goldman | Office of the New York State Attorney General | Deputy Bureau Chief, Charities Bureau
David Rhode | PennPAC | Deputy Director
Ramona Thomas | Community Resource Exchange | Director of Programs
Audience: Board members, CEO/EDs, Staff who support or partner with Boards
Effective boards must be prepared for more than routine oversight. This session explores how boards move beyond the basics by asking better questions, recruiting for the future, planning for leadership transitions, assessing their own performance, aligning around shared values, and strengthening long-term organizational resilience. Participants will leave with a leading practices checklist, essential questions every board should be asking, and a clearer sense of the governance conversations that cannot be postponed.
Strategic Pivot Workshop: Adapting Without Losing Purpose
Moderator
Laurel Molloy | Innovations Quantified | Founder
Speaker
Sherazade Langlade | WPTI | CEO
Tony Pillari | Excelis Consulting | Founder
Christine Rodriguez | VIP Mujeres | Director of Housing Programs
Audience: CEO/EDs, Board members, Program Staff
Programs must evolve as community needs, funding, policy, and internal capacity change. This workshop helps participants identify the factors that signal a need to pivot, the data needed to assess what they are responding to, and decide how to adapt while preserving mission and centering community. Participants will leave with a scenario-based decision tool for program pivots.
Technology as Strategy: What Nonprofit Leaders Need to Know Now
Moderator
Leslie Zemnick | Kotter International/The Modus Project | Principal Consultant
Speaker
Jared Carroll | Community Resource Exchange | Senior Consultant
Dave Crusoe | DoSomething | Vice President, Product & Engineering
Tiffany Polk | JPMorganChase | Head of Technology for Corporate Responsibility
Audience: CEO/EDs, Operations staff, Technology staff, Board members
Technology is no longer only an IT concern; it shapes mission delivery, risk, efficiency, communications, fundraising, and community trust. This session gives nonprofit leaders a strategic overview of AI, cybersecurity, data, digital infrastructure, and vendor decisions. Participants will leave with a leadership-level technology question set to guide smarter decisions.
Fundraising Without Burnout (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Rachel Pardoe | The New York Community Trust | Program Director
Ronnie Plasters | Consulting Ronnie | Founder and President
Audience: Development staff, CEO/EDs, Board members
Fundraising can be deeply meaningful and deeply exhausting. This session creates space for development professionals and leaders to acknowledge the emotional challenges of workload, donor expectations, internal pressure, and sustainability, and approach them through a lens of action and care. Participants will identify practical ways to build healthier fundraising cultures, clarify roles, share the work, and protect the people responsible for sustaining the mission.
Practical Strategies for Strengthening the Board-CEO-Staff Partnership (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Keith Little | Kemili Solutions | Principal
Barbara Paxton | BoardStrong | Director
Christopher Turner | Denham Wolf Real Estate Services | Managing Director, Transaction Services
Audience: CEO/EDs, Board members, Staff who support or partner with Boards
Strong governance depends on trust, communication, clarity, and shared expectations among boards, CEOs, and staff. This session creates space to explore common governance tensions, including information sharing, board-staff relationships, and why executives may hesitate to raise difficult issues. Participants will practice strategies for strengthening communication, building trust, and fostering productive board-executive partnerships.
Leadership Pipeline Exchange (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Elise Bernhardt | Executive Search and Rescue | Director
Coach Dora Mendez | Coach Dora Mendez | Principal
Claas Ehlers | Support Center for Nonprofit Management | Director of Executive Transition
Audience: CEO/EDs, HR/talent staff, organizational leaders
Leadership development cannot wait until a vacancy appears. This session gives participants a space to discuss management, mentorship, career pathways, succession planning, and career development opportunities across different organization sizes. Participants will exchange practices and leave with ideas for strengthening leadership pipelines absent large HR departments and/or facing limited resources.
Funding Infrastructure, Not Just Programs
Moderator
Katy Brown | Armanino Advisory LLC | Partner
Speaker
Andrew Perumal | BTQ Financial | Partner and Director of Client Operations
Stephen Powers | OPEN Impact Real Estate | Co-Founder
Sabrina Stratton | Amalgamated Bank | Senior Vice President, Northeast Regional Director
Jana Reed | Nonprofit Finance Fund | Chief Operating Officer
Audience: CEO/EDs, Finance staff, Development staff, Board members
Nonprofits cannot deliver strong programs without strong infrastructure. This session explores how to make the case for investing, real estate, technology, staff, finance systems, and cultivating a culture of financial management. Participants will learn how organizations have framed infrastructure as mission-critical and leave with language and examples to use with boards and funders.
Assessing Your Development Program to Build a More Sustainable Future
Moderator
Davina Angus | Social Impact Strategist | Consultant
Speaker
Katie Solomon | Armanino | Manager, Nonprofit Advisory
Samantha Koon | Guttmacher Institute | Senio Development Associate
Audience: CEO/EDs, Development staff, Board members
Organizations often know they need more revenue but lack a clear picture of what needs to change. This workshop provides participants with a framework for assessing their fundraising mix, staffing, systems, donor pipeline, board engagement, and external trends. Participants will leave with a tool they can use as a development diagnostic to set priorities for building a more sustainable revenue engine.
Governance and Transitions: Succession, Founder Challenge, and Continuity
Moderator
David C. Harris | Interim Executive Solutions | Managing Partner
Speaker
Diana Breen | Diana Breen Consulting LLC | Interim Executive Leadership
Peggy Farber | Office of New York State Attorney General | Assistant Attorney General
Amy M Smitherman | Kiwi Partners | CFO
Audience: Board members, CEO/EDs, Staff who support or partner with Boards
Board and staff leadership transitions can either strengthen or destabilize an organization. Through a panel discussion featuring real-world examples and lessons learned, this session explores succession planning, founder transitions, emergency leadership coverage, board evolution, term limits, and continuity planning. Panelists will share strategies for navigating leadership transitions while maintaining organizational stability and mission continuity. Participants will leave with practical insights and guiding questions to help boards prepare for leadership transitions before they become crises. Those wishing to apply these ideas to their own organizations can continue the work during the Action Forum (Session IV), where they will develop strategies to strengthen their organization's resilience and readiness.
Collaborate to Persevere
Moderator
Arielle Kandel | New Women New Yorkers | Founder & CEO
Speaker
Sophia Holly | Exhale to Inhale | Program Director
Aleciah Anthony | The Bronx Defenders | Director, Community Engagement
Freeman Fields | Hope for NY | Senior Director of Programs
Rosaana Conforme | VIP Mujeres | Deputy Executive Director of Programs
Audience: CEO/EDs, Program staff, Operations staff, Board members
Collaboration can help organizations respond to complex community needs, but it requires clarity, trust, power-sharing, and operational discipline. This session explores when to collaborate, how to choose partners, what agreements are needed, and how to avoid collaborations that drain capacity. Participants will leave with a collaboration readiness checklist.
Supporting Staff Well-Being to Build Organizational Accountability
Moderator
Trenia Parham | Sustainable Leadership Coaching | Principal
Speaker
Allison Mislow | MetLife | Program Director, Financial Wellness
Jake Sari | MetLife | Account Executive
Kristina Bustos | West Side Federation for Seniors and Supportive Housing | Managing Director of DEI
Monica Steffey | Dance/NYC | Director, Programming and Operations
Audience: CEO/EDs, HR/Talent staff, Organizational leaders, Board members
Staff well-being and organizational accountability are often treated as competing priorities. This session explores how leaders can set clear expectations, support sustainable workloads, improve supervision, and build cultures where people can thrive while mission work remains strong. Participants will leave with management practices that support both care and performance.
Data Governance Under Fire
Moderator
Kiran Bhujle | SVAM International | President
Speaker
Matt Mitchell | Safety Sync Group | CEO
Christina Natividad Pagan | The Door | Managing Director of Datat and Evaluation
Danacea Vo | Cyberlixir | CEO
Audience: CEO/EDs, Technology staff, Operations staff, Program staff, Compliance/Data Management staff
Data can advance mission, but poor data governance can undermine trust. This session explores how nonprofits make responsible decisions about data collection, access, security, privacy, AI use, and community impact. Participants will work through scenarios and leave with a starter data governance checklist that connects risk management to mission and equity.
Board Scenario Planning for Institutional Resilience (Action Forum)
Facilitator
Renée Jones | Red Hills Consulting Group, LLC | Founder & CEO
Anne Sherman | Anne Sherman Consulting | Principal
Keith Timko | Support Center for Nonprofit Management | Executive Director
Audience: Board members, CEO/EDs, Staff partnering with Boards
Boards need practical approaches to preparing for uncertain futures. In this Action Forum, participants will apply insights from Session III (or bring their own governance challenge) to work through governance-level scenarios, identify key decision points and risks, and develop strategies for navigating leadership transitions and organizational change. Board and executive leaders will clarify governance versus management responsibilities, consider communication strategies, and practice making values-aligned decisions under changing conditions. Participants will leave with concrete next steps to strengthen their organization's resilience and readiness for future transitions.
Mobilizing People and Resources
Engage people, partners, and resources to move your mission forward together.
Engage people, partners, and resources to move your mission forward together.
Breaking Through the Noise
Moderator
Joy Lau | Storyjoy | Founder
Speaker
Ross Connard | We2 | Founder & Creative Director
Benjamin Nathan | All of Us Films | Founder, Director
Ray Shah | Think Design, Inc. | Founder/CEO
Audience: CEO/EDs, communications staff, development leaders
Attention is one of the nonprofit sector’s scarcest resources. With so much noise online, nonprofits must have a tested strategy to make their voice heard. This interactive case study panel will help participants understand today’s attention economy and why organizational goals must come before communications tactics. Using real nonprofit campaigns, the session will examine why some efforts break through while others do not, and how campaigns can be assessed through a simple framework: compelling, consequential, and clear.
Building a Culture that Activates Board Members
Moderator
Pinky Vincent Shubert, CFRE | Clarezza Insights LLC | Principal
Speaker
Christie Ko | Fiver Children's Foundation | Executive Director
Danielle Moss Cox | Oliver Scholars | President and CEO
Susan Sharer | Sharer Strategies | Principal
Audience: Board members, CEO/EDs, Development staff
Board fundraising works best when everyone understands their role. Participants will explore how to harness board enthusiasm in ways that support staff, strengthen donor relationships, and move beyond the myth that only a few people are responsible for revenue.
Building a Board That Meets This Moment
Moderator
Traci Lester | The Opportunity Agenda | Final President
Speaker
Karin Kunstler Goldman | Office of the New York State Attorney General | Deputy Bureau Chief, Charities Bureau
David Rhode | PennPAC | Deputy Director
Ramona Thomas | Community Resource Exchange | Director of Programs
Audience: Board members, CEO/EDs, Staff who support or partner with Boards
Effective boards must be prepared for more than routine oversight. This session explores how boards move beyond the basics by asking better questions, recruiting for the future, planning for leadership transitions, assessing their own performance, aligning around shared values, and strengthening long-term organizational resilience. Participants will leave with a leading practices checklist, essential questions every board should be asking, and a clearer sense of the governance conversations that cannot be postponed.
Mission-Aligned Money (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Dara Kagan | Amalgamated Bank | First Vice President, Social Impact Banking
Nina Bahazhevska | NCheng | Partner
Faizan Younus | NCheng | Managing Principal
Audience: CEO/Eds, Development staff, Finance staff, HR/Operations staff
Money is never neutral. This session invites participants to examine where organizational resources come from, how they are spent, and whether those choices align with mission and values. Participants will discuss banking and financial services, vendors, internal investments, funder relationships, and tradeoffs, leaving with a framework for more mission-aligned financial choices.
Community Voice and Program Development (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Carmen Pineiro | The Bronx Defenders
Natasha Capers | Roots of Joy Consulting | Founder
Barbara Prevatt | Consultant
Audience: CEO/EDs, Program Staff, Board members
Community voice should shape program design, implementation, and decision-making, not simply be extracted for reports. This session explores what community voice means, how to capture it responsibly, and how to use it in ways that are meaningful and non-exploitive. Participants will leave with practical tools for activating community voice in program strategy.
Using Mission to Guide Decisions
Moderator
Ashley Lanfer | Wellspring Consulting | Partner
Speaker
Jheramis A. H. Collado | Student Leadership Network | Director, Marketing and Communications
Farra Trompeter | Big Duck | Co-Director
Audience: Communications staff, CEO/EDs, Development staff, Program staff
A mission statement is a strategic tool for focusing organizational activity. It gives leaders, staff, and boards a shared basis for deciding what to prioritize, pursue, and decline. This interactive workshop will help participants distinguish mission, vision, and values, and recognize how to use that clarity to align community needs, programs, evidence, and purpose through clear language that guides decisions and action.
Collaborate to Persevere
Moderator
Arielle Kandel | New Women New Yorkers | Founder & CEO
Speaker
Sophia Holly | Exhale to Inhale | Program Director
Aleciah Anthony | The Bronx Defenders | Director, Community Engagement
Freeman Fields | Hope for NY | Senior Director of Programs
Rosaana Conforme | VIP Mujeres | Deputy Executive Director of Programs
Audience: CEO/EDs, Program staff, Operations staff, Board members
Collaboration can help organizations respond to complex community needs, but it requires clarity, trust, power-sharing, and operational discipline. This session explores when to collaborate, how to choose partners, what agreements are needed, and how to avoid collaborations that drain capacity. Participants will leave with a collaboration readiness checklist.
The Next Generation Donor (Action Forum)
Facilitator
Will Schrepferman | DonorAtlas | Executive Director, CEO
Brittany Morrison | B. Spoke Advisory | Founder
Tess McCain | DonorAtlas | Director of Client Solutions
Meg George | George Philanthropy Group | Co-Founder and President
Audience: CEO/Eds, Communications staff, Development staff, Board members
Donor behavior, generational expectations, and civic engagement are changing. This Action Forum explores how nonprofits can build relationships with emerging donors, younger supporters, giving circles, corporate partners, and community-based philanthropists. Participants will identify engagement strategies, test messaging, and leave with a donor cultivation experiment they can launch after the conference.
Adapting for the Future
Plan, test, and adapt so your organization is ready for what comes next.
Plan, test, and adapt so your organization is ready for what comes next.
Advocacy in a Polycrisis
Moderator
Laura Wolff | Laura Wolff Strategic Consulting | Consultant
Speaker
Matthew Camp | Campfire Strategies | Founder
Morgan Monaco | Prospect Park Alliance | Park Administrator and President of Alliance
McGregor Smyth | New York Lawyers for the Public Interest | Executive Director
Audience: CEO/EDs, policy staff, communications staff, program leaders, board members
Nonprofit leaders are facing a polycrisis of federal, state, and city policy pressures. This session grounds participants in the history of nonprofit advocacy during moments of crisis, reviews lessons learned, and explores what it means for every role across an organization to lean into advocacy now. Participants will hear practical strategies, discuss real-world risks and choices, and leave with tools to move from paralysis to disciplined action.
Breaking Through the Noise
Moderator
Joy Lau | Storyjoy | Founder
Speaker
Ross Connard | We2 | Founder & Creative Director
Benjamin Nathan | All of Us Films | Founder, Director
Ray Shah | Think Design, Inc. | Founder/CEO
Audience: CEO/EDs, communications staff, development leaders
Attention is one of the nonprofit sector’s scarcest resources. With so much noise online, nonprofits must have a tested strategy to make their voice heard. This interactive case study panel will help participants understand today’s attention economy and why organizational goals must come before communications tactics. Using real nonprofit campaigns, the session will examine why some efforts break through while others do not, and how campaigns can be assessed through a simple framework: compelling, consequential, and clear.
Strategic Pivot Workshop: Adapting Without Losing Purpose
Moderator
Laurel Molloy | Innovations Quantified | Founder
Speaker
Sherazade Langlade | WPTI | CEO
Tony Pillari | Excelis Consulting | Founder
Christine Rodriguez | VIP Mujeres | Director of Housing Programs
Audience: CEO/EDs, Board members, Program Staff
Programs must evolve as community needs, funding, policy, and internal capacity change. This workshop helps participants identify the factors that signal a need to pivot, the data needed to assess what they are responding to, and decide how to adapt while preserving mission and centering community. Participants will leave with a scenario-based decision tool for program pivots.
Technology as Strategy: What Nonprofit Leaders Need to Know Now
Moderator
Leslie Zemnick | Kotter International/The Modus Project | Principal Consultant
Speaker
Jared Carroll | Community Resource Exchange | Senior Consultant
Dave Crusoe | DoSomething | Vice President, Product & Engineering
Tiffany Polk | JPMorganChase | Head of Technology for Corporate Responsibility
Audience: CEO/EDs, Operations staff, Technology staff, Board members
Technology is no longer only an IT concern; it shapes mission delivery, risk, efficiency, communications, fundraising, and community trust. This session gives nonprofit leaders a strategic overview of AI, cybersecurity, data, digital infrastructure, and vendor decisions. Participants will leave with a leadership-level technology question set to guide smarter decisions.
Achieving Message Discipline (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Coniqua Johnson-Reed | Fearless Spaces Consulting | Founder and Principal Consultant
Vanessa Wakeman | The Wakeman Agency | Principal
Audience: Board members, CEO/EDs, Communications staff
When uncertainty increases, the challenge is responding without losing consistency, credibility, authenticity, or organizational voice. This session will help nonprofit leaders and communicators discuss real communications challenges through sample scenarios and structured peer exchange. Participants will explore how to prepare staff, board leaders, and spokespeople to stay on message before an issue becomes an uproar.
Community Voice and Program Development (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Carmen Pineiro | The Bronx Defenders
Natasha Capers | Roots of Joy Consulting | Founder
Barbara Prevatt | Consultant
Audience: CEO/EDs, Program Staff, Board members
Community voice should shape program design, implementation, and decision-making, not simply be extracted for reports. This session explores what community voice means, how to capture it responsibly, and how to use it in ways that are meaningful and non-exploitive. Participants will leave with practical tools for activating community voice in program strategy.
AI, Data, and Cybersecurity Clinic (Community of Practice)
Facilitator
Peter Fidler | WCA Technologies | President
Andres Pazmino | Affila Technology | Founder and Principal
Remy Reya | Compass Pro Bono | Director of AI and Thought Leadership
Audience: CEO/EDs Technology staff, operations staff, Compliance/Data Management staff
Organizations are experimenting with AI, managing sensitive data, and facing cybersecurity risk with uneven capacity. This community of practice gives participants space to discuss real concerns, compare practices, and identify what they need from leaders, boards, vendors, and funders. Participants will leave with peer-tested risk questions and practical next steps.
The Role of the Sector in a Multiracial Democracy
Moderator
Drew Gabriel | CAMBA Inc. | Vice President, Intergovernmental Affairs
Speaker
Elizabeth Angeles | Angeles Impact Advising | Principal Consultant
Tiloma Jayasinghe | Community Resourcre Exchange | President and CEO
Audience: CEO/EDs, policy staff, communications staff, program staff, board members
The everyday work of nonprofits in building strong and resilient communities is directly connected to protecting and advancing democracy. Across the sector, organizations are beginning to embrace this as part of their mission. This session explores how even organizations without large policy teams can use community proximity, mission credibility, and moral authority to mobilize people and defend a multiracial democracy. Participants will connect their individual missions to the broader democracy movement and identify who inside their organizations can engage, in what way, and to what end.
Scenario Planning for Financial Resilience (Action Forum)
Facilitator
George Andrezzi | TDBank | Regional Group Manager, Government, Education & Non-Profit Banking
Lacey Chadbourne | TDBank | Market Commercial Credit Manager, Non-Profit Banking
Hilda Polanco | BDO | Nonprofit & Grantmaker Advisory
Samantha Schaefer | BDO | Manager, Industry Specialty Services, Nonprofit & Grantmaking Advisory
Audience: Finance executives, CEOs, Development staff, Program staff, Board members
This Action Forum helps participants plan for financial uncertainty without becoming frozen by it. Using best-case, likely-case, and worst-case scenarios, participants will identify tools, triggers, decisions, and communication practices that support financial resilience. Participants will leave with a scenario planning template and next steps for nimble, mission-aligned financial management.
Collaborate or Build: Creating Responsive Programs (Action Forum)
Facilitator
Lisa Gale | LVG Strategy Group, LLC | Founder and Principal
Kate Harris | Kate Harris Group | Founder
Amanda Perez | Bronx HYPE | Director
Audience: CEO/EDs, Program staff
When facing new needs, organizations must decide whether to build internally, partner, refer, advocate, or stop doing something. This Action Forum helps participants apply decision criteria to real program challenges. Participants will leave with a draft action plan that names the problem, centers community, identifies partners or internal capacity needs, and defines the next decision point.
Strategies to Address Talent Challenges (Action Forum)
Facilitator
Robert Guimento | Interim Executive Solutions | Associate
Kristen Illes | 3D Leadership Solutions | Founder
Michelle Lewis | The Urban Assembly | Deputy Chief of Staff-People
Audience: CEO/EDs, HR/talent staff, Organizational leaders
This Action Forum helps participants translate workforce concerns into a concrete people strategy. Participants will identify a talent challenge, map root causes, name decision-makers, and choose near-term actions related to retention, supervision, compensation, professional development, or succession. The session will produce a draft action plan that can be refined after the conference.
Digital Resilience (Action Forum)
Facilitator
Raghav Khurana | SVAM International | Network and Systems Engineer
Mark O'Brien | Scale Justice | Co-Founder
Audience: CEO/EDs, Operations staff, Technology staff, Finance staff, Program staff, Compliance/Data Management staff
This Action Forum helps participants identify the technology infrastructure most essential to their organization’s resilience. Participants will assess one technology risk or opportunity, name capacity gaps, identify decision-makers, and develop a next-step plan for investment, policy, training, or vendor action. The session will help organizations move from technology anxiety to actionable digital strategy.
Coaching Sessions
Connect for a free 45-minute coaching session with seasoned nonprofit leaders to gain actionable insights and tailored advice. Space is strictly limited and filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
Secure your spot in three steps:
Get Your Ticket
Purchase your 2026 Annual Conference ticket.
Download App
Follow to download the Whova conference app.
Book Session
Select your free coaching slot in the app. You'll receive a confirmation email.
Meet Our Coaches
Click on any coach to explore their background, areas of expertise, and approach.
Tickets
| Member Tickets Individual and Group Rates |
Early Bird Ticket May 13 - September 14 |
Regular Ticket September 15 - October 27 |
|---|---|---|
| NPNY 501(c)(3) Member Organization | $200 | $300 |
| NPNY 501(c)(3) Member Organization Group Rate (6 or more tickets purchased in a single transaction) | $170 | $280 |
| NPNY Business or Philanthropic Member | $400 | $500 |
| NPNY Business or Philanthropic Member Group Rate (6 or more tickets purchased in a single transaction) | $370 | $480 |
| Non-Member Tickets Individual and Group Rates |
Early Bird Ticket May 13 - September 14 |
Regular Ticket September 15 - October 27 |
| 501(c)(3) Non-Member Organization | $300 | $400 |
| 501(c)(3) Non-Member Organization Group Rate (6 or more tickets purchased in a single transaction) | $270 | $380 |
| Business or Philanthropic Non-Member | $600 | $700 |
| Business or Philanthropic Non-Member Group Rate (6 or more tickets purchased in a single transaction) | $570 | $680 |
Volunteers
We invite you to join our team as a volunteer for the 2026 Annual Conference!
Each volunteer will be assigned a specific role for approximately four hours between 7:00 AM and 6:00 PM, and will be free to attend the conference for the remainder of the day.
Note: Individuals who have already secured their ticket for the conference are not eligible to register as a volunteer.
Volunteer recruitment will close October 16.
If you have any questions, please contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Jaime Williams, at [email protected].
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