Board engagement: From Governance to Giving.
The week at a glance
Just don't ask me to fundraise: board edition
Your board did nothing wrong. Your onboarding did.
The intentional board
Ask the experts: board engagement
Four days, four experts, one registration
Monday, October 26
2 PM ET
Julie Shannan
Founder and CEO, Big Mission Consulting
Just don’t ask me to fundraise:
board edition
“Just don’t ask me to fundraise.” It’s the phrase every nonprofit leader dreads, but there’s a way to change that conversation. Join Julie Shannan, founder of Big Mission Consulting, and learn how to reframe fundraising as mission-raising and build genuine relationships that make asking feel natural. Plus, grab a free Connections & Networks Worksheet to map new connections and expand your network.
Learning objectives:
- Reframe fundraising as mission-raising
- Identify ways to engage others in your mission
- Discover ways to expand your network.
Tuesday, October 27
2 PM ET
Lauren Elyse Tudor
Founder, ARCHITECT Philanthropic Collective
Your board did nothing wrong.
Your onboarding did.
Most boards aren’t passive by choice. They were recruited without a job and never given one. Explore how to build the infrastructure that makes a board able to lead in the first place: clear roles, a real onboarding process, and a giving expectation set before someone joins rather than after.
Learning objectives:
- Create roles that every board member understands
- Design onboarding that prepares people to serve
- Normalize giving conversations before someone joins
Wednesday, October 28
2 PM ET
Kent Stroman
STROMAN & Associates
The intentional board
Why doesn’t your board work the way it should? And how do you fix it? If your board meetings feel like a formality instead of a force for good, you’re not alone. Stroman’s 17 Laws of the Intentional Board show you how board members can become highly effective in mutually beneficial, fully satisfying board service.
Learning objectives:
- Understand principles for stronger governance
- Discover how board members can make greater impact
- Equip governance teams to make better decisions
Thursday, October 29
2 PM ET
Rachel Muir
GirlStart
Ask the experts:
board engagement
You’ve spent the week exploring strategy with Julie, Lauren, and Kent. Now it’s time to bring it home. Join nonprofit thought leader Rachel Muir as she leads an energetic roundtable on board engagement, full of candid conversation, new perspectives, and ideas you can act on right away.
Learning objectives:
- Wrap up the big ideas from the week
- Ask the questions you’re still sitting with
- Get concrete moves for engaging your board
Meet your speakers
Julie Shannan
Founder and CEO, Big Mission Consulting
Julie Shannan is the founder and CEO of Big Mission Consulting, where she helps organizations align their brand and mission across marketing, communications, programs, and development. She has over 25 years of leadership and fundraising experience and has served as an executive director, deputy director, program director, and board member.
Julie knows how to bring development, programs, and marketing together to make a bigger impact and engage community members in the process. She is a certified professional coach with over 20 years of experience leading strategy sessions, board and staff retreats, strategic planning, and team-building workshops. Her goal is to leave clients, donors, and participants with a lasting impression.
Lauren Elyse Tudor
Founder, ARCHITECT Philanthropic Collective
Lauren Elyse Tudor, CAP®, IPA® builds fundraising infrastructure that nonprofits keep. Through ARCHITECT Philanthropic Collective, her team has partnered with 60+ small and mid-sized organizations, who see average fundraising growth of 24.8% within their first year of partnership. The ARCHITECT team builds sustainable capacity rather than dependency — the measure of a strong engagement is how ready an organization is to thrive without them.
She also founded the GENESIS Rising Leaders Fellowship, now nearly 200 fellows strong and accepted by CFRE International for 11.25 continuing education points per cohort. She is a Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women: Black in Business alumna. Her work runs on one rule: big ambition, big results, at a pace that works.
Kent Stroman
STROMAN & Associates
Regarded as America’s ASKING Coach, Kent Stroman is a speaker, advisor, and published author who has worked in teaching and organizational leadership since 1976. After a 25-year career in higher education, he launched STROMAN & Associates, consulting in fundraising, board governance, strategic planning, and leadership development.
Kent’s fundraising efforts have generated countless millions of dollars for charitable causes, and in 2012 he founded the Asking Academy to help leaders transform their results. He is a Certified Fund Raising Executive, a Partner in the Alliance for Board Effectiveness, a BoardSource-trained governance consultant, and holds the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Master Trainer designation. He has chaired boards including a regional chamber of commerce, an AFP chapter, a community foundation, and a regional United Way.
Rachel Muir
GirlStart
Meet Rachel Muir, whose passion for fundraising is so intense she’s been certified as an alternative energy source. Rachel launched Girlstart, a non-profit empowering girls in STEM in her apartment with $500 and a credit card at age 26. Several years later she had raised over 10 million and was featured on Oprah, CNN, and the Today show.
Rachel holds a Certificate in Philanthropic Psychology with distinction from the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy. When she isn’t wishing all dresses came with pockets, she’s doing a webinar transforming people into confident, successful fundraisers in her League of Extraordinary Fundraisers membership program.