Leadership Makes the Difference
August 25-26, 2011
Presented by The Allstate Foundation
Pan American Life Conference Center | 601 Poydras, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
[Presenter Bios]
AUGUST 25
Session Descriptions
8:00 am - 1:00 pm
9:00 - 10:0 am
REGISTRATION
Old-Fashioned Leadership: Seeing Reality,
Embracing Ambiguity, and Acting Boldly
Tim Delaney, President & CEO, National Council of Nonprofits
Opening Plenary and Keynote Brought to you by 2011
LANO Conference Presenting Sponsor, the Allstate
Foundation
Room: Main Auditorium
Description: Looking behind at the recent economic turmoil,
many people proclaim that nonprofits now operate in the "New
Normal.” But from his vantage point as head of an organization
that engages in trend tracking and public policy matters at the
federal, state, and local levels, our keynote speaker disagrees.
Tim Delaney asserts that nonprofits and the communities we
serve have not arrived anywhere yet, but instead still float in
limbo. To help Louisiana’s nonprofit leaders provide their
communities with the vital leadership needed to move forward,
Delaney will share his perspective on threats facing communities
across America and offer action steps that nonprofit leaders can
take to serve their communities boldly.
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10:00 - 10:20 am
Enjoy Refreshments and Visit with
Exhibitors
Brought to you by Coventry Health Care of
Louisiana
10:30 - 11:45 am
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Effects on
the Louisiana Healthcare Marketplace
Michael Bertaut, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana
Room: Bayou
Description: According to LANO’s 2010 Report of Louisiana
Nonprofits Wages and Benefits, more than 60% of organizations
saw healthcare costs increase last year. The new Federal
healthcare law will have significant impacts on nonprofit business
management, some of which are already in effect. Join expert
healthcare economist Michael Bertaut for an in-depth and
engaging look at the vast changes called for in this landmark
national legislation. Bertaut explains the three main objectives of
the law, how likely they are to be achieved and what their
combined impact may be on Louisiana’s health insurance
marketplace.
Latest from LANO: Member Benefits, Networking Tools,
Organizational Development Services, and more…
Kay Irby and Cory Sparks, Louisiana Association of Nonprofit
Organizations
Room: Jazz
Description: LANO now offers more than 30 negotiated member
benefits from the companies and services you’ve requested and
use most, and we are constantly improving our benefits list.
Come to this session to learn the latest benefits, including lowercost general liability insurance and a powerful Risk Management
database from Louisiana Companies; back-office financial
management from Execute Now!; and access to executive
summaries of the latest nonprofit management books from
CausePlanet. Session will also cover organizational development
services available from LANO and highlight the growing social
network, now 11-thousand strong, that’s connecting nonprofit
leaders across the state.
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Navigation Skills for Executive Leaders of Nonprofit
Organizations
Janet Rechtman, Senior Fellow, Fanning Institute, University of
Georgia
Room: Mardi Gras
Description: Long before GPS technology, ancient mariners kept
on course by using a combination of astronomical observations,
sounding, and directions of the wind and currents.
The same principles apply for executive leaders as they navigate
the complex world of nonprofit organizations: Passion is the North
Star, the heart and soul of the ED and other stakeholders. People
are soundings, measures of a nonprofit’s capacity to advance its
mission. Performance demonstrates your direction and points to
the right course.Successful nonprofit navigators align all three.
Led by senior faculty at Georgia’s Executive Leadership Program
for Nonprofit Organizations (ELPNO), this highly interactive
workshop will connect basic concepts of leadership with the
navigational challenges experienced by nonprofit executives.
Current and aspiring executive leaders can hone their skills using
Kouzes and Posner’s five Leadership Practices: Modeling the Way,
Inspiring Shared Vision, Enabling Others to Act, Challenging the
Process, and Encouraging the Heart. Participants will engage each
other and the instructor in guided discussion of these practices
and together will chart a course to success.
Intergenerational Leadership Panel: Engaging High
Performing Individuals and Teams
Jim LeBlanc, Volunteers of America of Greater New Orleans
Kira Orange Jones, Teach for America of Greater New Orleans
Erin Perry, Ochsner
Room: Pontchartrain
Description: The nonprofit sector engages staff and volunteers
of all ages. This is our strength but also our challenge as the
generational experience changes ever more rapidly. Come to the
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session where the Greatest Generation, Babyboomers, GenXers,
N-Gens, Millenials and everyone in between can hear and offer
distinct perspectives on motivating multi-generations within the
same workforce.
The session is lead by an experienced panel of leaders within
their respective generations. Topics will include recruitment,
retention, motivation and assuring productivity from mixed-age
teams of employees and volunteers.
Culture Eats Strategy: Leading from What Matters Most
Myron Rogers, Rogers River North, LLC
Room: Orleans (A Spotlight Session brought to you by the Blue
Cross and Blue Shield Foundation of Louisiana)
Description: Why is it so difficult to translate great ideas into
great results? Why do our good intentions so often generate
unintended consequences? Why do "best practices” so often fail
to transfer from one organization to another? In this talk, Myron
Rogers will share his theoretical and practical knowledge of
effective change in complex systems, and the connection between
culture—who we are, how we work together and how we work
with those we serve—and strategy—what we want and need to
become.
Drawing on compelling examples of failure and success, he’ll
reveal how culture determines our results, and why simply
changing structures and policies so often fails to achieve our
desired ends. He’ll share a new way of thinking about the
leadership of successful change by focusing on identity,
relationships and information to generate greater effectiveness
and greater possibilities for our organizations and those we serve.
This talk will be an invitation to think differently about what we
believe is the source of success, and a call for courageous
leadership in service to each other.
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11:45 am - 1:00
pm
Independent Lunch and Networking at Suggested Local
Restaurants
1:00 -2:15 pm
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
Path with a Heart: Louisiana’s Nonprofit Career Survey
Report and Talent Development Workshop, Part 1
Jeff Pryor & Alexandra Mitchell, Pathfinder Solutions
Room: Bayou
Description: Talent defines organizational sustainability and
impact—always has and always will!
This session will provide the evidence as it relates to the nonprofit
sector, and question whether anyone is listening. Visionary
leaders of nonprofits, foundations, and corporate citizenship
programs have an immense economic and cultural impact on the
world, yet there is an urgent need to raise the visibility of the
philanthropic sector, and to shore up the path to "Cause Careers.”
Given the assertions that philanthropy is essential to the future of
our world and that leadership is the number one predictor of
sustainability and organizational impact, why is it that we are not
more deliberate about recruiting, developing and retaining a
robust and diverse Cause Career talent pool? We believe this is
a core issue, and that we need well-coordinated, cross-sector
strategies to both sweep talent into philanthropic work and build
the organizational capacity to embrace that talent.
Part 1 of this session will present compelling secondary and
primary research data recently gathered from across Louisiana
that both identifies disturbing deficiencies in the path to cause
careers, and points to sustainable solutions.
Critical Finance Questions Presidents Should Ask Before
the Board Meeting
Erica Crenshaw, President, Execute Now!
Room: Jazz
Description: In this session for nonprofit Presidents and
Executive Directors, we’ll identify the ‘short list’ of questions that
leaders should ask their finance team each quarter from a risk
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management and strategy standpoint. Although Board Members
know their EDs aren’t always responsible for day-to-day finance
and accounting operations, they do expect leaders to: Project the
organization’s finances as supportive of stated mission and goals;
avoid glaring operational gaps from a risk management
standpoint; and inspire their team to go beyond basic
bookkeeping toward forward-looking and strategic thinking.
Risk Management Center: A Unique Resource to Inform
Nonprofit Human Resource and Liability Strategies
Pablo LaSala & Josh Briggs, Louisiana Companies
Room: Jazz
Description: Uncertainty in the environment outside of our own
organizations is ever increasing. Nonprofit leaders are under
tremendous pressure to effectively manage the risks associated
with executing their missions. Learn about a powerful new tool to
assist nonprofits in generating safety policies and procedures;
providing job hazard analysis and training videos; downloading
customizable employee safety materials and quizzes; securing
incident tracking software, and more. LANO’s recommended
General Liability insurance provider Louisiana Companies will lead
this overview.
Culture Eats Strategy: How to Change What Matters
Most(Workshop)
Myron Rogers, Rogers River North LLC
Room: Mardi Gras
Description: How do you change an entrenched culture? What
are the dynamics that create a healthy culture capable of meeting
complex needs in a changing environment? Building on the ideas
presented in his keynote talk, Myron Rogers will lead participants
through an exploration of the current culture of your
organizations, and share some effective practices for creating a
responsive, adaptive organization.
Through lecture and dialogue, in both small groups and large,
we’ll explore the source of unintended consequences and
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incoherence between what we do and what we say about who we
are. We’ll explore ways to influence the emergence of culture,
both in our organizations and with the people we serve. We’ll
draw on our own experience to see how systems work, and how
to work with them in a new way. We’ll look at effective practices
for engaging the whole system in creating who and what it wants
to be.
Evaluation for Impact
Lisanne Brown, Louisiana Public Health Institute
Lauren Bierbaum, Partnership for Youth Development
Room: Pontchartrain
Description: Funders want organizations to make a measurable
difference. How can your agency demonstrate the effect of its
hard work? How can evaluation increase your impact and help
you to live more deeply into your mission? This session will
provide suggestions for any size organization. After a
presentation by health care evaluation expert Liseanne Brown,
Lauren Bierbaum will respond from her perspective as an
education evaluator.
Setting Yourself Apart: Lessons from the Corporate World
on Building Nonprofit Brands
Jay Silverberg, Xenophon Strategies
Room: Orleans (A Spotlight Session brought to you by the Blue
Cross and Blue Shield Foundation of Louisiana)
Description: Whenever there’s
a need—a shortage of food, housing, elder care, or any other—
who do we call? Most likely, we call the agency or organization
with the most successful brand, the one "who does that.”
Branding is as essential to service organizations and foundations
as it is for the corporate world. To ensure agency recognition,
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fund development, mission delivery and top staff recruitment, all
nonprofits need a powerful brand. Is yours as strong as it could
be?
Join veteran public relations, media, branding and crisis
management expert Jay Silverberg as he brings you the wisdom
of 30 years in media, corporate and nonprofit spheres, working
with some of the most recognized brands in the world from Nestlé
to The Salvation Army. Silverberg leads an engaging and wideranging discussion of the power of communicating about your
brand for long-term mission success.
2:15 - 2:35 pm
Enjoy Refreshments and Visit with
Exhibitors
Brought to you by Regions Bank
2:40 - 4:00 pm
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
Path with a Heart: Cause Careers Workshop, Part 2
Jeff Pryor & Alexandra Mitchell, Pathfinder Solutions
Room: Bayou
Description: Visionary leaders of nonprofits, foundations, and
corporate citizenship programs have an immense economic and
cultural impact on the world, yet there is an urgent need to raise
the visibility of the philanthropic sector, and to shore up the path
to "Cause Careers.” Given the assertions that philanthropy is
essential to the future of our world and that leadership is the
number one predictor of sustainability and organizational impact,
why is it that we are not more deliberate about recruiting,
developing and retaining a robust and diverse Cause Career
talent pool?
In Part 2 of this session please join us for a discussion focused
on implementing community-based strategies to build awareness,
engage cross-sector players, test possibilities, and take best
practices to scale. Facilitators will use an Audience Response
System (a.k.a. "clickers”) to capture the real-time perceptions of
participants, making the session interactive, credible, and
actionable.
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Meeting the Legal Needs of Nonprofits
Christy Kane, Louisiana Appleseed
Rachel Piercey, The Pro Bono Project
Room: Jazz
Description: One of the most common requests from LANO
members is for a referral to an attorney who will provide pro
bono support to nonprofits. Louisiana does not have a system for
these referrals. Could one be developed? What are other ways to
meet the legal needs of nonprofits and to engage attorneys in
volunteer service? Join a discussion facilitated by Rachel Piercey
of the Pro Bono Project and Christy Kane of Louisiana Appleseed.
These leaders will open the conversation with a presentation on
available pro bono legal services and then engage the table in a
conversation about nonprofit needs and possible solutions.
The Business of Running a Nonprofit
Simone Hennessee, Providence House
Room: Mardi Gras
Description: Take home essential lessons from Executive
Director Hennessee’s prominent and imminently successful
nonprofit Providence House, the Shreveport area’s award-winning
service provider to the homeless.
Technology on the Move: Are you Keeping Up?
Lisa Horzelski, LaPorte Sehrt Romig Hand
Room: Pontchartrain
Description: This session is designed to help organizational
leaders determine how to effectively and efficiently utilize
technology to strengthen their organizations. The presentation
will include tips on engaging and managing IT vendors and
navigating advances in the field including mobile device security,
cloud computing and social networking. Attendees will learn how
to improve their privacy practices and the policies and procedures
that mitigate risk and protect you organization’s data.
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Idea Lab: Good to Great Governance
Leigh Thorpe & Becky Bourg, Junior League New Orleans
Brent Thomas, Regions Morgan Keegan Trust
Wilfred Barry & Barbara Auten, Alzheimer’s Services of Greater
Baton Rouge
Kay Irby, Louisiana Association of Nonprofit Organizations
Nora Ellersten, The Funding Seed
Susan Delle Shaffette, Team Dynamics
Facilitated by Kellie Chavez Greene, Louisiana Association of
Nonprofit Organizations
Room: Orleans (A Spotlight Session brought to you by the Blue
Cross and Blue Shield Foundation of Louisiana)
Description: An engaged and empowered Board of Directors is
critical to a nonprofit organization’s success and sustainability.
BoardSource says it best: "In practice, boards have three
fundamental roles: setting direction, ensuring the organization
has adequate resources, and providing oversight.”
How the Board of Directors is composed, structured, trained and
supported can have a significant impact on board engagement
and accountability. In this idea lab, attendees will have the
opportunity to learn about specific strategies and tools that have
demonstrated success in moving a Board of Directors from Good
to Great Governance.
Format: Panelists will present for 2 minutes at a high-level on
their specific topic. After hearing each of the presentations,
attendees will join presenters of their choice to dive deeper in
dialogue for the remaining 30 minutes of the session.
10
5:00 - 6:00 pm
Attendee Networking Social at the Ogden Museum of
Southern Art
Enjoy beautiful networking space, live entertainment and
refreshments
AUGUST 26
8:30 - 9:00 am
Networking Continental Breakfast
Brought to you by Volunteer Louisiana
9:00 - 10:00 am
The "Seven Deadly Sins” of Nonprofit Governance
Plenary with Keynote from Dr. Christel Slaughter,
Partner, SSA Consultants
Brought to you by Capital One Bank
Room: Main Auditorium
10:00 - 10:20 am
Enjoy Refreshments and Visit with Exhibitors
Brought to you Volunteer Louisiana
10:20 - 11:40am
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
Linking Workforce to Mission and Strategy
Sandy Hughes, Hughes-Consulting
Room: Bayou
Description: Participants will be introduced to the concepts of
"Employee Engagement,” "Organizational Goal Trees,” and
"Visual Scorecards,” and other tools and processes that are the
linchpins to the employee-mission connection. This workshop will
provide an overview of why employees need to be actively
engaged at work and the critical elements for that engagement.
Attendees will be shown how an organization’s mission and
strategy can be tied directly to every employee in their
organization and will have the opportunity to begin the linkage
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process for their organizations. Discussion will also include how to
select and display the metrics that can show whether or not the
linkage is successful. Examples of performance review formats
will also be included.
Smart IT Outsourcing: How Cloud Computing and
Virtualization Will Save Money and Serve Mission
Ned Fasullo, Transformyx
Room: Jazz
Description: If you’re confused about concepts of Managed IT,
Cloud Computing, Hosted Apps, Mobile Apps, Web Marketing,
SEO, you're not alone. Outsourcing critical IT functions through
these technologies is the "new norm" for many organizations.
Last year, nearly 40% of Louisiana nonprofits outsourced their IT
support. For medium-sized organizations ($1-2m), that figure
was 6 in 10! This informative and interactive session will lay a
ground-work for understanding the critical components of
technology and telecommunications to equip your organization for
21st century business operations.
Nonprofit (Un)Employment: Trends and Impacts
Donna Groh, Executive Director, Unemployment Services Trust
Room: Jazz
Description: As job markets nationwide struggle with doubledigit unemployment, what is the immediate outlook for
Louisiana's nonprofit sector? Learn from industry leader UST what
every nonprofit executive and board member needs to know
about current employment trends and what they mean to your
organization. Find out how the unemployment system is funded
and what policy changes coming at the federal level could impact
your mission delivery. Learn about nonprofits’ choices when it
comes to funding unemployment costs.
Strategic Nonprofits Through the Lens of Business
Leaders: Panel Discussion
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Bill Hines, Jones Walker
Suzanne T. Mestayer, ThirtyNorth Investments
Michael Olivier, Committee of 100
Room: Mardi Gras
Description: What do successful business executives think about
service on nonprofit Boards of Directors? Have you asked them
recently?
Join three of the most prominent business executives in the state
to hear their insights regarding the most strategic way to engage
business leaders in nonprofit governance. Each of the panelists is
an accomplished, professional leader with extensive experience
serving on nonprofit Boards. Participate in this session to gain
their perspectives, not only on sound governance, but also
leveraging private interests to accomplish more successful,
sustainable mission-centered work.
Leadership Roundtable and Guided Discussion on Pressing
Issues of Today and Ideas for Tomorrow
Tim Delaney, National Council of Nonprofits
Ann S. Williamson, Louisiana Association of Nonprofit
Organizations
Room: Pontchartrain
Description: The leaders of your state nonprofit association and
its national counterpart lead an open discussion for CEOs and
other executive leaders about the key challenges of today’s
nonprofit management. Be aware of both the strategic
opportunities and potential threats we face in the course of our
mission delivery. Learn from the experience of your peers in
leadership how success can be secured for our sector and your
organization.
Funders Panel: Demonstrating Impact and Return on
Investment
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Jan Epstein, The Allstate Foundation
Christine Ortega, Southwest Airlines
Christy Reeves, Blue Cross Blue Shield of La. Foundation
Joann Ricci, Greater New Orleans Foundation
Eric D. Shaw, Foundation for Louisiana
Moderated by Sarah Berthelot, United Way of Acadiana
Room: Orleans (A Spotlight Session brought to you by the Blue
Cross and Blue Shield Foundation of Louisiana)
Description: When a funder asks "How will our investment in
your organization make a difference?” can you confidently
articulate and demonstrate your nonprofit’s impact?
The importance of assessing and communicating impact and
results is critical to an organization’s case and value proposition.
In this session, leaders in the funding community will respond
directly to questions submitted by nonprofit organizations on how
to successfully communicate and demonstrate their impact.
11:45 am - 12:15
pm
Plenary for LANO Annual Member Meeting and Closing
Remarks
Don’t miss this opportunity to participate in your Association’s
annual meeting of its Board and membership, and be present for
a multi-prize drawing of gifts including an iPad, courtesy
Pathfinder Solutions. Room: Main Auditorium
We are grateful to the conscientious corporate and foundation
partners who make LANO’s annual conferences and institutes an
affordable reality for Louisiana's nonprofit sector.
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