Members of Ascending Leaders class

Set Your Sights on Organizational Leadership

No one hands you a rulebook on how to move from middle to senior management.

Dates

Application Deadline: Thursday, October 5, 2023

Program Dates: Thursdays
2023 | October 19; November 2; November 16; November 30; December 14
2024 | January 11; January 25; February 8; February 22; March 7; March 21

Time: 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

Delivery: Hybrid (In-person and Online via Zoom)

APPLY Attend an Information Session 

As a middle manager, you’re the expert at directing a program or running a department. You’re frequently confronted with competing demands from leadership and direct reports. Moving up has its own set of challenges.

Set Your Sights on Organizational Leadership will help you gain the tools you need to broaden your perspective to think and act systemically. This program provides concrete systems thinking tools you can apply to analyze complex situations and foster a culture of organizational learning.

During the 11, half-day workshops, you will:

  • Deepen your understanding of your leadership style and how it affects the creativity and productivity of your team;
  • Develop effective strategic planning skills to help your organization plan for the future;
  • Learn what it takes to become a more inclusive workplace where the unique talents, abilities, and life experiences of the individual are valued, and staff feel welcomed and engaged;
  • Expand your current organizational practices to recruit and retain diverse staff;
  • Strengthen your skills in reading financial statements, building an organizational budget, and developing financial scenarios;
  • Practice vetting processes that will help your organization assess the viability of new partnerships and growth opportunities; and
  • Explore potential paths in your career’s development.

Who Should Attend

Set Your Sights on Organizational Leadership is appropriate for individuals who have a minimum of three years of professional experience that includes direct supervision responsibilities.

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Schedule  Faculty  Fees and Scholarships  Application Information   Nominator

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Schedule

  • Faculty: Margie DuBrow, PhD
  • Understand your personal style and how your strengths and challenges can affect your team’s creativity and productivity.
  • Faculty: Fernando Chang-Muy, JD
  • Gain the skills to design, lead, and monitor a strategic planning process that engages your community and ensures impact on your constituencies.
  • Faculty: Fernando Chang-Muy, JD
  • Continuation of Part I
  • Faculty: Tiffenia Archie, PhD
  • Develop a better awareness of your social identity and the impact it has on your professional development and performance, as well as how you are viewed and valued in your organization. Explore which elements of your identity affect how you see yourself and how others see you. Identify the ways in which your social identity impacts your leadership and management styles.
  • Faculty: Tiffenia Archie, PhD
  • Diverse organizations are more productive, innovative, flexible and better able to serve their consumers. Learn best practices in how to recruit diverse staff and retain them through the development of an inclusive organizational culture.
  • Faculty: Danie Greennwell, PhD
  • Expand your ability to read nonprofit financial statements and develop organizational budgets. Learn to project revenue and expenses, allocate common costs and overhead, deal with restricted funding, and use scenarios in financial planning.
  • Faculty: Danie Greennwell, PhD
  • Continuation of Part I
  • Faculty: Reggie Jones, LCSW, MSS, MLSP
  • After you’ve successfully recruited a diverse group of individuals, now what? In this session, you’ll work on building the interpersonal skills that create respect, trust, and a willingness to invest in one another.
  • Faculty: TBD
  • Identify your values and your passions and the different ways you can enact them in your work. Reflect on the skills and competencies that you used to achieve your accomplishments. Map out one or more potential career paths to explore.
  • Faculty: TBD and NELI Alumnus
  • Help your organization make better strategic decisions by learning to assess the viability of new growth opportunities. Apply business skills to compare the opportunity’s potential benefits with the obvious and hidden costs to the organization.
  • Faculty: Associate Director and NELI Alumni
  • Listen to the personal journeys of NELI alumni that led them to senior leadership positions. Become energized by the life wisdom they offer and their insights in exploring new possibilities.
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Faculty


Program Fees and Scholarship Options

Tuition: $2400 for the series

NELI receives money from funders who support the work of organizations in the Philadelphia five-county area and in southern New Jersey.

Scholarships Offered Through NELI:

We raise scholarship funds from funders who support the work of nonprofit organizations in the Philadelphia five-county area and in southern New Jersey. Organizations are only eligible for scholarships if they have offices and serve clients in one of these areas. NELI Scholarships are contributed by the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, as well as by individuals and other local, small foundations. A limited number of scholarships are reserved for participants with the greatest need. 

Scholarships Offered Through Local Foundations:

Two local funders offer support to nonprofit leaders pursuing professional development. At the same time you apply to NELI, you may also submit an application to the funders listed below. 

TD Charitable Foundation: Through its Nonprofit Training Resource Fund, nonprofit organizations  can  receive  a  grant  for  approved  training  to  increase  their  organization’s  capacity  and skill set. The maximum grant is for $1,000. Applications are rolling.

The Valentine Foundation: The foundation’s Fund for Visionary Leadership is committed to supporting leadership development for aspiring and executive women leaders of nonprofit organizations that improve the lives of women and girls in the Greater Philadelphia region.

The foundation prioritizes  funding of organizations and executive and emerging leaders who are Black, Indigenous and People of Color and women, trans, and gender-expansive people.


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Application Information

Instructions for Applicants:

Make sure you can attend all 11 sessions.

  1. Review all questions on the Application Form (view/print out a blank copy here).
  2. Collect all the information you will need BEFORE you go online to complete the form. There is no save and return option.
  3. Materials needed for upload:
    • Application Essay
    • Resume
    • Scholarship Essay
  4. Complete the Application Form.

Instructions for Nominators:

Applicants are required to have a direct supervisor or an individual who can speak to their work as a professional fill out a nomination form.

  1. Nominate your candidate.
     

APPLY Attend an Information Session