Upcoming Webinars & Workshops

We are dedicated to connecting grantees with relevant, affordable, diverse, and influential resources to help their organization's growth and development. Check out the upcoming webinar and workshop opportunities below. This page is updated weekly, so check back regularly for added opportunities. Click the accordion menu to expand additional information for each session.

May 2024

5/21 | Using data to boost giving

Many nonprofit leaders are overlooking a treasure in their midst: the donor database. Unlocking the full potential of a donor database can: prioritize giving opportunities that have the greatest potential; enable fundraisers to segment donors into groups and tailor messages to their interests; and take donor prospecting to the next level. Join us for a 75-minute webinar to learn how to better manage and analyze donor data to reveal the stories it can tell and make fundraising, at all levels, more strategic. 

Host Provider: The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Date: Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Time: 2:00-3:15 pm
Location: Virtual
Cost: $69

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5/22 | Race, gender, and inequity in nonprofit consulting

Consulting can be an appealing next step for seasoned fundraisers, nonprofit leaders who have hit the glass ceiling, or for those who are ready to use their expertise in different ways. About one third of the members of the Fabulous Female Fundraisers, a membership nonprofit for Black female fundraisers, have chosen this path, using their expertise to guide nonprofits in leadership development, grant writing and fundraising. In this session, a panel of consultants will share their experiences as Black women in the nonprofit sector, a space that has often left women of color feeling unvalued and overworked   They will offer valuable insights for those who are exploring consulting as a possible career path. 

Host Provider: Candid
Date: Wednesday, May 22, 2024
Time: 2:00-3:30 pm
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free

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5/23 | Bridges Workshop

Through this workshop, learn how economic realities of poverty, middle class, and wealth impact individuals, communities, systems, and structures. In order to positively impact the education and lives of individuals in poverty, we must explore the way we think and behave. Bridges Summit County Workshops offers a structure to help us assess the mindsets and world views we hold as individuals, institutions, and communities. It helps us define and visualize the experiences in economic class environments in order to increase our understanding.

Host Provider: United Way of Summit & Medina
Date: Thursday, May 23, 2024
Time: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm
Location: United Way of Summit & Medina (37 N. High St.)
Cost: Non-continuing education cost is $25.00 (includes workshop, lunch, and materials); Continuing education cost is $40.00 (includes workshop, lunch, materials and credits)

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5/23 | Designing Emails for Success: How to stand out in the inbox

Great email design encourages people to take notice of your email, spend more time reading, and ultimately take action. Join this free, one-hour webinar to learn design strategies that will help you craft emails that get readers talking, sharing, and taking action.

You’ll learn how to:

  • Brand your email like a pro to build trust and relationships with your audience
  • Create a visual hierarchy that keeps your subscribers reading and drives them to engage
  • Use your email results to fuel better design decisions for future campaigns

Can’t make it to the live webinar? Register anyway to receive the recording.

Host Provider: Constant Contact
Date: Thursday, May 23, 2024
Time: 2:00 pm
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free

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5/23 | GAC's Small Business Resource Roundtable

We invite you to join us for the Small Business Resource Roundtable.  During this event, small business owners will have the opportunity to connect with each other, build your networks, and learn more about the resources available to help you grow your business and address everyday challenges associated with running a business. Light snacks and refreshments will be provided.

Host Provider: Greater Akron Chamber
Date: Thursday, May 23, 2024
Time: 3:30-5:00 pm
Location: Greater Akron Chamber (388 S Main St., Ste. 205, Akron, OH 44311)
Cost: $10

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5/29 | How to Cultivate and Manage Donors Remotely

Major gift fundraising strategies changed dramatically after the pandemic. Instead of a 3-hour commitment, traveling to and from an in-person meeting over coffee; you can now qualify, cultivate, solicit, and steward your donors in a series of half-hour virtual meetings. In this workshop, you will get an insider's perspective on how to turn a spreadsheet of prospects into real philanthropic revenue.

Host Provider: Nonprofit Learning Lab
Date: Wednesday, May 29, 2024
Time: 8:00-11:00 am
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free

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5/29 | Ask me anything: Building relationships with funders

Securing grant funding can be a challenging process, and it's often said that relationships are an important component of grantseeking success alongside the match between your nonprofit’s work and the foundation’s areas of interest. But what do you need to know as you begin and maintain relationships with foundations? Join us for an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session all about funding relationships, featuring Irfan Hasan, Deputy Vice President of Grants at The New York Community Trust, and Linda Goode Bryant, Founder and President of the nonprofit Project EATS, for an opportunity to ask all the questions on your mind, such as:

  • How do you know when the time is right to approach a specific funder?
  • How do you best communicate your nonprofit's impact in a way that will resonate with prospective funders?
  • How do you continue stewarding a funding relationship over time, and manage challenges along the way
  • What if the connection just isn’t being made for a relationship—persist or abandon?

Bring any and all of your questions, and we will do our best to answer as many as we can during this informal conversational session.

Host Provider: Candid
Date: Wednesday, May 29, 2024
Time: 10:00-11:00 am
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free

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5/29 | The nonprofit experience: Insights on demographic data collection

Kelly Brown, CEO of Viewpoint Consulting, will explore the challenges and opportunities surrounding nonprofit demographic data reporting and collection. Drawing from her extensive research conducted on behalf of Candid, Kelly will be joined in conversation by Cesar Del Valle, director of partnerships at Candid. Hear an in-depth analysis and gain valuable insights from our research findings on how nonprofits navigate the complexities of sharing board, leader, and staff demographic data. This session is part of Demographics via Candid initiative, which empowers nonprofits to share their demographic data one time, on their Candid profile, where it can be accessed and re-used by all. Through this initiative, Candid freely provides nonprofit demographic data to make the granting process quicker, easier, and more efficient.

Host Provider: Candid
Date: Wednesday, May 29, 2024
Time: 2:00-3:00 pm
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free

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5/30 | How 501(c)(3)s Can Educate and Advocate During Election Season

In major election years, public charities are often concerned by how they can remain nonpartisan while still advancing issues they care about during critical times of civic engagement. Join this training with Bolder Advocacy to understand how your public charity can appropriately engage in education and advocacy this year and beyond. From conducting voter and candidate education campaigns to mobilizing the public to get out and vote, your organization has a role to play in supporting your community and engagement on critical issues.

During this program, participants will learn:

  • How you can continue to advocate for your issues during election years;
  • How you can educate the public through candidate forums and questionnaires;
  • How you can respond to candidate statements objectively;
  • How you can conduct nonpartisan voter registration and ensure get-out-the-vote efforts are conducted legally;
  • How you can safely support or oppose ballot measures without being partisan; and
  • How staff and volunteers’ partisan activities in their personal time can be kept separate from their activities on behalf of the organization.

Host Provider: Philanthropy Ohio
Date: Thursday, May 30, 2024
Time: 1:00-2:30 pm
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free

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June 2024

6/3 | Leveraging Fundraising Intelligence In the Annual Fund

Think prospect research and wealth intelligence is just for major gifts and campaigns?  Think again.  There’s a wealth – pardon the pun! – of information available about donor identity and affinity through the data and information that donors provide and that you can access easily and efficiently.  We are living and fundraising in what’s called the Connection Economy – where relationships and values are front-and-center, far more than ever before.  The trends in giving are telling us that donors are looking for deeper connections and personalized involvement with the causes they support, and there’s no better way to approach that than through your annual fund and individual giving campaigns. In this session we’ll look at the current trends in giving and understand how they inform our fundraising planning, how to integrate useable data, beyond just wealth scores and real estate value, into your planning, and easy, efficient ways to take a fundraising-intelligence informed approach to all levels of fundraising.

Host Provider: Nonprofit Learning Lab
Date: Monday, June 3, 2024
Time: 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free

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6/4 | Linking New Leaders

Hosted twice a year, BVU’s Linking New Leaders is a fun, fast paced “speed dating” style event that brings together community-minded young professionals with local nonprofit organizations. The goal is to connect up-and-coming professionals who want to contribute their time and expertise to a variety of engagement opportunities including positions on boards, committees, and “friends” groups.

Host Provider: BVU
Date: Tuesday, June 4, 2024
Time: 5:30-8:00 pm
Location: Location TBA
Cost: TBA

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6/6 | Introduction to proposal writing

Are you new to proposal writing or want a quick refresher? If so, you don't want to miss one of our most popular classes! This class will provide you with an overview of how to write a standard project proposal to a foundation. It will include:

  • The basic elements of a proposal
  • The "do's" and "don'ts" of writing and submitting a proposal
  • How to follow up whether the answer is yes or no
  • 30-minute hands-on exercise to develop a proposal outline (in-person classes only)

Upon completion of this course, you'll be able to:

  • Understand how to write a standard project proposal to a foundation.
  • Know how and when to follow up with funders after submitting a proposal.

Host Provider: Candid
Date: Thursday, June 6, 2024
Time: 2:00-3:30 pm
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free

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6/11-8/20 | Nonprofit Summer Learning Series

Enhance your capacity to achieve your goals in your nonprofit work by attending a virtual six-session series designed specifically for nonprofit professionals – Philanthropy Ohio’s Nonprofit Summer Learning Series sponsored by Huntington. This exclusive capacity-building series for nonprofit professionals delivers an in-depth look at leadership strategies, resiliency, advocacy, equity and sustainability and provides opportunities to learn from content experts and funders from across Ohio and beyond. At the conclusion of the series, you will be better positioned to lead and support your community.

Host Provider: Philanthropy Ohio
Date: Tuesday, June 11 - Tuesday, August 20, 2024
Time: 10:00-11:00 am 
Location: Virtual
Cost: $175
Who May Attend: Philanthropy Ohio members, eligible non-members and nonprofit professionals

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6/12 | Arts & Culture Inclusion Council Presents: Accessibility at Outdoor Events

In this virtual lunch & learn, Summit DD will present on how to improve accessibility at outdoor arts events- festivals, concerts, craft fairs, etc.

Host Provider: ArtsNow
Date: Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Time: 12:00-1:00 pm
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free

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6/12 | Engage diverse donors with culturally informed marketing strategies

Join us for a transformative webinar on culturally informed marketing strategies, tailored for fundraising professionals seeking to deepen their engagement with diverse donors. This session, led by experts from the UNCF Philanthropy Institute (UNCFPI), will equip you with the necessary skills and insights to effectively acknowledge and incorporate the cultural nuances of your donor base into your marketing efforts. Learn to identify cultural dimensions that impact donor behavior, develop resonant marketing strategies, and avoid common errors in fundraising practices. Enhance your ability to foster meaningful connections, build stronger relationships, and drive impactful support for your institution. In addition, get to know UNCFPI and the important work they do. 

Host Provider: Candid
Date: Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Time: 2:00-3:30 pm
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free

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6/13 | Leveraging the Summer Slowdowns: How to Prepare for End-of-Year Fundraising in June

For most nonprofits, the summer months bring forth significant slowdowns. Though this downtime can be used for vacation, family time, team building, etc., having extra bandwidth can also be used to jumpstart End-of-Year fundraising efforts. Rather than waiting for September to roll around, having a well-paced plan for the summer months can help you and your team get a head start! Participants can expect to outline a clear plan for marketing and development teams to kick off EOY fundraising, explore how to incorporate powerful impact metrics into your EOY fundraising message, and learn how to capture powerful stories of transformation to share with donors during your EOY campaign(s).

Host Provider: Nonprofit Learning Lab
Date: Thursday, June 13, 2024
Time: 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free

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6/18 | Ready, Set, Evaluate: Assess your Organization's Readiness for Program Evaluation

Evaluations can be instrumental in demonstrating the effectiveness of your program, fulfilling funding requirements, and improving outcomes for your clients. They can also be a waste of time and resources when organizations are ill-prepared to engage in the process or use results. During this workshop we’ll learn about 5 key areas to assess your organization's readiness for program evaluation, plus cover the 3 main types of program evaluation.

Host Provider: Nonprofit Learning Lab
Date: Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Time: 8:00-11:00 am
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free

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6/20 | Unlocking Workplace Well-Being

Research from Gallup shows supportive managers as the MOST important predictor of well-being in employees, which leads directly to increased employee engagement, retention, and productivity. Join Heart to Heart Leadership in partnership with the Greater Akron Chamber, for a full-day (9:00 am – 3:00 pm) program, Unlocking Workplace Well-Being: Practical strategies for Managers that Make a Difference designed to provide managers the tools and resources to promote workplace well-being and enhance the productivity and culture of your workplace.

Host Provider: Heart to Heart Leadership
Date: Thursday, June 20, 2024
Time: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm
Location: Greater Akron Chamber (388 S. Main St., Ste 205)
Cost: $399 for GAC members; $599 for non-GAC members

Learn More & Register

July 2024

7/25 | Bridges Workshop

Through this workshop, learn how economic realities of poverty, middle class, and wealth impact individuals, communities, systems, and structures. In order to positively impact the education and lives of individuals in poverty, we must explore the way we think and behave. Bridges Summit County Workshops offers a structure to help us assess the mindsets and world views we hold as individuals, institutions, and communities. It helps us define and visualize the experiences in economic class environments in order to increase our understanding.

Host Provider: United Way of Summit & Medina
Date: Thursday, July 25, 2024
Time: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm
Location: United Way of Summit & Medina (37 N. High St.)
Cost: Non-continuing education cost is $25.00 (includes workshop, lunch, and materials); Continuing education cost is $40.00 (includes workshop, lunch, materials and credits)

Learn More & Register

August 2024

8/12-15 | Ask the Expert

Four times a year, BVU connects our nonprofit partners with skills-based volunteers to work together on a variety of subjects. These 60-minute one-on-one meetings provide an opportunity to work on small projects, get questions answered, or receive practical suggestions. The goal of each Ask the Expert session is for the nonprofit to leave the meeting with recommendations they can implement right away. The skills-based volunteer and nonprofit will be matched based upon the volunteer’s strengths and the needs articulated by the nonprofit.

Host Provider: Business Volunteers Unlimited (BVU)
Date: August 12-15, 2024
Time: Various
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free

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