2025 Nonprofit Leadership Conference Request for Proposals

Attendees will include around 400 nonprofit leaders – emergent to middle to executive, philanthropy professionals, community leaders, students, and Leadership Institute alumni. If you attend the conference, you will be able to:

• Identify the inequities in leadership models and map ways to disrupt and dismantle them while imagining fresh alternatives 
• Find and share inspiration and guidance among peer experts for engaging with myriad areas of leadership 
• Have direct access to the latest leadership research (and researchers!) and discuss ways to incorporate academic findings into on-the-ground practice and strategy 
• Bolster foundational knowledge of nonprofit administration and operations as part of honing your advancement pathway and leadership capacity  

Attendees will include 400+ nonprofit leaders including staff, board members, and volunteers. Past conference attendees included:

• executive directors
• senior leaders in every area of nonprofit work (policy, development, finance, HR, DEI, etc.)
• new and emerging leaders
• board members
• volunteers and jobseekers

MCN and the Humphrey School seek dynamic presenters who are inquisitive and bring nuanced, clear, and equitable approaches to leadership within the nonprofit sector and its subsectors. This year, we are particularly interested in sessions that bring the following content areas to life: 

Leadership Pathways

• Effective and sensitive coaching strategies for staff who have lived experience but no nonprofit programming job experience 
• How to make leadership mentoring accessible, relevant, and encouraged for NEWER and MID-LEVEL leaders
• Establishing inclusive cultures of growth

Executive Leadership Supports 

• Holding and addressing risk while also being a beacon for your organization
• Building skills for navigating systems of power (i.e., advocacy, philanthropy)
• Compliance with regulatory bodies
• Executive transitions in historically white led nonprofits—naming, disrupting, and repairing the bias and nuanced challenges experienced by leaders who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color 
• Knowing when executive coaching is needed and how to work with an executive director who is struggling when their organization outgrows their leadership skills 

Nonprofit Board Engagement 

• Boards effectively partnering with staff leadership
• Expectation setting and activation strategies for board members 

Nonprofit Volunteerism 

• Moving one-time volunteers into life-long fans and supporters
• Providing purpose and reason to the “new adult” generation (Gen Y) for giving their time   

Impact Assessment and Scenario Planning

• Evaluation methods for measuring program impact 

• Incorporating evaluation results into present and future work 
• Proactive and continual scenario planning

We also encourage sessions that engage topics and approaches relevant to and implementable by small nonprofits ($0-$99,999).

MCN, along with our co-host the Humphrey School, seek dynamic session leaders from the nonprofit and public sectors. Proposals from our allies in for-profit companies are welcome; however, please note that preference will be given to sessions that demonstrate active involvement of nonprofit professionals and sector researchers and members from the communities they engage as session presenters or co-presenters.

Sessions that include nonprofit presenters will be given priority. 

Session presenters must demonstrate a depth of knowledge on the workshop topic. Sessions and presenters should reflect the racial, economic, cultural, age, and geographic diversity in the state of Minnesota.

As an incentive to encourage broad participation at the full conference, workshop presenters will be registered for the full conference for free (maximum 3 presenters per session). We hope that the presenters will take advantage of this fantastic opportunity to attend the full conference and to interact with other attendees over the course of the conference.  

Consultants and/or for-profit businesses with an overriding interest in selling their products and services, as opposed to contributing to a learning community will not be invited to present.  

To ensure the highest quality sessions for the conference, the planning committee will place priority on session proposals that incorporate modern adult education modes, formats emphasizing participant engagement and interaction, and are accessible.

• Your session should engage attendees so that participants are actively involved in dialogue, discussion, and idea-generation throughout the session in some form 
• Your sessions should allow attendees to connect with one another
• Your session should provide specific takeaways that attendees can implement in their work
• Your session should have no more than three presenters (including any moderator).
• PowerPoint slides filled with words should be kept to a minimum. Consider using pictures, short videos, and stories to convey your message. (Please include captions on videos as a point of accessibility and use visual description for images.)

Session speakers may elect to receive a stipend. We will pay individual presenters a stipend of $75, with a limit of $225 per session. This modest stipend is in addition to complimentary admission to the conference for presenters. 

Submitting a proposal is easy! Simply complete the online proposal form. The deadline to submit a proposal to present at the conference is Tuesday, February 4, 2025, 11:59 p.m. central. 

The questions you will answer on the online form:

1. Session title (8 word maximum)
2. Session description (150 word maximum)
   • Please provide an overview of material to be presented and include at least one learning objective and a description of your intended audience. Additionally, attempt to cover the following: content focus; why this session at this moment in time; hoped for outcomes and impacts. You do not need to have a fully fleshed out description, but we are looking for a sharp vision and point of view. If writing presents a challenge, you are welcome to contact MCN’s program director, Courtney Gerber (cgerber@minnesotanonprofits.org), to figure out an alternative means of submitting your proposal.
   • (A note on learning objectives. Learning Objectives are brief, clear statements about what learners will be able to do after a particular educational experience.) 
3. What content will be covered? Provide three learning objectives participants will take with them after attending this session.
4. What level of prior knowledge is required for success in your session? The conference seeks all levels of learning although most accepted sessions will focus on advanced or intermediate levels.
   • General Prior Knowledge: Presenter(s) will provide presentations that would be useful to people of all knowledge and experience levels with the subject matter.
   • Intermediate Prior Knowledge: Presenters will define terms and spend some time providing basic information on the subject, but participants should have some familiarity related to the subject (i.e., lived experience or on-the-job experience).
   • Advanced Prior Knowledge: Participants should have advanced knowledge of/experience with the subject area to get the most out of the session.
5. What level of participant engagement are you envisioning? (Select 1 or 2 styles of engagement)
   • Small group conversations/activities
   • Individual reflection (Ex. You give people time to self-reflect on an idea and how it impacts their work/life)
   • Whole group discussion (Ex. You/you and co-presenters share and then invite anyone to add their experience to the conversation. This could be done through facilitated conversations, world cafes, or other participatory methods.)
   • Responding to quizzes or polls
   • Formal Presentation – “Lecture-style” presentations featuring one or two presenters. Formal presentations should include ample time for audience questions, discussion, and interaction
   • Panel discussion (Ex. Panelists present their experiences and learnings and then invite anyone to add their experiences to the conversation) .
   • Takeaways and tools (Exs. Template, list of resources, case studies) 
6. Tracks: Please identify the track that best matches your session:
   • Individual Leadership Track: Leading Oneself and Individuals 
   • Organizational Leadership Track: Leading Organizations and Teams 
   • Community Leadership Track: Leading Community Engagement, Civic Involvement, and Movement-Building
7. Session length: What is your preferred length of session? 45 minutes, 60 minutes, or 90 minutes.
8. Contact information for main contact person: Please include the full contact information for the session presenter who will be MCN’s main contact during the planning process. This must be one of the session presenters.
   • First name
   • Last name
   • Pronouns (optional)
   • Title
   • Organization or company (if applicable)
   • Tribal Affiliation (if applicable/optional)
   • Race/Ethnicity (optional)
   • Email address
   • City
   • State
   • Phone number
9. Co-presenter information (Optional): If you have one or two co-presenters, please include their information below. (Please note that three total presenters — inclusive of any moderator — may be admitted to the conference with free registration. Any additional presenters will pay the full conference registration fee. We discourage including more than three presenters for any session.)
   • First co-presenter’s name, pronouns (optional), title, organization, and email
   • Second co-presenter’s name, pronouns (optional), title, organization, and email
10. Nonprofit presenter(s): Please tell us if any of the workshop presenters works at a nonprofit. Sessions without nonprofit presenter(s) will have a lower rate of acceptance. Some sessions may be accepted on the condition that a nonprofit co-presenter will be added.
11. Background information: If any speaker listed above has never presented at a conference, please include a brief bio highlighting their experience presenting on this topic. 

Submit Your Proposal Now!