North Penn Nonprofit Academy - Home

Fernando Building Capacity Through Learning
The North Penn Nonprofit Academy is a series of workshops and events aimed at bolstering the important work of nonprofit leaders in North Penn's health and human services community. Since 2003, the Academy has offered free, high-quality professional development opportunities to build the capacity of Executive Directors, Board Members, and management-level staff serving the North Penn region. For more information about the Academy and how to become involved, contact Diana Loukedis Doherty, Project Director, at npnonprofitacademy@hotmail.com or by phone at 215-696-9336.

The North Penn Nonprofit Academy is made possible through funding support from the North Penn Community Health Foundation and is administered through the Greater North Penn Collaborative for Health and Human Services. The Foundation conceived of the Academy as a capacity-building effort that would have far-reaching impact beyond that of a typical grant. Since its inception, the Academy has offered dozens of workshops on various aspects of nonprofit management and governance to hundreds of nonprofit leaders.

Sample Titles of Trainings Include:

Targeting Your Grant Proposals Wisely to Funders
Collaboration and Joint Ventures: Keys to Successful Partnerships
Program Evaluation and Measurable Outcomes
Writing a Business Plan: A One-Day, How-To Workshop
Strategic Planning: Why, When and How to Do It Right
Engaging Board Members in Fundraising: The Impact and Role of the Board in Development
And many more...

Here's What People Are Saying about the Academy's Impact on Their Work:

"Thank you, thank you for offering these terrific trainings free of charge! Keep it up!"
-Executive Director of a Lansdale-based nonprofit

"The presentation was very valuable, and I met someone there whose agency might work with us on an important project. Well worth it!"
-Board Member of an Indian Valley-area agency

Academy 2009-10 Season Preview

The 2009-10 season will focus its curriculum around the characteristics of “charismatic organizations” described in Shirley Sagawa and Deborah Jospin’s research in the book, The Charismatic Organization: 8 Ways to Build Buzz, Energize Employees and Delight Donors, while incorporating input from Academy participants. In this way the Academy will further the knowledge gained in the exceedingly popular January, 2009, Academy workshops that featured Shirley Sagawa. The Academy’s 2009-10 season’s theme, “Guided By Our Core,” will feature workshops designed to encourage participating organizations to use principles identified by Sagawa and Jospin, such as “Data-Driven Decision-Making,” “Intentional Innovation,” “Compelling Communication,” and “Meaningful Involvement” to prioritize their goals in these challenging economic times and work smarter by working together with partners who complement their core capacities. The findings of the Academy Evaluation project conducted in 2008-09 by TCC Group will also help to inform and shape Academy services throughout the season. Based on the Evaluation findings and input from Evaluation participants, the Academy’s workshop offerings will achieve even greater relevance and timeliness.

Executive Master Classes

This season, the Academy will again provide a forum for Executive Directors and CEOs to discuss management issues in its Executive Master Class series. This season’s Executive Master Classes will focus on the aggregate findings from a self-assessment tool used by over 40 organizations participating in the Academy, the CCAT (Core Capacity Assessment Tool). The first administration of the CCAT took place in Spring/Summer, 2008, and the second administration is slated for November/December 2009. Following the second CCAT administration, an Executive Master Class will convene to discuss the comparative data from both CCATs. To learn more about the CCAT, go to www.tccccat.com. Executive Master Class participants will convene this season to discuss the management implications of the CCAT findings, providing peer-led mentoring and knowledge-sharing in a collegial setting. Following the meeting among nonprofit executives, a second Executive Master Class later in 2010 will bring grantmakers together with our Academy participants to discuss the CCAT findings and implications on capacity needs in the North Penn region.

Why Do We Need the Academy?

In The Charismatic Organization, Shirley Sagawa and Deb Jospin write that “too many nonprofits today are unable to operate at their full potential because they are stuck in ineffective ‘business as usual’ paradigms” that do not enable them to effectively adapt to changes brought about by the severe economic recession. In 2008 the North Penn Community Health Foundation underwrote the cost for approximately 40 nonprofit agencies to take the CCAT self-assessment tool, which measures nonprofits’ strengths, weaknesses and capacity-building needs. Through the Academy’s Executive Master Class forum, we brought the Executive Directors of those 40 agencies together in September, 2008 to discuss the aggregated findings and consider the implications on both an organizational and a regional basis. The CCAT study revealed community-wide challenges in the areas of Program Resource Adaptability, Leadership Sustainability, Fundraising Skills, Marketing Skills, and Outreach. In this harsh economic climate, with fewer resources widely available from governmental and private sources, agencies cannot meet growing community needs if the capacity challenges identified in the CCAT study go unmet. By learning how to grow their capacity from exposure to experts and to successful peers, nonprofit leaders can build on their strengths and surmount their organizational challenges. Therefore, as the only series of workshops on effective nonprofit management that is offered free of charge to any Executive, leadership staff or board member of the North Penn region’s health and human service community, the Academy fulfills a critical need for high-quality, no-cost professional development opportunities. Travel-time and, often, significant fees apply to professional development workshops in New York and Philadelphia, so the Academy’s offerings are unique and tailor-made for the North Penn region, suiting their interests and their schedules. As one satisfied nonprofit Executive Director noted on a recent Academy post-workshop survey, “The Academy is an extremely valuable resource to me and my agency. All of the topics are practical and focus on issues that are of primary concern to non-profits. I have attended a number of the trainings and have found something to use in my agency with every single one of them. I talk to colleagues of mine in other counties and they are jealous that we have such a resource as the Academy in our area. This is the only training vehicle that I know of that provides timely, interesting and cutting edge trainings specifically geared towards the needs of non-profit management. As you can tell, I can talk volumes about how valuable the Academy is!”

Educational Stipends

The Academy’s Educational Stipend program provides funding for knowledge-building experiences, such as conference fees, workshop registration charges, and publications. Through the Stipend program, Academy participants may apply for up to $250 in funding to help defray the cost of attending a non-Academy workshop or educational event that will positively impact their nonprofit management skills. As established earlier in this section, few nonprofit organizations possess funds for professional development opportunities, and the Stipends have been, in the words of one Academy participant, "a godsend for our organization." If you are eligible to participate in the Academy, you are eligible to receive a stipend toward an educational experience that will build your capacity!

Please contact Diana Doherty, Project Director, at 215-696-9336 or npnonprofitacademy@hotmail.com, or via mail at The North Penn Nonprofit Academy, PO Box 1668, Doylestown, PA 18901, for more information on Academy programs.