PREVIOUS COHORTS
2025 Capacity-Building
Training Cohorts
Through the Greater Milwaukee Nonprofit Capacity-Building Training Cohort, the Nonprofit Management Fund facilitated four peer-learning cohorts for nonprofit leaders in 2025. Details about each program can be found below.
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Building Resilience for Future-Ready Nonprofits: Advanced Governance Series
The pandemic's lingering impact, renewed calls for social justice, and the uncertainty of the Trump administration’s policies create a challenging and unpredictable future for nonprofits and the communities they serve. What can nonprofit leaders do to respond and adapt to this uncertainty so that they can continue to deliver on their missions, build future-ready nonprofits, and become future-ready leaders?
Learning Objectives
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Identify Critical Trends: Explore key trends, uncertainties, and challenges shaping the nonprofit landscape in 2025 and beyond.
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Embrace Generative Thinking: Equip boards and leadership teams with governance models to foster strategic and generative thinking to make sense of complex and ambiguous situations.
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Explore Alternative Futures: Utilize scenario thinking and planning techniques to anticipate and respond to future disruptions.
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Challenge Outdated Mindsets: Identify and assess mental models and assumptions that hold your organization back and replace them with future-ready approaches.
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Reflect Upon Lessons Learned: Examine and apply insights from past periods of disruptive change, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
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Strengthen Governance & Leadership: Learn adaptive leadership practices, traits, and strategies to engage boards effectively.
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Move from Planning to Action: Walk away with a tailored and flexible plan to strengthen your organization’s future-readiness, resilience, and sustainability.
Human Understanding & Engagement (HUE) Strategy Planning for Nonprofits Prioritizing Culture Change
An introduction to a strategic planning framework and the leadership concepts necessary to lead cultural and strategic change. Experience authentic engagement, learn practical skills, and gather useful tools to help build buy-in and solicit valuable input from community partners.
Learning Objectives
​Learn to develop and communicate your vision, build successful plans, and inspire your team to move into meaningful action.
Nonprofit Fundraising Studio
An intensive learning experience that will prepare 12 small Milwaukee nonprofits for 2025 year-end grant submissions and 2026 fundraising. The highest percentage of private giving occurs in the final months of each calendar year. The Studio will offer a dynamic blend of in-person, hands-on, and virtual learning experiences to equip leaders from small Milwaukee nonprofits with the skills to make their strongest case for funding. Cohort learning will be complemented by one-on-one coaching. The lead trainers are Sally Lyne and Scott Gelzer, with additional expertise from Jéneen Perkins of Éclat Enterprises, LLC, an accountant with extensive nonprofit experience, and other special guests.
Learning Outcomes
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Increased organizational readiness to pursue and secure funding.
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Increased understanding of basic fundraising principles and techniques.
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Identified funding sources and tailored strategies for engagement.
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Strengthened fundraising infrastructure within the nonprofit.
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A completed grant funding request.
Art of Impact: Visual Storytelling Learning Lab
An interactive, cross-disciplinary learning experience where nonprofit professionals explore the art and science of visual storytelling. Through the lenses of a filmmaker, visual artists, and a marketing professional, participants will uncover the core elements that make stories memorable, emotionally resonant, and visually dynamic.
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This lab is designed to help organizations bring their missions to life using powerful imagery, intentional design, and authentic narrative structure. Whether you're creating a campaign, presenting a case for funding, or simply refreshing your messaging, this session will equip you with tools to visually communicate with clarity, creativity, and impact.
Learning Outcomes
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Identify the key components of a compelling visual story, including narrative structure, emotional resonance, and visual coherence.
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Understand the unique roles of video, fine art, and graphic design in elevating nonprofit storytelling.
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Analyze visual storytelling examples to assess what makes them effective or ineffective in conveying mission-driven messages.
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Apply basic design and storytelling principles to their own organizational content (e.g., fundraising materials, websites, social media campaigns).
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Begin to draft or reimagine a visual storytelling piece using insights gained during the lab.