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The American Psychological Association reports that the vast majority of American adults are experiencing emotions associated with prolonged stress, with 87% feeling like there has been a constant stream of crises over the past two years (Mar 2022). In addition to the personal pain we are holding, we have been navigating the fear and uncertainty of a pandemic, experiencing inflation, and wrestling with racial injustice. Trauma can have negative impacts on our mental and physical health, particularly if gone unacknowledged.
Research shows us that alongside difficult experiences, positive outcomes such as personal growth, gratitude, and a stronger sense of self often emerge. Once we give ourselves time to effectively feel and process challenging emotions, research-based strategies can help us orient ourselves towards meaningful shifts. In this session, we will engage in telling redemptive stories to reclaim our personal narratives, and make sense of what we have been through. Uncovering opportunities for learning and growth will help us connect with the meaning and purpose that sustain our personal and professional fulfillment
Mary Cipollone – Big Onion Partnerships
The American Psychological Association reports that the vast majority of American adults are experiencing emotions associated with prolonged stress, with 87% feeling like there has been a constant stream of crises over the past two years (Mar 2022). In addition to the personal pain we are holding, we have been navigating the fear and uncertainty of a pandemic, experiencing inflation, and wrestling with racial injustice. Trauma can have negative impacts on our mental and physical health, particularly if gone unacknowledged.
Research shows us that alongside difficult experiences, positive outcomes such as personal growth, gratitude, and a stronger sense of self often emerge. Once we give ourselves time to effectively feel and process challenging emotions, research-based strategies can help us orient ourselves towards meaningful shifts. In this session, we will engage in telling redemptive stories to reclaim our personal narratives, and make sense of what we have been through. Uncovering opportunities for learning and growth will help us connect with the meaning and purpose that sustain our personal and professional fulfillment.
Finding the right people for your organization and then keeping them engaged is your number one priority. Using Emotional Intelligence tools can help you recruit and retain your most valuable resource. This session will discuss key elements of EQ and how they apply to your culture, your recruiting efforts and engagement strategy. We will explore how to use EQ tools to evaluate current staff, potential staff and create developmental opportunities that uplift your organization’s culture.
Mary Ann Little
Mary Ann, an accomplished Senior Executive with an extensive background in business – large, small, global and domestic – startup and mature, is the CEO of –Peak To Peak Business Strategies, LLC and is a certified coach. Her company specializes in Business Coaching using proven methodologies coupled with experiences from her vast career. Based in Denver, Colorado, Mary Ann serves the US and International countries offering clients ways to work smarter, not harder. Mary Ann is an executive coach, trainer and advisor backed by more than 36 years of executive leadership, international business development, operations, customer excellence, product management, team management and sales leadership.
She began her career in the high- tech industry as an Account Manager for AT&T and was rapidly promoted to Executive Briefer with the AT&T Global Briefing Program. In 1991 she was promoted to General Manager with AT&T Computer Systems managing a multi-state sales region. The next step was the National Sales Director for AT&T Video Technology program. Mary Ann moved to New Jersey to become the Executive Chief of Staff with an officer with AT&T Headquarters. During the launch of Lucent Technologies, Mary Ann served in 4 marketing assignments to extend the brand in the global marketplace building the Executive Briefing Program, Consultant and Analyst Program, Trade Show & Exhibits, and Client/CEO/Business Partner Global Events.
In 1999, Mary Ann was promoted again to Vice President/General Manager for an AT&T/Avaya business partner – Expanets – where she built a $100M business spanning 8 states. Upon the merger of Expanets to Avaya, Mary Ann led the sales transition and then became the Vice President for Services at Avaya. Inside this role Mary Ann built 26 Technical Centers of Excellence to support Avaya’s largest Fortune 100 clients on a global basis. With over 1500 engineers, Mary Ann established platforms for technical support in 16 languages. Also with Avaya, Mary Ann took on the role as Vice President for Channels and developed channel/distribution programs for the services portfolio.
Upon leaving Avaya, Mary Ann was promoted again to Vice President Portfolio Management for Bank of America where she built the product management function for Information Services and managed a $1.5B contracts portfolio.
In 2015, Mary Ann opened her own company – Peak to Peak Business Strategies – providing executive & business coaching and business consulting. She enjoys speaking, teaching, coaching and consulting for clients on a global basis. Her specialties include Strategic Planning, Leadership Development, Growth Strategies and Team Building.
Mary Ann graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration with an Emphasis in Management from the University of Northern Colorado. She also attended The Executive Marketing Program at Columbia through her work at AT&T and Lucent Technologies. She is trained in Change Management and LEAN through her work in Lucent and Avaya.
It’s so important to get hiring right, especially in times when the hiring market is competitive. Your nonprofit is a great place to work and you need to make sure your potential employees know it! In this session we will update your job descriptions to ensure they are accurate, have language that protects your organization, and, most importantly, sound exciting and enticing to qualified applicants. We will build on your job descriptions to develop thoughtful, structured interviews that are designed to help your applicants demonstrate their talents to you while filtering for unconscious bias on the part of the interviewers. From there, we’ll discuss effective onboarding strategies that ensure your new hires are set up to succeed. Finally, we’ll explore strategies for employee retention that go beyond on-tap craft beer and ping-pong tables.
RB Fast, CEO, Fast Impact.
RB Fast is an experienced nonprofit leadership coach and operations expert. She’s adept at helping leaders take an honest self-inventory and move towards people first leadership while ensuring their own well-being. She has a long history of getting results for nonprofits. If she’s not in her office working with nonprofit leaders, you can probably find her in the garden.
Session 1– Human Resource & Compliance Top Trends: leverage your current organizational offerings to improve the recruitment and retainment of top talent
Presenters: Hayley Klein and Meg Gilland- GNA Partners
Course Description:
In this interactive session we will give a general human resource and compliance update for the Colorado nonprofit community. Share how company compliant strategies such as PTO and benefits translate to better recruiting and retaining of top talent, we will also take time to answer HR compliance and benefits related questions that are top of mind!
Session 2-Managing and Leading Effectively
Presenter: Kim Stewart- Athena Coaching and Consulting
Course Description:
Being a good supervisor is not something that just happens. It requires intentionality, skills development, and practice. Many people are put into a supervisory role and given no more than a list of their director reports. With today’s employment climate and the need to attract and retain staff, we need to do better. This course will outline the basics of leading, managing, and holding staff accountable.
Session 3- Hiring with Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Mind
Presenter: Monica Williams- The Equity Project
Course Description:
In this 60-minute session, Monica Williams, Chief Consultant Officer at The Equity Project, will discuss how attracting, recruiting, and retaining diverse talent requires organizations to looks inwards, and better understand how their policies, practices, and decision-making may be impacting both who is applying and who is staying. Utilizing her own experiences leading DEI initiatives over the last decade in organizations such as Denver International Airport and CenturyLink, Monica will offer best practices in the field, and share tools and resources that leaders and hiring managers can implement in their recruitment efforts.
How can you stand out at work, have a greater impact, and focus on what energizes you the most? Knowing and leveraging your strengths can help you accomplish all of these outcomes. But strengths can be challenging to identify because many of our workplaces focus on improving our weaknesses. In this workshop, we’ll help you identify your edge by taking the StandOut Assessment. We will talk about ways to manage your weaknesses and explore tips to engage with others so that your team and peers can benefit from a strengths-based mindset.
Bonnie Davis, Founding Partner and Keynote Speaker at HuWork
Colorado Nonprofit Association Members: Get the transactional legal assistance your nonprofit needs for free!
The Colorado Nonprofit Pro Bono Legal Match Program, is an initiative of Colorado Nonprofit Association and the Colorado Lawyers Committee effectively matching nonprofits in need of legal assistance with volunteer lawyers who can help. Volunteer lawyers may only assist in transactional-type issues and it could take up to 2 months to be matched with a volunteer lawyer.
Participating Organization Criteria
Areas of Assistance
Volunteer lawyers may assist in transactional-type issues, including:
Pro Bono Legal Group Requests
Submitting a request through the Pro Bono Legal Group DOES NOT guarantee legal counsel for your organization. We simply make your request available to a lawyer who may decide to assist your organization and timing can take up to two months for a lawyer to contact you once you submit a request. We encourage you to maintain your own efforts to secure needed assistance. Acceptance of each request is dependent upon the professional and personal criteria of the individual attorneys who volunteer their time and expertise.
Pro Bono Legal Group assistance is NOT available for:
Questions? Contact info@coloradononprofits.org.
In partnership with:
Below is Colorado Nonprofit Association’s Code of Ethics Policy.
The Association encourages all nonprofits to adopt a code of ethics policy for its board members, committee members, and staff.
Use this sample document as a starting point to create or revise your organization’s Whistleblower Policy.
Use the template below as a starting point for your Nondiscrimination Policy.