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Come together

Nonprofit conference changes format

From left, Jess Jones, Brigitte LaPointe, Carly Harrington and the Grow & Lead: Community and Youth Development associate Victoria Leonhardt talk over beers at the U.P. Nonprofit Conference’s opening reception at the Ore Dock Brewing Co. Wednesday evening. The gathering is hosted by GLCYD and takes place today at the University Center at Northern Michigan University. (Journal photo by Corey Kelly)

MARQUETTE — The 2018 Upper Peninsula Nonprofit Conference, hosted by the group Grow & Lead: Community and Youth Development, takes place today at the University Center on Northern Michigan University’s campus.

The event features four sessions focused on leadership, best practices, communication and volunteerism. There will also be the presentation of the U.P. Service Awards and networking time.

“It’s the one time during the year where we have many different nonprofits come together from across the U.P., and also downstate and southern Wisconsin,” GLCYD President and CEO Amy Quinn said.

Due to limited space because of construction at the University Center, organizers changed the format of the annual conference to fit a smaller venue.

“We weren’t able to do our normal huge scope of 15 different workshops,” Quinn explained. “Our team was really great in figuring out, ‘How do we still add value to the nonprofits and make sure this works for everyone within the constraints we have on the space?’ So this year it’s going to be a lot of case studies and interactive learning and learning from each other. It will really help people network all the more, even those who are not great at networking because the situation itself helps lend to learning about other people and help problem-solve common nonprofit issues that all of us face.”

From left, WNMU-FM Business and Community Support Coordinator Tammy Wixstrom Johnson, Superior Health Foundation Executive Director Jim LaJoie and WNMU-FM Station Manager Evelyn Massaro socialize before LaJoie’s presentation. (Journal photo by Corey Kelly)

The GLCYD expanded the one-day conference to include activities across town from Wednesday through Friday morning.

An opening reception for the conference took place at the Ore Dock Brewing Co. Wednesday evening. The event was a free night of networking and learning with a presentation and discussion from Jim LaJoie, executive director of the Superior Health Foundation, titled The Changing Landscape of Fundraising. Attendees were encouraged to ask a question and engage LaJoie during the presentation.

“It’s an awesome opportunity to learn more about fundraising.” GLCYD associate Victoria Leonhardt said. “It’s something a lot of us do, but there is not a lot of training available around fundraising in the U.P.”

Other conference activities include a closing reception Thursday evening and a reflection breakfast Friday morning.

The closing reception is at Fresh Coast Film Festival’s Fresh Coast Free and the Food Truck & Adventure Mobile Rally events, happening at the Marquette Commons. GLCYD worked with Fresh Coast Film Festival as a nonprofit capacity builder, and another client, the U.P. Land Conservancy, will debut its documentary at this event.

“It is a really neat way to get people excited about what groups we work with, but aren’t able to come to the conference because of this big event, are doing,” Leonhardt said.

The conference concludes with a reflection breakfast Friday morning. During this workshop, organizers will help attendees identify and create plans based on what was learned at the conference to implement once they return home.

“This breakfast is going to help people process and figure out what they took away from this conference, and they will be writing action steps and goals around those things so when they get back to their office, they’ll have an actual plan for implementation,” Leonhardt said. “In my opinion that is the most exciting part of the conference because it’s actual forward action based on what you learned.”

Corey Kelly can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 243. Her email address is ckelly@miningjournal.net.

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