2026-2027 Emerging Leaders Program
Program Calendar and Session Descriptions
*All sessions, except where noted, will begin at 9:00 am and end at 3:00 pm.*
Session 1 – Thursday, September 24, 2026
Who I Am as a Leader: Exploring Your Leadership Purpose and Values
The first session of the program will focus on exploring and defining each participant’s unique leadership style. We will discuss the expectations of nonprofit executive and senior leaders and the characteristics and qualities that make them effective. Delving further, we demonstrate how this level of leadership is distinct from other types of organizational leadership. Using a diagnostic tool, participants will learn their specific strengths and how they can leverage them to work well with others. Participants will be encouraged to evaluate their awareness and understanding of power, justice, and equity—and to incorporate these values into their leadership. By the end of this session, participants will be able to clarify their personal values (and how they show up in leadership), leadership style, and how to use their strengths to become a successful nonprofit executive or senior leader.
Session 2 – Thursday, October 22, 2026
Financial Leadership: Exploring Your Personal Relationship to Money and Organizational Finances
One of the foremost responsibilities of a nonprofit organizational leader is fiscal management and oversight. Organizational budgets – revenue and expenses – should reflect the organization’s mission, vision, and values. Organizational resources should also be secured and spent in ways that support long-term organizational health and sustainability. Understanding your organization’s financial statements and fiscal systems and processes is critical to leading an impactful and sustainable nonprofit. This session will introduce nonprofit leaders to the basics of nonprofit finance and accountability and how they are distinct from program or project budgets. Participants will learn how to read and analyze organizational financial statements, accessible financial reporting practices, common financial metrics for nonprofits, and strategies for effective financial storytelling.
Session 3 – Thursday, November 5, 2026
Fundraising and Fund Development
Fundraising is oftentimes an aspect of organizational leadership that leaders fear. It can be a daunting task to be responsible for securing the resources an organization needs to realize its mission and vision. Yet, at its core, fundraising is relationship-building and creating opportunities for people to live into their values and support causes they love. This session will focus on the art of fundraising and fund development. Participants will learn the basics of fundraising — identifying diverse types of funding sources; approaching, cultivating, and stewarding financial supporters; and making fundraising asks – as well as strategies to create fundraising plans tailored to their organization’s needs.
Session 4 – Thursday, December 3, 2026
Network Building for the Future
Leaders do not lead alone. The most impactful and effective leaders tap into personal and organizational networks filled with people who can serve as thought-partners, help fill knowledge and skill gaps, connect them to resources, and elevate their leadership. Creating such an intentional network to support your own personal growth and development, as well as that of your nonprofit, is the focus of this session. This session will ask participants to identify strategic community and organizational relationships and discuss strategies to develop them. Participants will leave the session with the confidence to build a public profile, develop their personal and professional networks, and leverage those networks to identify, cultivate, and secure organizational resources.
Session 5 – Thursday, January 7, 2027
Sustainable Leadership: Embracing Care-Centered Practices to Support Yourself, Your Organization, and the Communities You Serve
Leading a nonprofit is challenging. Organizational leaders can experience layers of additional stressors. And yet, leaders must still show up and be in right relationship with organizational stakeholders, families, and friends. This session will explore time and energy management practices and help identify habits that impede care and sustainability. We will discuss how community care, organizational care, and personal care and sustainability are linked; what self, organizational, and community care look like in practice; and how they all support the health and well-being of everyone in and connected to your organization.
Session 6 – Thursday, January 28, 2027 (Time TBD)
Networking Opportunities with Financial Supporters
Nonprofit leaders throughout southeastern Louisiana regularly emphasize how important personal relationships with funders are to organizational sustainability, while also noting how daunting the process of identifying and forming relationships with aligned funders can be. This networking session will provide an opportunity for participants to meet with financial supporters who are resourcing nonprofit organizations in the Greater New Orleans area as well as support participants in developing tailored strategies to initiate and nurture relationships with funders.
Session 7 – Thursday, February 18, 2027
Leadership through Relationships: Working with Your Staff and Board
An organizational leader is often pulled between managing their staff and answering to a board of directors. This session will offer strategies for working with both groups and cultivating their strengths and talents. We will also share ways to center your mission and values in decision-making processes with your board and staff. Sometimes these decisions can lead to difficult conversations; we will offer tools for navigating tensions and conflict resolution as well. Participants will leave the session with effective team building plans and ways to support the leadership and professional development of staff members.
Session 8 – Thursday, March 11, 2027
Leaders as Visionaries
All organizational leaders need space to innovate and envision! As nonprofit executive and senior leaders, vision–setting, strategic relationships, and community partnerships are critical to your ability to move your organizations, including the people you serve, toward a common vision. The morning networking session will provide an opportunity to interact with community leaders and policy advocates – including former Emerging Leaders – who are intentionally and collaboratively strategizing to solve our communities’ persistent problems. The afternoon will offer time for leaders to design a program or organizational innovation or address a program or organizational topic of their choosing. As this is the program’s closing session, you will have an opportunity to share your learnings and any leadership goals and plans you may have.