6/17/2008 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
The Buck Stops Here: Creating a Culture of Accountability
John F. Kennedy University, 100 Ellinwood Way, Pleasant Hill, CA
Fee: $95, includes breakfast. Click here to register.

This workshop will help you create a culture of accountability in your organization, so that both your board and staff understand and own their roles and responsibilities. As a result of this workshop you will:

- Have clarity about what you are accountable for, versus the accountability of your board and staff;
- Learn how to push ownership and responsibility down into all levels of your organization;
- Gain insight into how to help managers understand and own their accountability;
- Come away with concrete ideas for strengthening accountability at all levels of your organization

6/19/2008 8:30 am - 10:00 am
Getting Started in Planned Giving
Preservation Park, Room Robinson B, 1233 Preservation Park Way, Oakland, CA
East Bay Fundraising Roundtable
Fee: $25, includes breakfast. Click here to register.

Now is the time to include planned giving in your fundraising mix! If, like many small and medium-sized nonprofits, you struggle to find the time to implement a planned giving program, please join us for this breakfast discussion. Philip Byrdsong will share practical tips and techniques that will allow you to add a planned giving component to your fundraising efforts with some simple, basic steps. Our intent is for you to leave the roundtable with a clear idea of how to get started on this path for your agency.

6/20/2008 8:30 am - 10:00 am
Board Development
John F. Kennedy University, Room #312, 100 Ellinwood Way, Pleasant Hill, CA
East Bay Executive Directors Roundtable
Fee: $25, includes breakfast. Click here to register. Participation is limited to Executive Directors only.

Three seasoned nonprofit leaders will facilitate small group discussions about your boards needs in recruitment, strategic thinking, fundraising, and anything else related to board development you wish. You will have the opportunity to talk with a group of your peers over a delicious breakfast, and get peer advice and guidance about the issues foremost on your mind. Our facilitators: Maridel Moulton, Organizational Development consultant, Patricia Hannum, Executive Director, MOCHA.

In a report to the BOS last Tuesday—much to the dismay of Rollie Katz, Mr Big of Local One and head puppetmaster of the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors (BOS)—Dr Walker concluded that:

a) Reducing the County Health Care services by $10 million is improbable given the mandatory staffing requirements and County employee sweet heart deals including pay and benefits.

b) Reducing the number of indigent may not be feasible or result in keeping significant resources from getting poured down the drain (see item “a” above).

c) To maintain existing services and meet budgetary “constraints,” an alternative approach ought to be considered.

Ergo: Close the CCRMC inpatient unit and issue RFPs to contract out some non-critical County services. Walker suggested the County hire a Community Based Organization to oversee fulfillment of contracts for non-critical service areas including: detention health, inpatient psychiatric, security, medical records, housekeeping, landscaping, facility maintenance, lab work, and collections.

Oh My. From what we saw from the peanut gallery, Mr Big looked like he had eaten a bad oyster, and several Supes were apoplectic, shaking their heads in disbelief before the presentation was even over!

- what the Governor’s proposed budget may mean for your organization
- how to approach legislators and advocate for your agency
- why it’s important to engage your boards in public policy advocacy
- who funds this work and how to make a compelling case

The 2nd Annual East Bay Policy Day is designed for executive directors, board members, and management staff with public policy accountability. To be held at Preservation Park in Oakland, admission is: $25.00, includes light breakfast and lunch. Register Here.

The Second Annual East Bay Policy Day is sponsored by The CBO Center, Contractors’ Alliance of Contra Costa, and the Nonprofit Business Task Force of the Contra Costa Council.

Think this is intrusive and irrelevant? “But it only applies to large foundations,” its backers say. And they aren’t worried about the requirement to “out” not only a foundation’s own staff and board, but even the staff and board of grantees and business partners! Worst of all, the advocates of such “diversity” don’t worry that the effect of such reporting will be to pressure the foundations into selecting staff and board, and making grants, not according to the foundations’ mission statements but rather according to the diversity lobby’s conception of the appropriate distribution of jobs and money.

Oops. It isn’t that the backers simply overlooked the fact that enforcing this kind of “diversity” reporting will result in a foundation sector that is less diverse in appearance and mission . . . rather, that’s the whole point. The Greenlining Institute, the inspiration for the bill, turns aside all objections by saying that the bill “simply requests diversity data in return for billions in tax subsidies.” So tax exempt status is not the government’s acknowledgment of the public good performed by private, independent actors, but rather a subsidy to which every kind of popular string can be attached.

This doesn’t seem like the best way to construct a robust and fruitful partnership between government and civil society. Here’s a very bad idea that is very likely to show up in other states. Urge Senator Tom Torlakson to vote against Senate AB624, and see how far you get.

Join nonprofit leaders for a day of learning and networking as the conference examines the many ways the aging of the Baby Boom population is affecting the nonprofit sector. Fast-paced workshops and stimulating panel discussions will help managers, administrators, and board memebers navigate the many changes and challenges nonprofits face in the areas of leadership transition, fundraising, board development, cultural competency and volunteer recruitment

To be held at the Crowne Plaza in Concord, February 1 from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm. Registration is limited. Early bird registration ends January 7, 2008 is $95. Regular registration, after Janurary 7, is $135. Click here to register online.