An online convening of nature connection school leaders and staff designed to support the healthy, regenerative growth of our work.
Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday, February 24–26, 2021, leaders and staff from Nature Connection organizations throughout North America came together for our 6th annual conference to exchange best practices, strengthen our vision, and re-energize while connecting with peers and fellow nature connection leaders.
Join us for an interactive online conference designed for administrative staff, board members, and program staff.
Wednesday, February 24
Seeing Through (Actual) Native Eyes
Decolonizing “Nature Connection”, Rematriating Indigenous Lifeways
Learn more…
Miakoda and Pınar, two racially-prismatic Indigequeer con-SPIRITors and kin, will unpack Pınar’s indictment of the Nature Connection field and discuss the Centering Justice: Decolonizing “Nature Connection”, Rematriating Indigenous Lifeways project that they are collaboratively stewarding. #LifewaysBack
Centering Diversity, Equity, and Justice in Nature-Based Education Programs
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Nature-based education programs are often created and delivered without centering the importance of anti-racism and cultural relevance.
This session explores the importance of centering anti-racism and justice work in nature-based programs with children and professionals.
We will first explore the importance of naming, understanding, and exploring racism individually and how it impacts our institutions.
Then, we will explore seven strategies for creating culturally relevant nature-based programs.
The Snowshoe Path:
Akomawt’s Recommendations for VWS’s Decolonization Path
Learn more…
For the past year, Vermont Wilderness School has been working with a Native-led consulting group Akomawt Educational Initiative.
In this session, an Akomawt co-founder will share their perspectives on the Vermont Wilderness School and describe their recommendations for VWS’s path forward.
Representatives from Akomawt and VWS will describe the processes and practices that were used during their year together, including prioritizing long term, multi-generational investments for change.
The session will serve as a case study for other nature connection organizations that may be embarking on a similar path.
Sacred Activism
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Sacred Activism is the act of making all things Sacred.
The Sacred filled with Grace and Love can help us in these times.
Some of us have lost sight of the Sacred even as we are having to evolve to be resilient in the face of adversity.
Join your Guides, Sangoma Oludoye and Amy Hyatt, for conversations and adventures into the ways Nature and the Act of making all things Sacred can guide us in these times.
This is a deep reweaving of who we are and what it takes to complete the missions we are on!!!
Five Nation Council Process to Decolonize Ourselves
Learn more…
Hierarchy and dominance are passed on through our culture, generation to generation.
Learn how the Five Nation Council Process can decolonize this lateral violence in order to heal ourselves and our organizations.
Right Relations & Product Innovations
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As a product innovator-of-privilege working in the field of nature connection, I recognize that my “products” are directly sourced from First Nations teachings, and are essentially intertwined with the still-living wounds of a shared past.
In my work, I recognize that reckoning of the past awaits attention, messages from others await being heard, recognition and honoring of the teachings’ sources is due, and collaboration moving forward is possible.
This open conversation invites all voices, and uses two specific, recent product innovations – a young person’s nature connection workbook (Put On Your Owl Eyes) and a Bird Language board game (Migratorius) – as focal discussion points to explore this topic.
Nature Connection as Full-Time Curriculum
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“But what about academics?” Is a question parents ask when enrolling their children in Nature Connection programs.
Now more than ever, we have an opportunity to demonstrate how nature IS curriculum.
Full-time school can be a place where nature-connection is fully integrated with learning to read, write, compute, and so much more.
Shifting the educational conversation from “this” or “that” requires that we understand what learning is, how children learn, and how to translate the “nature” conversation into one that addresses the ‘problem questions’ that block schools and parents from letting nature lead.
Indigenous Perspectives and Teachings
Thursday, February 25
How Outdoor Learning Meets This Moment
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The global pandemic underscores the benefits of nature connection, which nature-based programs have extolled for decades.
At the same, we have come eye-to-eye with the pervasive and undeniable issues of equitable access to green space and technology.
As ERAFANS shifted from large gatherings to online courses in 2020, we have experienced surprising (counter-intuitive!) success fulfilling our mission through virtual platforms.
This workshop examines how the Eastern Region Association of Forest and Nature Schools balances community-based programs that nurture nature connection while offering meaningful professional development that reaches thousands of teachers nationally.
Relationships, Hip Hop, and Forestry:
Thinking about Diversity & Inclusion in the Environment
Learn more…
Easley will lead participants through a presentation that demonstrates how to bring the arts into diversity work, while maintaining healthy self perspective and being aware of others. Participants will learn some diversity language and start to generate ideas of how to be agents of change in your organization.
Indigenous Approaches to Outdoor Programming
Songs as Survival Skills
Learn more…
Every single one of our ancestors used singing as a survival skill.
Together, they would sing to mourn, to celebrate, to grieve, to honour transitions, and to gather. They would sing to connect to their ancestors, the land, their community, the animals and the plants. They would sing to make food grow, and to open up the skies for rain during periods of drought. And – they would sing to heal, as if it were just as important as any other modality of healing, physically or emotionally.
But at some point something shifted. Humans started to identify who could sing, and who couldn’t. Shame and embarrassment started to grow around the idea of singing – especially for those who believed their voices to be unworthy of being heard. Because of this, some humans stopped singing altogether.
Through my background and experience, I’ve witnessed the power of song over and over again. I’ve seen it spark beautiful transformations, inspire growth and learning, and make communities stronger.
And I know that if you can speak, you can sing.
And if you can sing, you’re a singer.
And whether or not you think you’re good at it, you should sing anyway.
I also understand that through the challenging times we are currently facing, the medicine of song has never been more important.
In this session we will talk about the importance of singing, how to connect and inspire people with song, how to use song as a teaching tool and how to keep the magic of song alive while we cannot gather together. The session will also have an interactive component where we channel our creativity and naturalist skills, and collaborate on a few songs. Song resources will also be shared for anyone who attends.
Urban Blight to BLISS:
Shaping “Little” Ecological Worldviews in Baltimore
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Learn about BLISS Meadows, a 10-acre land reclamation project in northeast Baltimore.
Then, the Environmental Education Programs Specialist will share the results of her 2019 case study describing how children enrolled in forest school display indicators of a developing ecological identity.
Rethink the importance of why urban children need to be connected to nature, and be inspired by how the BLISS Meadows Fox and Heron program will provide nature experiences for the children in Frankford.
Indigenous Perspectives and Teachings (Part 2)
The Time of the Lone Wolf is Over:
Community Practices for Honoring Grief
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As we live and work as vulnerable humans and brave leaders within the swirling seas of change, loss, and upheaval that characterize these wild times, there is an increasing awareness of and longing for old-time practices of honoring and transforming grief as it arises within and around us.
What are some seeds of culturally appropriate grief tending that we can weave into deep nature connection practice in order to allow our pains and struggles to be fertile compost from which new futures can grow forth– rather than burying us with the weight of unprocessed emotions.
Join Sangoma and Trevanna for an exploration of ways you can tap into the potential that comes from offering grief for the sake of healing. If possible please have with you a journal and pen, small bowl of water, and a crack in your beautiful heart through which light and life can travel in and out.
Supporting Our Communities:
Leveraging Partnerships for Nature Connection Programming
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COVID-19 has undoubtedly created a renewed interest in spending time outdoors.
How, as nature connection schools, can we harness this energy to directly support our community?
During this session, you’ll have the opportunity to hear about White Pine’s journey to establish and fund community-based programming.
White Pine’s team will share the business, operational and relationship lessons learned as well their long-term vision for community-based programming.
After the case study, the moderator will open the floor to hear others’ experiences and further the discussion.
When designing collaborative programs, what practices have to change?
What elements can stay the same?
How do truly reciprocal partnerships work and what is the long-term organizational benefit?
How can programs be shared and still hold the integrity of the mission and vision of the organization?
Friday, February 26
From Expression to Connection to Liberation:
A Conversation
Learn more…
Join an Executive Director and a queer afro indigenous Parent as they share their story of expression, connection and ultimately liberation from old ideas/paradigms about what it looks like to be a predominantly “white” space/school and commits to being antiracist/equitable.
There will be discussion with participants about the ideas and concepts shared, as we explore what it means to develop a positive racial identity as an organization serving a majority-white population.
Naturally Fostering Diversity for Collective Liberation
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Critical explorations of effective tools and structures for naturally encouraging diversity & the evolving challenges that well-intentioned white people in leadership positions face.
Two Row on the Grand
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Two Row on the Grand is an annual nine day family-oriented camping and paddling excursion on The Grand River, starting in Cambridge and ending at Port Maitland, Lake Erie.
The concept is based on the four hundred year old two row wampum, which is explained in this presentation.
Truth and Reconciliation and Indigenous cultural teachings of The Haudenosaunee- People of the Longhouse who inhabit this area of Ontario- are just a few of the take-aways of this nature connection.
Indigenous Land
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This presentation is geared towards non-indigenous people; all land on Turtle Island has been stolen and now what?
We will begin by sharing some uncomfortable truths of how we got here. We will talk about land as an indigenous identity, about the practice of land acknowledgment, and what could be next.
We like to unpack what land and land rematriation means to Sassafras and the Native Land Conservancy and describe some of the projects we are working on.
We hope to inspire other organizations and communities with these ideas, and point out the responsibility of nature mentoring organizations in educating the next generations in what it means to live on indigenous territory. We will close with Q&A and action suggestions.
Participate live during the conference or watch recordings at your leisure.
Tickets give you access to recordings until March 15, 2021.
Schedule below may be subject to change. Stay tuned for more session details.
| EST | PST | Wednesday, February 24 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11am | 8am | Opening Circle | ||
| 11:45am | 8:45am | Bio Break | ||
| 12pm | 9am | Seeing Through (Actual) Native Eyes: Decolonizing "Nature Connection," Rematriating Indigenous Lifeways | ||
| 1pm | 10am | Lunch Break | ||
| 2pm | 11am | Centering Diversity, Equity, and Justice in Nature-Based Education Programs | The Snowshoe Path: Akomawt's Recommendations for VWS's Decolonization Path | Sacred Activism |
| 3:30pm | 12:30pm | Self-Organizing Sessions | ||
| 4:30pm | 1:30pm | Five Nation Council Process to Decolonize Ourselves | Right Relations & Product Innovations | Nature Connection as Curriculum for Full-Time School |
| 6pm | 3pm | Dinner Break | ||
| 7pm | 4pm | Indigenous Perspectives and Teachings (Part 1 of 2) | ||
| EST | PST | Thursday, February 25 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11am | 8am | Networking on Hopin | |||
| 11:30am | 8:30am | Heeding Nature's Call: How Outdoor Learning Meets this Moment | Relationships, Hip Hop, and Forestry: Thinking about Diversity & Inclusion in the Environment | Indigenous Approaches to Outdoor Programming | Songs as Survival Skills |
| 1pm | 10am | Lunch Break | |||
| 2pm | 11am | Blight to BLISS: Shaping Little Ecological Worldviews | |||
| 3pm | 12pm | Connection Games | |||
| 3:30pm | 12:30pm | Self-Organizing Sessions | |||
| 4:30pm | 1:30pm | Indigenous Perspectives and Teachings (Part 2 of 2) | The Time of the Lone Wolf is Over: Community Practices for Honoring Grief | Supporting Our Communities: Leveraging Partnerships for Nature Connection Programming | |
| 6pm | 3pm | Dinner Break | |||
| 7pm | 4pm | Social Hour & Music | |||
| EST | PST | Friday, February 26 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11am | 8am | Self-Organizing Sessions | ||
| 11:30am | 8:30am | From Expression to Connection to Liberation: A Conversation | Naturally Fostering Diversity for Collective Liberation | Two Row on the Grand |
| 1pm | 10am | Lunch Break | ||
| 2pm | 11am | Indigenous Land | ||
| 3pm | 12pm | Debrief & Next Steps | ||
| 3:30pm | 12:30pm | Closing Ceremony | ||
Content for every member of your organization.
The Nature Connection Leadership Conference provides your entire team with opportunities to learn from colleagues and to tap into collective genius.
Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion
Whether you’re in the forest or in the office, you will have opportunities throughout the conference to consider ways our work can center around justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Learn from stories of successes and challenges organizations are facing in their JEDI work. Tap into the wisdom of our elders and peers for conversations you won’t want to miss.
Strategies To Navigate This Time
Sessions will explore strategies and tools for excellence throughout your organization. Topics under consideration include: human development, fundraising, strategic planning, budgeting, equity councils, cohesion between admin & program teams, and more. Learn how others are finding resilience during these challenging times.
Prepare For New Opportunities
Learn how other organizations are building partnerships with schools and their communities in order to expand nature connection. Explore ways you can leverage the challenges of today to provide impactful and essential services to your community. Connect with peers for opportunities to develop relationships that can sustain you through times of uncertainty.
Cross Pollinate Your Programming
Sessions will provide opportunity for cross-pollination and learning from other organizations and field staff about how they have successfully navigated challenges that may be relevant in your work. Soak up inspiration and enhance your programming as you learn from peers throughout North America.
Our conference is flexibly priced so everyone can be included.
Buying for your organization?
Buying a ticket for yourself? Choose the ticket level that best fits your ability to support our collective work.
Benefactor Price – $219
Cover the true cost of the conference and give a little extra to support our BIPOC reparations efforts and provide discounts for those who wouldn’t be able to attend. Benefactors can be featured as co-sponsors of the conference.
True Cost – $119
Enable us to cover our expenses; supporting presenters and technology costs.
Discounted Price – $69
Help cover some of our costs while you receive a discount.
Need further discounting in order to attend?
If you need additional discounting in order to attend, we recommend that you apply for financial assistance as early as possible.
We cannot guarantee that every request will result in a scholarship. Please be assured, however, that we will do our best to help you attend the Nature Connection Leadership Conference.
Reparations Awards for BIPOC Individuals & BIPOC-Led Organizations
Recognizing that many of the systems within which nature connection work is nested are built on the stolen land and/or stolen labor of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and people of color, we are committed to the work of repair.
We support equity and justice by making rights, resources, and representation accessible and honoring the ongoing labor of Black/Indigenous people of color {BIPOC} to bring leadership and skill to this work as we heal divides and restore balance to all people and the Earth.
In service to our goal of approaching Decolonization from a healing perspective, at all of the Nature Connection Network’s programming, we offer Reparation Awards to self-identified BIPOC individuals and organizations who are working toward equity in nature connection programming.
This is not a scholarship fund, and we do not assume that individual BIPOC applicants do not have access to wealth—these reparations are offered with an attempt at integrity and a prayer for collective liberation. All are additionally welcome to apply for scholarship funds to offset costs of attendance, regardless of identity, and reception of a Reparation Award does not disqualify you from receiving further scholarship support if needed.
If you identify as a BIPOC individual please select the ticket price below that best suits your ability to support the conference.
The Reparations Award: Benefactor Price enables you to receive a $50 reparations award while also supporting the conference, providing financial aid for others.
The Reparations Award: True Cost enables you to cover the true cost of the conferences less your $50 reparations award.
The Reparations Award: Discounted Price enables you to receive a $50 reparations award as well as an additional financial aid.
The 2021 NCLC is hosted by the Nature Connection Network in conjunction with the Earth Skills Alliance. The conference organizing is a collaboration with 4 Elements Earth Education, Coyote Programs, ERAFANS, Everyone Outside, Guelph Outdoor School, Kindred of Sangoma, Living Earth School, Lynn Trotta Mentoring, Trackers Earth, Two Coyotes Wilderness School, Vermont Wilderness School, Vilda, and Village Hearth Initiative.
Connect more of your organization.
Buy a group package today.
Buy group tickets, save money, support collaboration, and get featured as a sponsor.
5 Tickets + Sponsorship
$550
10 Tickets + Sponsorship
$1,050
15 Tickets + Sponsorship
$1,500
20 Tickets + Sponsorship
$1,900
Pre-purchase a group package and we’ll send you a private link that you can share with your team so they can enroll in the conference at no cost to themselves.
Available for a limited time only. Group packages will no longer be available after February 15, 2021.
Your purchase of a group package directly supports reparations efforts as well as scholarships for those who otherwise couldn’t afford to attend.
As a sponsor, your logo, hyperlinked to your website, will be displayed prominently on the main reception page, visible to attendees throughout the conference.
Sponsors are also invited to join our digital expo where your organization can show off. The expo booths allow you to:
- Share a featured video or a livestream where you can talk to attendees in your booth
- Live chat with attendees as they visit your expo booth to grow your community & find collaborators
- Collect emails through the “sign up feature”
- Display a banner image to promote growth and visibility for your organization
- Drive traffic to your website, your online store, or social media accounts
The Nature Connection Leadership Conference is hosted by the Nature Connection Network.
The Nature Connection Network’s mission is to encourage and support the healthy growth of nature connection organizations and their leaders in building resilient, regenerative, and just communities.
Throughout the year, the Nature Connection Network provides a listserve, webinars, and other modes of connecting to uplift the work of our members. Interested in joining? Learn more.
Connecting Peers
Strengthen your organization and prevent burnout through supportive relationships with your fellow leaders.
Access Experience
Learn from the seasoned know-how of other organizations. The experience of other teams is an invaluable resource.
Build on Resources
Address challenges and build capacity quickly by not starting from scratch. Stop re-inventing the wheel.
Collaborate and Lead
Share your expertise and support nature connection beyond your organization. A rising tide lifts all ships.
History of the Nature Connection Leadership Conference
The NCLC is a collaborative event with participants presenting on a variety of topics. Presentations range from didactic powerpoints to interactive discussions and –when we’re in person– outdoor adventure.
Reconnect with a community of nature connection leaders.
Remember our original visions for our school, and reflect on our triumphs and challenges.
Reenergize ourselves, sharing inspiring stories, uplifting songs, and time outdoors.
Renew our commitment to nature connection and to sustaining vibrant, healthy organizations that make our work possible.
The conference has filled every year, register early to reserve your space.
2020: Year Five
In 2020, the conference included 90 leaders from 43 nature connection organizations throughout North America. We continued our focus on cultural appropriation and expanded the conversation to look at inclusivity and equity.
2019: Year Four
In 2019, the conference included 49 leaders from 28 nature connection schools throughout North America. We were honored to hear Native perspectives on cultural appropriation and together, we began to outline practical ways we can incorporate Native views and recommendations into our nature connection work.
2018: Year Three
In 2018, the conference grew to include 49 leaders from 25 nature connection schools throughout North America (including three schools from Canada). At the 2018 conference, Native leaders and wilderness school directors took a deep dive into conversations about what it means for nature connection organizations to be allies to Native peoples.
2017: Year Two
In 2017, the conference grew to include 46 leaders from 23 nature connection schools throughout North America. Topics included best practices around core topics such as fundraising & budgeting and expanded conversations about decolonization and what it means for us to be allies to other communities.
2016: Year One
In 2016, leaders from Wild Earth, Two Coyotes, Sassafras Earth Education, and EarthWalk Vermont invited nature connection schools throughout the northeast to come together and focus on strengthening their organizations. The 3-day conference was a big success, 42 leaders from 19 Northeast schools delved into best practices around fundraising, budgeting, marketing, and more.
Want to know what you’ve missed?
Below are some of our past conference offerings. Sign up for the upcoming conference and join us as we level-up our nature connection work together.
2020 Workshops
Hosted by: the Nature Connection Network in collaboration with Wild Earth, 8 Shields Institute, Guelph Outdoor School, Vermont Wilderness School, Sagefire Institute, Two Coyotes Wilderness School, Sassafras Earth Education, Vashon Wilderness Program, and The Wildwood Path.
Awakening to the Realities of Our Uncomfortable Future with Aviva Argote, Trevanna Grenfell, and Mark Morey
Doing The Work: Equity in Nature Connection Organizations – A Guided Discussion with Andy Franjevic, and Shivani Gogna, and Christine Larsen
Open Game Slam with the Acorn
Native Panel with Ramona Nosapocket Peters (Mashpee Wampanoag Nation), Stephanie Morning Star (Oneida Nation), Carol Kawisente McGreggor (Bear Clan Chief, from the Kanien’kehá:ka nation [5 Nations Confederacy]), David Two Arrows Vanderhoop (Aquinnah Wampanoag Nation)
Nature Connection For ALL: Programs In Public Schools & Marginalized Communities with David Brownstein, Jonathan Gonzalez and Ana Jimenez
The Nature-Connected Office: Applying principles from the field to liberate time, tasks and relationships in the workplace with Kai Northcott and Ash Young
New Relationships with Native Land, Empowering Reparation with Ramona Nosapocket Peters (Mashpee Wampanoag) and Stephanie Morning Star (Oneida)
Interconnectedness Through Cultural Understanding with Kawisente McGreggor
Nourishing (Extended) Family Nature Connection with Aviva Argote, Robert Riman, and Aya Argote-Riman
Them, Us, and We: Conversations Waiting to Be Had about Racism in Nature Connection with Sangoma Oludoye
Strategic Planning Skills for Healthy Organizational Development with Trevanna Grenfell, Maggie Gotterer, and Stacey Hinden
Infant, Toddler, and Kinder Forest Tactics with Bessie Jones
2019 Workshops
Hosted by:Wild Earth, Sassafras Earth Education, Vermont Wilderness School, Sagefire Institute
A Discussion on Compensation and Benefits
Peacemaker Principles
Kawisente McGregor
Decolonization Panel
David & Saskia Vanderhoop, Kawisente, Sachem HawkStorm, & Evan Mitak
Cultural Appropriation & Decolonization: Strategies for Your Programs and Approaches
Financial Aid: Strategies for Equity & Inclusion
Simon Abramson & Sarah Nason
Fundraising: Asking for Money (Not for Spectators)
David Brownstein
Nature Connection Network
Developing New Qualified Field Staff: A Dialogue of Approaches
Amy Hyatt
Nature Connection & Mentoring in Public Schools
Atiya Wells and David Brownstein
2018 Workshops
Hosted by: Wild Earth, Sassafras Earth Education, Vermont Wilderness School, Eartharts Ithaca
Board Basics & Beyond
Dan Gardoqui
Building Capacity through Community Partnerships
David Brownstein & Anika Klem
Building Reciprocity with Native Communities: Towards Decolonizing Nature Education
Trevanna Grenfell, Daniel Vargas, & Connor Stedman
Data Tracking for Effective Storytelling
Simon Abramson & Sam Stegeman
Decolonizing Panel Presentation & Discussion
David Vanderhoop, Kawisente McGregor, & Vincent Mann
Matrilineal Societies: Cross Referencing the Peacemaking Principles From a Female Perspective
Kawisente McGregor
Raising Bigger Money from Individual Donors and Foundations
David Brownstein & Rovika Rajkishun
The Nature Connection Leadership Network
What About The Parents?
Arlene Slocombe & Chris Green
2017 Workshops
Hosted by: Wild Earth, Sassafras Earth Education, Vermont Wilderness School, EarthWalk Vermont
Culture of Mentoring & Apprenticeship: Developing Future Staff From Past Participants
Angella Gibbons & John Chiltowski
Getting Serious about Fundraising
David Brownstein
Growing Awareness & Opening Conversations around Racial & Social Injustice
David Vanderhoop & Saskia Vanderhoop
Nature Connection and Peacemaking in a Post-2016 Election Environment
Amy Hyatt & Connor Stedman
Organizational & Program Budgeting
David Brownstein& Kate Yoemans
Program Design Workshop
Julie Kulik & Amy Hyatt
Reaching Under-Served & Urban Youth, Schools & Community Groups
David Brownstein & Justin Pegnataro
Strategies for Strong Enrollment, Retention, & Customer Relations
John Chiltowski & Simon Abramson
The NCL Network: Let’s Work Together!
Angella Gibbons & Sam Stegeman
Using Mentoring Principles to Run Your Organization
Dan Gardoqui
We Are Nature Rising
Mark Morey
2016 Workshops
Hosted by: Wild Earth, Two Coyotes, Sassafras Earth Education, EarthWalk Vermont
Accessible to All: Nature Connection for Everyone
Bringing the Vision to Life: Organizational Storytelling
Budgeting, Achieving & Reporting Your Financial Results to Your Board and the Public
Creating an Active & Engaged Support Team, Board, Council of Advisors
Fundraising Success: Expanding Sources of Financial Abundance
Integrating Technology into Your Organization
Leadership Self Care
Program Development & Design
Regenerative Governance & Decision Making
Regenerative Staffing: Hiring, Compensating, Evaluating & Promoting Staff
Success & Sustainability through the Power of Relationship Marketing