Training offered to leaders of area non-profit groups
Peterborough non-profit CEOs and leaders will have another chance to participate in a sixmonth training program to help strengthen skills needed for non-profits.
The Leadership Development Program, which usually costs about $2,500, will be offered to non-profit organizations at a discount based on the size of their organization and provided by Laridae, a Peterborough management consulting firm.
Jim Russell, CEO of United Way Peterborough and District, says training is usually the first thing affected when a non-profit group doesn’t meet its budget goals.
“It is often the first thing that non-profits cut is there training budgets,” Russell said. “It is often hard to make time to do good training for leadership and I think these days, quite frankly, they are crying out for really critical leadership during COVID.”
The first time the United Way offered the program a year ago, a wide variety of people from about 20 different non-profit organizations throughout Peterborough took up the offer, he said.
“It was everything from meal programs to people working with seniors to people working with Indigenous people, to people working with youth, it was all over the spectrum,” Russell said. “The chamber of commerce took the course as well, because they are a non-profit, so it was a really broad spectrum of non-profits.”
The goal is to train CEOs and leaders of non-profits because it’s needed in the community right now, he said.
“What you want whether it is politically or in the private sector or indeed the non-profit sector is you want strong leaders, you want people who can think strategically, you want people who can deal with crisis, you want people who have a clarity of vision,” Russell said.
The non-profit sector is an economic driver for the community, he said.
“It is a massive economic engine in our community,” Russell said. “So, you really want critical thinkers, strategic thinkers and you want leaders with vision. One of the things this program offers is the opportunity to deepen in those skills and those abilities in the community.”
Laridae is a management consulting firm dealing exclusively with non-profits, said CEO Danielle Rocheleau.
“We are always excited to collaborate with community organizations and this partnership we have been kind of engaged with for about a year now,” Rocheleau said.
The training offered to senior leadership and management is comprehensive and allows people to look at the bigger picture of how their business is involved, she said.
“The training we have put together is an opportunity for some reflection and deeper understand of some of the more fundamental pieces that will help leaders be successful in delivering and running an organization,” she said.
Topics on many different levels of organizations are offered.
“We cover things like working effectively between boards and leadership and revenue, the importance of having succession plans in place,” Rocheleau said. “What it means to look at the big picture and having a good vision and strategy in place to keep you focused and looking at the horizon as well as looking at the value of storytelling and being able to tell the compelling meaningful impact an organization has to keep everyone aligned and engaged with an organization moving forward.”
The training is as practical as possible because leaders in non-profits tend to do more than just executive director duties, she said.
“We try to keep the training at the high level, but also very practical, ” Rocheleau said.
Russell said when he went through the course during the first offering, the benefits were invaluable.
“One of the benefits was just meeting colleagues, we often don’t take time as CEOs and leaders to reflect on our work, to do that in a safe space to be talking to others,” Russell said.