Ten practical workshops were featured at the World Congress of NGOs.
Bud Philbrook presented on Peace
Through Service. He is Co-Founder and President of
Global Volunteers, a nonprofit that sends teams of short-term volunteers to
serve on long-term development projects in more than 100 communities in 20
countries on six continents. A former Minnesota State Legislator and Candidate
of Governor of Minnesota, he addressed such themes as the importance of
friendship for peace, justice, working with children, and the principles
related to working in communities around the world.
Mary McCormack, President of Information Enterprises, presented in two
sessions, Fantastic Fundraising: Five Foundations of Project Management,
and Find Them, Thank Them, and Keep Them: Best Practices for Recruiting,
Recognizing, and Retaining Dedicated Volunteers. Her sessions drew upon her
expertise developed from 26 years focusing on volunteer services
administration, including being a nationally certified Administrator of
Volunteer Services and a person who has shown thousands of people and
organizations internationally how to successfully apply creative solutions to
challenges involving leadership, fundraising, and best business practices. Her
sessions dealt with putting the “fun” back in fundraising, working with
enthusiastic volunteers to raise significant fundraising monies, learning how
to attract long-term volunteers and auxilians for
one’s NGO using dazzling, innovative recruitment methods and creative training
techniques, and thanking and retaining volunteers.
Alan Saundersoffered a session on Character Education. As Director
of the Office of Character Education for the Universal Peace Federation, Mr.
Saunders has conducted programs in numerous nations, including island nations
in the Pacific. He shared information on his work and provided material on how
to teach others on how to develop character, as well as dealing with marriage
relations. His basic theme: “Education and training are nothing but making love
visible.” One of the interns who worked with him,
Kuna Hamad (son of the WANGO Secretary General), shared his experience doing
workshops on character education with the children in St. Lucia and Trinidad in
the Caribbean. Alan Saunders offered a prototype
program and curriculum that can be utilized around the world, one in which
universal values and characteristics are taught in a format that can be adapted
to different countries cultural heritage. He also conducted a one-day,
post-conference program in the Toronto area following the Congress.
Alan Sharpe, President of Raiser Sharpe, presented two workshops, Breakthrough Fundraising Letters, Part I: How to Grab (and Keep) Your Reader’s Attention, and Breakthrough Fundraising Letters Part II: How to Inspire Readers to Give. Mr. Sharpe is a direct mail fundraising consultant, copywriter and coach, who helps non-profit organizations worldwide to raise funds, build relationships and retain loyal donors using cost-effective, compelling, creative fundraising letters. In these seminars, Mr. Sharpe coached NGO leaders how to craft engaging, warm appeal letters that win the hearts and minds of their donors. He focused on the envelope, how to grab attention (package design), how to keep attention once the envelope is opened, presenting true stories, facts, figures, and so forth.
Jason Saul, Founder and Managing Director Mission Measurement,
presented two sessions as well, Program and Mission Evaluation and Practicum
in Program and Mission Evaluation: Building
Your Own Measurement Framework. The titles of the session may sound boring,
but the attendees were widely effusive in their praise for these sessions,
which dealt with how to measure whether the NGO is really making a
difference, not by anecdotes and positive press, but measuring performance and
using this to tract progress, communicate results, motivate and manage staff,
and raise funds. To thrive, not just survive, NGO leaders need to constantly
measure and improve results.
Ron Sereg of Louisiana State University in Shreveport offered a workshop on Developing a Media Agenda for
NGOs. Professor Sereg argues that if NGOs are to be sustainable and
effective, they must make a commitment to public relations. He addressed the
reality that media relations and publicity efforts that are conducted only when
the need arises give no long-term benefits to the image and work of any
organization, but rather one should have a carefully planned, budgeted, and
executed organized public relations program. He addressed issues of the format
of a news release (such as page lengths and things to be excluded). The methods that NGOs can use to attract attention, tactics in
dealing with aggressive or sly members of the media, and so forth.
Dr. J’Lein Liese coordinated a session on WANGO’s Code of Ethics and Conduct. Dr. J’Lein Liese is Founder of the Foundation for Global Leadership and Chair of the Code of Ethics Committee for WANGO. She has developed a NGO Compliance Manual designed as a tool to help NGOs assess whether their policies and procedures are currently in alignment with the Code of Ethics and Conduct for NGOs (a set of 7 fundamental principles, 9 operational principles and over 100 standards to guide the actions and management of non-governmental organizations developed under the auspices of WANGO).