THE ALLIANCE'S NINE LIFELONG LEARNING TRACKS

Our Call for Presentations covers the nine tracks of professional leadership content offered by Christian Leadership Alliance: New track - Personal Leadership, Executive Leadership, Board Governance, Resource Development, Communications and Marketing, Internet and Technology,  Financial Management, People Management and Care, and Tax and Legal.

Submissions should be oriented towards Christian nonprofit leadership, although sessions may offer broad application for any called to Christian leadership regardless of sphere. The submissions can, and should, go beyond these specific topics, but please see below for topical ideas in each of our nine educational tracks:

LEADERSHIP TRACKS

1. Personal Leadership - NEW

 We seek submissions that offer a transformative, biblically-based, perspective on personal leadership. Potential topics include: Leading ourselves well, the heart of a leader/soul care, self-care: spiritual well-being, mental/emotional well-being, physical well-being, knowing yourself as a leader (strengths/skills/gifts/motivation), self-awareness, decision-making, dedication, influence, empathy, accountability, social skills/emotional intelligence, time management, setting personal goals, ensuring continuous personal improvement, and more.

2. Executive Leadership

We seek submissions that offer a transformative, biblically-based, perspective on executive leadership. Potential topics include: leadership trends, encouraging steward leadership, equipping today’s Christian leader, preparing future leaders, managing leadership transitions wisely, principles for team building, strategic thinking/strategic planning, building dynamic organizational cultures,  diversity/inclusion, strengthening CEO/Board relationships, ensuring organizational improvement, resolving organizational conflict, the power of peer networking, CEO challenges and opportunities, and more.

3. Board Governance

We seek submissions on the unique governance role of boards, with biblical insight on how boards can operate and lead with excellence. Potential topics include: leading from a healthy governance model, understanding the unique roles and responsibilities of the board, identifying and addressing potential conflicts of interest in organizations, resolving board conflict, taking ministry transparency to a new level, leading a board for sustainability and impact, identifying, recruiting and analyzing your board's strengths, seeking diversity, weaknesses and growth opportunities, and more.

 

RELATIONSHIP TRACKS

4. Resource Development

We seek submissions that offer transformational perspectives on resource development. These submissions should be biblically-based and practical, and should contribute excellence, both in theory and applied practice. Submissions should be aimed at helping development professionals to see themselves as steward leaders and their work as a ministry calling, offering a transformative approach to development that grows givers' hearts. Potential topics include: acquiring major donors, mid-level donor cultivation, reaching diverse audiences, donor analytics, use of technology in the field, increasing donor retention, strategic planning for development, multi-channel donor relationship building, effective capital campaigns, securing grants, generations and giving, development trends, and more.

5. Communications and Marketing

We seek submissions offering biblical perspective on the call to communicate effectively and winsomely to advance the kingdom mission God has given to Christian organizations. These should be aimed at building organization-wide support for the importance of effective marketing and public relations. Potential topics include: branding, media and PR strategy, marketing, digital strategy, content strategy, understanding the culture and times in which we communicate, reaching diverse audiences, legal considerations for marketers, the importance of research and measurement, ministry case studies, and more.

6. Internet and Technology

We seek submissions that offer a dynamic, biblically-based perspective on the power of Internet and technology in this unique time for Christian leaders. Potential topics include: effective Internet and technology strategies, leading-edge remote work technologies, how CTO's/technology directors can lead a nonprofit organization's technology program with excellence, embracing technological advancements in order to communicate well, deciding what hardware/technology your ministry needs today, outsourcing, privacy and security implications for ministries, optimizing online and email campaigns, website best practices, ministry case studies and more.

 

STEWARDSHIP TRACKS

7. Financial Management

We seek submissions that define the unique role of financial managers, and the biblically-based call for effective financial stewardship. Potential topics include: big picture financial management of Christian nonprofit organizations, effective budgeting, building and managing an effective accounting department, budgeting with sensitivity modeling, trend analysis applied to income expectations, building dashboards and communicating financial information well, integrating development and financial department strategic planning, the impact of technology on capital budgets, investing well, understanding economic trends, legal and regulatory issues related to financial management, and more.

8. People Management and Care

We seek submissions that offer successful, biblically-based, practices in ministry people management and care. Potential topics include: Why a biblical perspective on People Management and Care matters, onboarding and equipping high performance staffs, successful practices in staff development, strategies for staff retention, effective team building, creating biblically-based team cultures, today’s legal issues in people management and care, building diversity, managing salaries and benefits well, identifying and resolving conflict, creating high performing staffs, mentoring, hiring and terminating employment well, multi-generational teams, and more.

9. Tax and Legal

We seek submissions that offer cutting-edge thinking and insight on tax and legal issues facing today’s Christian nonprofit leader. These should cover the range of the core legal issues that will face Christian nonprofits, not just the most high profile issues. Potential topics include: understanding legal trends and changes impacting nonprofits, legal issues affecting faith-based ministries, religious liberty, knowing and responding to federal tax code changes, regulatory changes that will affect ministries, legal issues unique to the international context, risk management, contribution tax issues, fraud prevention, audits, understanding the latest IRS rules affecting nonprofits, and more.

 

*Faculty Registration Details

Conference faculty members receive a steeply discounted rate of $299 for the full conference and must register by December 17, 2021. Faculty cover their own conference registration fees, travel and lodging expenses. You will receive additional registration information if your proposal is selected.