New Neighbors, New Nonprofit? Alignment When External Changes Affect Your Organization

Wednesday, February 25, 2015, 9 a.m. - Noon

Thank you for your interest. This workshop has been cancelled due to low registrations.

Hosted by North Park University, Chicago, IL

Half-Day Workshop: $90

3 CEUs

About this Session:  One aspect of living and working in the city is that it’s rarely boring. Urban environments are constantly changing and our organizations -- which are organisms themselves -- survive, thrive, adapt and sometimes perish in the midst of these changes. For many leaders, steering a pathway through these environmental changes and the internal adaptations they impose is a necessary but unanticipated course.
In this workshop, we will examine the recent history of Sunshine Gospel Ministries’ response to a variety of external changes including: the urban renewal that razed the entire neighborhood, resulting in relocation of the ministry; maintaining a core identity while adapting mission and vision to suit a new community; the death of a top donor resulting in an unexpected loss of 30% of revenue in one fiscal year; the shift of programmatic focus to better embrace mission; the launch and organizational separation of three distinct entities/organizations; and the closing and sale of a historically core aspect of the ministry.
You will leave this workshop with an understanding of the importance of 1) consistently reading the environment as a central role in leadership and decision making; 2) using mission to steer through rocky waters (while honoring history, staff, clients and donors); and 3) key tenets of leading an organization you (and your staff) can live with in the midst of unanticipated change.

Who Should Participate: Executive directors, fundraising and program staff

About the Presenter: Joel Hamernick, MS serves as the Executive Director of Sunshine Gospel Ministries, a 109 year old urban ministry in Chicago, where he has been on staff since 1999. Joel’s tenure at Sunshine has included the rebuilding of the organization from the ground up focusing on youth outreach and development, service learning (also known as short term mission), and community technology access. Joel has led a process which included re-branding, mission and vision development, board governance and membership, donor strategy and implementation, program design and outcome assessments, staff recruitment and training, as well as capital project and building construction oversight – all leading to more than 1000 individuals served annually.
Joel’s recent work includes the development of a business incubator (Sunshine Enterprises) to combat poverty through business growth on the Southside of Chicago, as well as the creation and launch of Greenline Coffee, an independent impact-investor model business. His undergraduate studies were in bible and theology at Moody Bible Institute and graduate work was in organizational leadership at Philadelphia Biblical University.