Here is a preview of some of the concurrent sessions that will be taking place on Thursday October 16 and Friday October 17.

Check out the full schedule here.

Black and white photos of three diverse individuals, two women and one man, next to logos of Institute for Nonprofit News, ProPublica, and Documented.

Learning Lab

Responsible Storytelling in Risky Situations

Karen Rundlet, CEO, Institute for Nonprofit News

Tracy Weber, Managing Editor, ProPublica

Mazin Sidahmed, Co-Executive Director, Documented

  • Hear best practices to protect sources based on journalism ethics

  • Explore how to evaluate the risks of “going public” for people from vulnerable groups (e.g., undocumented immigrants, LGBTQIA identified) and high-profile individuals

  • Learn how to approach requests to withdraw or edit content already published or posted online

Black and white portraits of two women side by side, with the National Geographic Society logo on the right.

Learning Lab

Impact Storytelling

Vanessa Serrao, Vice President, National Geographic Society Impact Story Lab

Sarah Joseph, Director of Impact, National Geographic Society Impact Story Lab

  • Learn how The National Geographic Society Impact Story Lab combines world-class storytelling with social and behavioral science to drive positive change.

  • Explore the Society's unique process of “impact first” story design.

  • Through hands-on exercises, inspiring examples, and group discussion, you’ll leave our workshop with a strategy for making your next masterpiece more impactful.

Black and white photos of two women, one with curly hair and earrings, smiling, and the other with curly hair, wearing a patterned blazer and jewelry, also smiling. The logo of IDEO.org is displayed to the right.

Learning Lab

Emerging Technologies for a Changing World

Alex Nana-Sinkam, Chief of Staff & Head of Strategic Projects, IDEO.org

Diane D'Costa, Partnerships Lead, IDEO.org

  • Explore a participatory futuring method rooted in human-centered design to imagine how emerging technologies might shape our lives, communities, and systems.

  • Practice techniques for mapping multiple futures—plausible, preferable, and provocative—through a lens of equity and inclusion.

  • Leave with tools to facilitate collective foresight processes in your own work, helping teams and communities navigate uncertainty with creativity and care.

Black-and-white portrait of smiling woman with glasses, dark curly hair, wearing a light-colored jacket, outdoors with blurred background; adjacent logo with three overlapping circles in red, green, and blue, with the text 'Othering & Belonging Institute' in black.

Learning Lab

Comms: Where Do We Go Wrong?

Cecilie Surasky, Director of Communications and Narrative at UC Berkeley's Othering & Belonging Institute

  • Join a candid exploration of how our well-intentioned efforts may be causing more harm than good

  • Reimagine the frontline role comms plays in divided times

  • Learn tools and framing strategies that avoid fragmentation and build belonging

  • Hear research about zero sum thinking (and how to avoid triggering it)

Black and white photo of a woman smiling and holding a microphone, with Warren West Advisory logo next to her.

Learning Lab

Building a Real-World AI Strategy

Chantal (Coco) Forster, AI Strategy Advisor, Warren West Advisory

  • Learn how to develop grounded, inclusive, and mission-aligned AI strategies for your whole organization

  • Discover how to build a blueprint AI foundation at your org—governance, tools, and training included

  • Gain a deeper understanding of prompt engineering and 7 prompt types

  • Explore better ways to talk about AI internally, including what’s real, what’s risky, and what’s next

Black and white portrait photos of three smiling individuals, two men and one woman, with logos of the Center for Inclusion and Belonging, Trust for Public Land, and YMCA on the right side.

Learning Lab

Unlocking the Power of Collaboration

Kimberly Serrano, Director, Center for Inclusion and Belonging, American Immigration Council

Cary Simmons, Director of Community Strategies, Trust for Public Land

Mike Van Haelewyn, Senior Director, Belonging and Activating For All, YMCA of the USA

  • Examine how to move beyond silos and foster genuine, two-way collaboration, especially across traditional issue areas and institutional boundaries.

  • Explore practices for radical cooperation and showing up as collaborators rather than competitors.

  • Understand how collective work can drive innovation, create joy, strengthen evaluation, and deepen strategic outcomes across sectors.

Black and white photos of three smiling individuals, two women and one man, with text that reads "BROOKLYN.ORG" and a patterned background with the word "Mother."

Case Study

Re-Branding: Brooklyn Org

Liane Stegmaier, Chief of Staff, Brooklyn Org

Jameela Syed, Communications Manager, Brooklyn Org

John Paul Napleton, Mother Design

  • The story of Brooklyn Org's brand development

  • How the rebrand process led to a full-scale modern reinterpretation of the community foundation model

  • Why Brooklyn Org changed everything but the mission statement — from category positioning, language and tone, visual identity, website strategy, and a new younger target audience

  • Explore brand applications from merch to small biz partnerships, PSA Campaign, events, sponsorships and more

A black and white photo collage of five diverse people with smiling faces, beside logos for AP, The Maine Monitor, The Colorado Sun, and The Joyce Foundation.

Learning Lab

How Local News Can Help You Reach your Target Audience

Rachel White, CEO, The AP Fund for Journalism

Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, Executive Director, Maine Monitor

Larry Ryckman, Publisher, Colorado Sun

Kayce Ataiyero, Chief External Affairs Officer, Joyce Foundation

Steven Sloan, Director of News Strategy, AP

  • Why strengthening local news is important

  • How to build trust with your audience and depolarize issues

  • Learn how to collaborate better with local news organizations

  • Tips for reaching people in the context of changing information consumption habits

Black and white headshots of two women; the woman on the left has dark hair, a nose ring, and earrings, and the woman on the right has light hair and a blazer. To the right, there are logos for FrameWorks and the Packard Foundation.

Learning Lab

Narrative Change in Practice: A Strategic Toolkit for Funders

Ishita Srivastava, VP of Cultural Strategy, FrameWorks Institute

Nicole Kravec, Communications Officer, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation

  • Clarify what narrative change is (and isn’t), and when it’s the right approach for your goals

  • Assess the narrative landscape around your issue to uncover opportunities, risks, and gaps

  • Apply actionable tools and guiding questions to strengthen how you resource and support narrative work

  • Help grantmakers bring greater strategy, clarity, and confidence to their narrative change efforts

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Learning Lab

Leading from the Side

Joanne Krell, Co-founder, Defy Communications

  • Clarify your vision, evolve your structure, and build a great comms function.

  • Build a model of impact that helps your colleagues understand comms and its true value

  • Determine the best ways to resource your team: When to insource, outsource, or pivot

  • Guide your team to clarity in uncertain times

Black and white image of two men with GLAAD logos. The first man is smiling, has a shaved head, and earrings. The second man has dark hair, a serious expression, and is wearing a button-up shirt. The right side features the GLAAD logo with the words "GROUND."

Case Study

Amplifying Impact: GLAAD and Ground Media

Shane Diamond, Director of Communications & Advocacy, GLAAD

David Rochkind, Founder, Ground Media

  • How funders can invest once for campaigns that achieve national-scale impact

  • Approaches to unify strategy across diverse grantees without overriding local goals

  • Methods for amplifying reach and value through collaboration, not cost-sharing

  • Blueprint for building durable narrative infrastructure across issues and geographies

Black and white headshots of three women smiling, with a colorful logo and text that reads 'The Denver Foundation, 100 years, James B. Duke, The Duke Endowment'.

Case Study

Anniversaries: The Denver Foundation & The Duke Endowment

Abigail Kesner, Vice President of Communications, The Denver Foundation

Shaheen Towles, Director of Communications, The Duke Endowment

Charity Perkins, former Director of Communications, The Duke Endowment

  • Learn how to plan for a milestone anniversary, whether you are a nonprofit, community foundation or a private foundation

  • Explore how to connect to and engage with various audiences (internal and external) through an integrated communications approach throughout the process

  • Discover more about cornerstone activities, budget planning and lessons learned

Black and white photo of a man wearing glasses and a dark sweater on the left. Black and white photo of a woman with braided hair, wearing a blazer on the right. Fenton logo with text and a small graphic on the far right.

Learning Lab

Avoiding Crises & Protecting Your Organization

Erik Olvera, Chief of Issue Advocacy and Crisis Management, Fenton

Shakirah Hill Taylor, Chief Digital Officer, Fenton

  • Explore crisis communications strategies, tactics, and processes to help navigate the current environment, where a wide range of organizations are in the center of public debate and facing potential threats to funding

  • Gain better understanding on how to perform opposition research to stay ahead of negative narratives and misinformation campaigns critics may spread

  • Learn how to design scenario matrices for possible threats and vulnerabilities, including how to manage negative social media campaigns, public protests, news coverage and when to proactively engage media

Black and white portraits of two women side by side. The woman on the left has curly hair, glasses, and is wearing a blouse. The woman on the right has straight hair and is wearing a dark top with a patterned shirt underneath. To the right are logos of The Nature Conservancy and the Goodman Center, with the tagline 'where do-gooders learn to do better'.

Case Study

Storytelling: The Nature Conservancy

Jill Schwartz, Director of Marketing and Communications, The Nature Conservancy

Kirsten Farrell, Director, Goodman Center

  • Explore how one of the world’s largest environmental nonprofits uses personal stories to create unexpected champions for complex government policies

  • Learn how to find and produce written and video stories that are authentic

  • Hear more on how to convince your non-communications colleagues that human-centered stories do inspire action

  • Walk away with tips on getting your story out there (distribution matters)

Black-and-white headshots of four women, followed by logos for Schott Foundation for Public Education, Migrant Equity Southeast, and a yellow box with the word "RALLY" in black text.

Case Study

Advocacy: Schott Foundation, Migrant Equity Southeast, RALLY

Melissa Daar Carvajal, Donor Marketing & Communications Director, Schott Foundation for Public Education

Anastasia Ordonez, Former Director, HEAL Strategic Communications, Race Forward

Daniela Rodriguez, Executive Director, Migrant Equity Southeast 

Amy Clark, Director, RALLY

  • Discover how several organizations worked together to integrate and leverage communications into advocacy and engagement efforts across sectors to build lasting impact

  • Learn 501c3-approved communications strategies and tactics to deliver in narrative and policy contexts

  • Explore ways to structure support and resources for advocacy communications including how to be a digital influencer

Black and white headshots of a woman with wavy hair and a man in a suit, positioned side by side, with a logo and text reading 'Future Caucus' on the right.

Learning Lab

Turning Good Stories into Long-Term Wins

Elizabeth Rosen, Communications Director, Future Caucus

Reed Howard, Chief Strategy and Public Affairs Officer, Future Caucus

  • Explore how to use “long-tail comms” to identify, cultivate, and adapt narratives with staying power

  • Learn how to identify and capture stories that can be repurposed across channels and audiences, build interpersonal and public trust, and earn quality coverage

  • Practice uncovering people-centered narratives in your own work and shaping them for different moments

A black and white portrait of a smiling woman with long hair on the left side, and the Greater Good Science Center logo with colorful blocks and black text on the right side.

Learning Lab

The Brain Science Behind Connection

Juliana Tafur, Director of the Bridging Differences Program, Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley

  • Why the brain is wired for connection, and what can derail it

  • How brain patterns shape perceptions and relationships

  • Science-backed practices to foster engagement and reduce distrust

Black and white portrait of a smiling woman with shoulder-length hair, wearing a blouse, next to a logo with a shield featuring the American flag and the words "UNIFY AMERICA"

Learning Lab

Comms as Community Building

Morgan Lasher, Chief Community Officer, Unify America

  • Four ingredients of community building (impact, learning, purpose and belonging)

  • How comms drives those pillars to create and support community building

  • The comms role in pluralism and building environments meant for collaboration across differences

Black and white portraits of two smiling women, with the logo of Stupski Foundation, featuring colorful dots around the text.

Case Study

Podcast Strategy: Stupski Foundation

Claire Callahan, Communications Director, Stupski Foundation

Erin Hart, Founder and President, Hart Strategies

  • The importance of experimentation and adaptation

  • How authenticity and emotion forge strong connections

  • Building understanding means listening to different perspectives (leadership, audience, and guests included)

Black and white headshots of a man and a woman, with the logos of the California Health Care Foundation and Whole Whale on the right side.

Case Study

AI for Comms Teams: California Health Care Foundation & Whole Whale

Eric Antebi, Chief Communications Officer, California Health Care Foundation

Megan Anhalt, President & COO, Whole Whale + CauseWriter.ai

  • How are communicators using AI to do everyday tasks better or faster?

  • What guardrails do communicators need in place to use AI responsibly?

  • AI is already changing how audiences get information. How are communicators starting to adapt?