Event Schedule
Day 1 - Thursday, 11/17/2022
10:00 AM Eastern
(9:00 AM Central, 8:00 AM Mountain, 7:00 AM Pacific)
Welcome & Opening Remarks
Bethany Snyder
Host
10:15 AM Eastern
(9:15 AM Central, 8:15 AM Mountain, 7:15 AM Pacific)
Local Action to National Change: Building Local Power for Large Scale Impact
Claire Douglass
Claire Douglass is a founder of The New Fundamentals and has over 15 years of strategic campaign, grassroots, grasstops, coalition and partnership experience. Previously, she was the Senior Director of National Campaigns at the National Audubon Society. In that role, she developed and executed federal, state and local campaigns and built out comprehensive advocacy training programs on how to run and win issue campaigns. Prior to joining Audubon, she was the Campaign Director for Climate and Energy at Oceana, where she led the successful campaign to stop offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean and promote offshore wind. Earlier in her career, she worked as a grassroots organizer and state director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
Claire holds a BA in Environmental Science and Public Policy from the University of Colorado Boulder. She lives with her husband and daughter in Washington DC.
11:30 AM Eastern
(10:30 AM Central, 9:30 AM Mountain, 8:30 AM Pacific)
How To Become An Empowered Citizen: 10 Steps To Passing A Law
Pat Libby
Pat Libby is one of the nation’s leading experts on citizen lobbying campaigns. A long-time nonprofitleader, consultant, and academic, Pat has made it her mission to teach people how to create change through the legislative process. She loves to share her passion for transformational change.
12:45 PM Eastern
(11:45 AM Central, 10:45 AM Mountain, 9:45 AM Pacific)
Panel:
Advocacy Mixed Tape: Associations, Funders, and Equity
Dania Lofton
Associations
Dania Lofton, Esq., MPA, is a licensed attorney who has dedicated her knowledge and advocacy skills to the advancement of mental health, women’s rights, and social justice. She is a government affairs specialist at a nonprofit association, where she works on advancing policy solutions at the federal and state levels of government to improve access to quality mental health services for all. She is currently working on developing a DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) framework for policy professionals and is most likely to be found engaging with communities about civics.
Outside of her professional capacity as a government affairs specialist, Dania is a community advocate and “assertive campaigner” (ENFP-A). She engages in community advocacy work through her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, as a National Social Action Commissioner and as a Fort Washington Alumnae Chapter Social Action Co-Chair. Dania also volunteers as a pro bono attorney assisting with immigration matters.
Colton Strawser
Funders
Dr. Colton Strawser is a nonprofit and philanthropic consultant and the President of Colton Strawser Consulting—a consulting firm that works with mission-driven organizations to develop the funding, data, and leadership skills necessary to create change.
Dr. Strawser’s personal and professional mission is empowering organizations to create change® and has received numerous awards in recognition of his academic, professional, and personal contributions to the nonprofit sector.
Colton has trained more than 1,000 organizations, generated over $25 million in government grants, and supported local and national research efforts to understand social issues and community challenges better.
Maya Paley
Equity
Maya Paley is a social justice and equity advocate and advocacy consultant who is passionate about making policy advocacy accessible and understandable for all. She recently served as the Director of Advocacy and Community Engagement for the National Council of Jewish Women, Los Angeles, for which she was responsible for the organization’s local and state advocacy and policy agenda. In this role she recruited and training hundreds of volunteers to advocate for priority bills, sat on the executive committees of the Los Angeles Coalition for Reproductive Justice and the California Work and Family Coalition, and led grassroots campaigns for bills focused on reproductive justice, paid family leave, paid sick days, decriminalizing human trafficking survivors, and more.
2:00 PM Eastern
(1:00 PM Central, 12:00 PM Mountain, 11:00 AM Pacific)
Break
Now's the perfect time to grab some lunch, stretch your legs, and invite your friends to join you for the rest of this amazing event!
2:30 PM Eastern
(1:30 PM Central, 12:30 PM Mountain, 11:30 AM Pacific)
Senator Tina Smith's Chief of Staff
Sara Silvernail
Sara Silvernail is Senator Tina Smith’s State Director. In her over fifteen years with the US Senate, she has led teams in statewide outreach, strategic schedules, and organizational management while working for Senators Tina Smith (D-MN), Al Franken (D-MN), Tom Daschle (D-SD) and Tim Johnson (D-SD). She also has nearly a decade of experience in nonprofit fundraising.
Sara is an expert on creating and maintaining relationships with legislators and community stakeholders, and has experience with organizational change and crisis management. Her current role focuses on long-term planning with an emphasis on learning from and empowering those closest to a problem. She stays committed to the pursuit of a more just and equitable world by using levity and humor to stay grounded and positive. Outside of the workplace, Sara enjoys spending time with her husband and three teenage boys, and her dear friends. She also loves every minute with her cockapoo, Louie.
3:00 PM Eastern
(2:00 PM Central, 1:00 PM Mountain, 12:00 PM Pacific)
Panel:
Technology & Tools: Building & Engaging Your Advocacy Audience
Jeanette Russell
Capitol Canary
Dedicated to scaling change through technology, I bring a deep understanding of advancing advocacy, fundraising and digital strategies through her 25 years working for nonprofits and technology companies. Her expertise is rooted a decade national organizing on environmental campaigns, and senior marketing roles at purpose driven companies such as Salsa Labs, Attentive.ly , Blackbaud and current role as the Director of Product Marketing at Quorum. Passionate for social change, She has served as an advisory board member of JustGive, co-founded of the Montana chapter of the New Leaders Council and co-founded a national nonprofit.
Ed Harris
Blue Hills Digital
Ed Harris runs Blue Hills Digital, a consultancy providing digital strategy, marketing and communications services for nonprofits and mission-driven professionals.
Through his consulting work, Ed helps nonprofit leaders and marketing teams strategize around building digital experiences that move users through specific audience journeys, starting from building awareness through to key actions – whether it’s online advocacy, volunteering, or becoming a donor. Building successful audience journeys in the digital world means aligning mission, goals, people, and content in a way that builds awareness and invites audiences members into your work. Every organization needs a digital strategy and the marketing-communications technology stack to implement it. That’s where Ed and Blue Hills Digital loves to help.
Today, Ed is talking about how to map out the audience-building journey for advocacy organizations. We’ll look at the stages you need to include to build the list of engaged, grassroots advocates your organization needs, and the tools and technology you can use to make it all happen.
Kayley Whalen
Kayley Whalen Consulting
Kayley Margarite Whalen is a digital communications consultant and scholar who has devoted her career to campaigns for disability justice, transgender justice, and environmental justice. She is also a blogger and YouTuber who creates content about traveling the world as an ethnographer and neurodivergent Latina trans woman. She has represented her communities as a public speaker at the Obama White House and on TV in the US, Thailand, and Vietnam. In 2023 her recent ethnographic research on the neurodivergent heavy metal community will be published as a chapter in the book “Crips, Crowds, and Cacophony: Heavy Metal Music and Disability.”
4:15 PM Eastern
(3:15 PM Central, 2:15 PM Mountain, 1:15 PM Pacific)
Advocating, For A Change
Coby Williams
Coby C. Williams, Founder and Owner of New Reach Community Consulting, is an experienced public affairs practitioner and strategist. He brings over 15 years of expertise in community engagement, group facilitation, issue advocacy strategy, and digital outreach planning. Coby has partnered with organizations throughout the country to help move local, state, and national initiatives forward. He was selected to participate in the Direct Action Research and Training (DART) Center for grassroots community organizing. He also completed the Advanced Public Engagement for Local Government program from Davenport Institute at Pepperdine University. Coby serves on the national Board of Directors and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee for the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) USA. He holds professional certifications in agile project management as well as strategic planning and implementation. Coby earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Resources Management from Franklin University.
5:30 PM Eastern
(4:30 PM Central, 3:30 PM Mountain, 2:30 PM Pacific)
Advocacy is Evolving: Is Your Strategy?
Bethany Snyder
Host
Day 2 - Friday, 11/18/2022
10:00 AM Eastern
(9:00 AM Central, 8:00 AM Mountain, 7:00 AM Pacific)
Day 2 Welcome & Opening Remarks
Bethany Snyder
Host
10:15 AM Eastern
(9:15 AM Central, 8:15 AM Mountain, 7:15 AM Pacific)
Amplifying your Advocacy through Storytelling and Social Media
Julia Campbell
Julia Campbell is on a mission to make the digital world a better place. Through speaking and consulting, she guides nonprofits on the best uses of social media and storytelling to build communities, showcase impact, and advance their causes. Julia wrote her book Storytelling in the Digital Age: A Guide for Nonprofits as a roadmap for nonprofits who want to build their movements with effective and engaging digital storytelling. Based north of Boston, Julia is a global authority on digital fundraising and storytelling, with happy clients spanning the globe from Moscow to San Francisco.
She has provided workshops and training to Meals on Wheels America, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and Facebook. Julia is a frequent contributor to Nonprofit Tech for Good, Social Media Today, Maximize Social Business, Elevation Web, Network for Good, Wild Apricot, and others.
Her passion is to get nonprofits of all sizes to stop spinning their wheels and start getting real results using digital tools.
11:30 AM Eastern
(10:30 AM Central, 9:30 AM Mountain, 8:30 AM Pacific)
Myth Busting: 501(c)(3)s Can Lobby
Abby Levine
Abby Levine is the chief strategist at Levine Nonprofit Solutions, LLC. For more than 20 years, she has worked hand in hand with thousands of nonprofits and foundations across the country, providing customized training, coaching, written resources, and technical assistance—all with the goal of supporting organizations to be strategic, bold, courageous, and legally compliant advocates. Abby’s expertise focuses on lobbying, election-related activities, ballot measures, grantmaking, and other advocacy strategies for 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations.
Most recently, Abby served as Senior Director of the Bolder Advocacy Program at Alliance for Justice (AFJ). At AFJ, she oversaw a growing program with 12 staff in 4 offices. During her more than 18 years at AFJ, she guided the growth of an affiliated 501(c)(4), edited many factsheets and in-depth guides, managed a public policy portfolio that included amicus briefs, regulatory comments, and direct and grassroots lobbying, and conducted thousands of trainings and technical assistance sessions. Before that, she was the Public Policy Analyst at the National Council of Nonprofit Associations and an associate in the tax department at Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in Cleveland, Ohio. She has a law degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law and a B.A. from American University.
Abby proudly serves on the board of directors of Opportunity Action, The Keegan Theatre, and Nonprofit VOTE.
12:45 PM Eastern
(11:45 AM Central, 10:45 AM Mountain, 9:45 AM Pacific)
Panel:
Strength In Numbers: Coalition And Power Building Strategies
Luke Elzinga
Des Moines Area Religious Council
Luke Elzinga is the Policy and Advocacy Manager at the Des Moines Area Religious Council (DMARC) and the Chair of the Iowa Hunger Coalition. Luke’s advocacy work focuses on hunger and poverty in the policy areas of SNAP and other public assistance programs. He is currently working toward his Master of Public Policy through the University of Northern Iowa. Luke lives in Des Moines, Iowa, with his wife, daughter, two cats, and dog.
Maureen Cassidy
American Heart Association
With over 30 years of experience in the field of Advocacy, Maureen has worked both inside and outside State Capitols, as well as numerous city and county agencies and legislative entities across the Midwest. Her primary focus has always been health care and public health policy. She started in the
Wisconsin Legislature as a legislative aide for a very healthcare focused lawmaker over five years, then lobbied for three years for the WI Hospital Association.
For the past 25 years, she has been at the American Heart Association where she started as their lobbyist for Wisconsin, and in 2003 was promoted to Vice President of Field Advocacy where she directed strategy, developed budgets and deployed resources for state and local policy campaigns with staff and volunteers in 13 states across the upper Midwest.
Mira Weinstein
Organizing To Win
The first time Mira knocked on a door was 1988 when she might have been the only person in America who thought Michael Dukakis could win. She also thought that if we could elect all the right people, we could solve all our problems.
When none of those things happened, her theory of change evolved. A lifelong organizer, she defines organizing as bringing people together to build power.
Her experience includes organizing campaigns with union members, feminists, gun violence prevention advocates and countless political candidates. A highlight was a campaign for a gun violence prevention organization that engaged more members than ever before and won in 89% of the targeted US House districts.
Her political campaign resume crosses the country from Virginia to California and includes statewide ballot measures and candidates up and down the ballot.
She’s also developed and facilitated training on organizing skills, campaign management and disrupting white supremacy culture. She created a six-session campaign simulation for the inaugural class of a leadership development program called the Chisolm’s Chair fellowship.
She started Organizing to Win in 2020 to continue her work of bringing people together to build power.
2:00 PM Eastern
(1:00 PM Central, 12:00 PM Mountain, 11:00 AM Pacific)
Break
Now's the perfect time to grab some lunch, stretch your legs, and invite your friends to join you for the rest of this amazing event!
2:30 PM Eastern
(1:30 PM Central, 12:30 PM Mountain, 11:30 AM Pacific)
State Lawmaker Interview
Ras Smith
Iowa General Assembly
Ras Smith is an Iowa state lawmaker as representing Iowa’s 87th district. Smith was raised in northeast Waterloo, Iowa, and attended Northern University High School in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He enrolled at Wartburg College and Iowa State University before completing a bachelor's degree in exercise science at the University of Northern Iowa. Smith then worked at Waterloo East High School, Target Corporation, and at Four Oaks, a special education program. During his time at Four Oaks, Smith worked toward a master's degree in leisure, youth and human services from the University of Northern Iowa.
In June 2021, Smith announced that he would run for governor of Iowa in 2022. He suspended his campaign in January 2022, citing lack of funds. In April 2022, Smith also served on Michael Franken's United States Senate campaign. Smith joined the Iowa House in 2016 and won reelections in 2018 and 2020. He did not run for re-election in 2022 and currently works for Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa.
3:00 PM Eastern
(2:00 PM Central, 1:00 PM Mountain, 12:00 PM Pacific)
Maximizing Your Non-Profit Status To Its Full Potential!
Joane Booth &
Londell Thomas
Joané Booth directs strategic planning and system development while utilizing her background in campaigns and policy to support the advancement of organizations fighting for social justice. She specializes in developing organizational culture with a natural knack for genuine diversity & inclusion producing equitable results.
Joané is the former Partnerships Manager of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters where she developed plans to expand the organization's reach and network across the State of Michigan. She supported the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic by producing their virtual events to keep members engaged and informed during unprecedented times.
Joané’s campaign experience spans to the Presidential level where she led the Hillary for America campaign as the Political Director by mobilizing key constituencies and executing high level political events with top dignitaries.
After her experience as the only black female staffer, she created POWERMoves, an organization providing women of color in Minnesota a safe space to share experiences and set agendas to catapult them civically, socially, and academically. The group has now grown to over 1,200 women of color.
Londell Thomas is Groundmind Strategies’ co-founder and Principal Partner, directing client relations, project management, and electoral campaign engagement.
An accomplished thought leader, Londell serves clients with two decades of expertise and professional experience in electoral politics, government affairs, community organizing, and campaign management.
Among his achievements are serving as the Political & Outreach Director for the Michigan League of Conservation Voters where he consulted on its political engagement, campaign management and internal organizing.
At the Center for Popular Democracy, he was the National Senior Manager of Organizing for the State’s Power Project. While there, he helped develop and support 11 CPD Action Network Black-Led Affiliates, bolstering their state power-building strategies and propelling them to fight for freedom on the frontlines.
4:15 PM Eastern
(3:15 PM Central, 2:15 PM Mountain, 1:15 PM Pacific)
Chin Up: Staying Positive in a Challenging Environment
Bethany Snyder
Host
Sponsored By
Official Partner
