Finances, Strategies and Governing Boards

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

REGISTRATION IS CLOSED. THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST.

8:30 - 9:00am - Networking and Coffee
9:00 - 11:00am - Workshop

Free Workshop - RSVP Required

(Please, no more than 2 individuals per organization)

About this Session: Not all board members have a strong finance background. Yet all have a duty to understand and govern the organization’s financial health. This workshop helps board members and staff leaders build the shared framework and language they need to go beyond simply following along in a review of a nonprofit’s financial statements to leading their organizations to long-term financial health. Understand the critical questions that must be asked to meet your fiduciary duty and learn how to bring financial and strategic discussions together.

Who Should Participate: In order to get the most out of the training exercises, we recommend organizations bring at least two team members, ideally representing both the staff and board, although attendees are also welcome to participate solo and bring the exercises back to their team.

About the Presenter:  Gretchen Upholt, MPA, Senior Consultant, FMA

An experienced staff and program manager, Gretchen has expertise in training, capacity building, research, and program and volunteer management. As a Senior Consultant at FMA, Gretchen splits her time between playing an active role as trainer, coach, and curriculum developer for FMA’s cohort training initiatives and as consultant to nonprofit clients across the country, helping nonprofit leaders improve their financial management skills and processes.

Before joining the FMA team, Gretchen served as the head of the Volunteer Department at the Thabyay Education Network in Thailand. In that role, Gretchen developed a strategic plan to improve monitoring and evaluation and program management in her department. She also served on the leadership team for the organization, where she reviewed and approved budgets for the organization’s 22 programs and worked on a plan to restructure the organization’s finance and operations staffing and systems.

Before her work in Thailand, Gretchen served as a Community Development Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine, where she designed project frameworks, wrote grants, and led a committee tasked with making funding decisions for USAID funded grants. With a widely diverse background, Gretchen also has experience working on the corporate citizenship team at the TCC Group, designing and implementing a pilot research study on nonprofit talent costs for the Talent Philanthropy Project, as a project manager with the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, and as Chorus Manager for The Choral Arts Society of Washington.

Gretchen holds a Masters of Public Administration in Public and Nonprofit Management from NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service, where she was a Head Teaching Colleague for the core finance and management classes. After graduation, Gretchen continued her relationship with Wagner as an Adjunct Professor and Teaching Colleague. She received her Bachelors and Masters degrees in Arts and Cultural Management from American University in Washington, DC. She maintains her love of music as a singer with Allegrezza Singers, a Chicago-based SATB choir.