The Foraker Group

The fourth leadership summit is history. Like past summits we had a sell-out crowd, feedback was overwhelmingly positive, everyone stayed to the end, and the conversations begun at the summit continue to echo throughout the state. However, unlike past summits, feedback from this summit requires more analysis to understand the diverse and contradictory responses from participants. Richard Evans, CEO of EmcArts, which is a partner with Foraker and Rasmuson Foundation in the New Pathways program, received overwhelming positive mention. The speaker who received the most diverse feedback was Margaret Wheatley, the internationally renowned speaker and author who literally wrote the “book” on organizational management in the age of complexity. Over half of respondents loved her presentation while the rest were disturbed by parts of the same message – few were… Read more »

The slide presentations from the 2015 Leadership Summit are now available. Please click here to find the slides and handouts from all our speakers…. Read more »

The Foraker Group announced today that Laurie Wolf has been named the organization’s new President/CEO. Wolf will replace Dennis McMillian who is stepping down from the position. Wolf will take over leadership of Foraker on July 1, 2015. In making the announcement, Foraker Governance Board Chair Elizabeth Ripley called Wolf “a competent, accomplished, and thoughtful leader. We are extremely pleased she will lead Foraker in the coming years. The board looks forward to working with her.” McMillian announced his planned departure as President/CEO in January. The Foraker Governance Board conducted a national search for his replacement. Wolf joined Foraker in 2001, shortly after it was founded. She has served as Director of Programs, and most recently as Vice President and COO. Wolf holds a Masters in Nonprofit Leadership from Seattle… Read more »

Everyone at Foraker would like to thank the 500 nonprofit leaders who spent two days exploring the sector, their organizations and themselves as leaders. The theme Transform. Change. Lead. for the Leadership Summit was a remarkable opportunity for us to learn together. If you haven’t filled out the evaluation for the event please do so. We take your feedback seriously and will use it to chart our next steps. Many thanks…. Read more »

“How do leaders deal with the new reality of constant challenges and frequent crises while not losing direction, focus or enthusiasm? How do they lead in a way that inspires people to contribute, to act responsively and intelligently, to maintain motivation and good relationships? How do they persevere?” Join us at the Leadership Summit on April 20 -21 to hear from Dr. Margaret Wheatley on the topic “Leadership in Uncertainty: From Hero to Host”. Margaret Wheatley writes, speaks, and teaches how we can accomplish our work, sustain our relationships, and willingly step forward to serve in this troubled time. She is co-founder and President emerita of The Berkana Institute, an organizational consultant since 1973, a global citizen since her youth, and a prolific writer. She has authored eight books, including… Read more »

If you have been waiting to register for the Leadership Summit, time is limited. We WILL have a sold out, standing room only crowd in Anchorage on April 20 and 21. We’ve worked with the Hotel Captain Cook to squeeze a few more into the most important summit ever. You need to be there to learn how to face today’s challenges. Feedback from surveys after previous summits has been conclusive – people left inspired and with new ideas about how to thrive. National leaders who have spoken at our summits say that ours was one of the best conferences they had ever attended. We know that money is tight. While we can’t support everyone needing financial assistance, we will do all we can to get as many of your organizations… Read more »

We are excited to host Steve Patty, Founder of Dialogues in Action, at the 2015 Leadership Summit. Steve will be presenting how to develop and grow our organizations with better evaluation. Steve Patty has over 20 years of experience working in the field of evaluation and leadership development. He holds a Ph.D. from Trinity in Chicago and has beentrained at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is a former department chair at Multnomah University and visiting professor in the doctoral departments of business at the International University of Monaco. Steve has trained hundreds of leaders in evaluation strategy and design and has consulted with organizations and foundations throughout North America and internationally in evaluation, including the YMCA of the USA, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, Canadian Evaluation… Read more »

Tim Delaney, CEO of National Council of Nonprofits will be engaging us in a discussion at the 2015 Leadership Summit on April 20 – 21 about public policy and creating a voice as a sector. Since 2008 Tim Delaney has applied his diverse leadership experiences in law, government, and nonprofits to serve nonprofits and communities across America as leader of the National Council of Nonprofits, a trusted resource and advocate for America’s charitable nonprofits that connects more than 25,000 nonprofits – including Partners of The Foraker Group – as the nation’s largest network of nonprofits. His former roles as partner at a large law firm (where he focused on litigation, media law, and government relations), then Arizona’s Solicitor General (guiding his state to win four out of four cases in… Read more »

We are excited to welcome Richard Evans, President of EmcArts Inc. to this year’s Leadership Summit. Richard will engage us in the topic “Adaptive Mindsets for Individual Leaders”, how to build adaptive muscle for change. To learn more about EmcArts’ collaboration with Alaska’s arts and cultural organizations, read about New Pathways here. Richard Evans directs, designs and facilitates EmcArts’ programs and strategic partnerships, which support individuals, organizations and communities on their journey to becoming highly adaptive. Richard is a lead facilitator for current EmcArts’ programs, which include national Innovation Labs, a series of community-based innovation programs for nonprofits called New Pathways for the Arts, and ArtsFwd.org, an online presence for learning and exchange around “next practices” for arts leaders. A frequent speaker on the relationship between cultural policy and emerging… Read more »

Zaid Hassain, author of The Social Labs Revolution: A New Approach To Solving Our Most Complex Challenges, will be presenting at this year’s Leadership Summit on the failure of planning based strategies and how we can be part of a new approach. Join us on April 20 -21 at the Hotel Captain Cook to explore his teachings! Zaid Hassan is currently Acting Director of the Youth Solutions Lab, a start-up social lab looking for new solutions to the challenges of youth unemployment, mental health and justice. He also is the co-founder of Reos Partners, where he served as Managing Partner of the Oxford office from 2007-2014. Reos Partners is a social innovation consultancy that addresses complex, high-stakes challenges around the world. Zaid has over a decade of experience in developing… Read more »