Fundraising in a COVID-19 World
The pandemic has put traditional fundraising strategies on hold, forcing service providers to be creative in securing funding. Programs were required to move fundraising events online, change solicitation messages to explain how their services help during a pandemic, or develop entirely new approaches. In this featured session, panelists will discuss how they have successfully navigated pandemic chaos to secure funding for their literacy programs. Panelists will share their experiences—including the challenges they have faced and the best practices they have developed.
Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion in Adult Education
Communities of color, poor communities, women of color, and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities are historically underrepresented in the staff and leadership of literacy organizations. The social unrest around police brutality and social justice has brought issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to the doorsteps of many literacy programs, causing program managers to expand how they think about DEI and their programs’ role in their community. In this featured session, panelists will discuss the importance of DEI to their program and what DEI work they are doing, as well as their successes and struggles.
Conquering the Challenges of Being an Adult Education Executive Director
From budgeting to legal obligations, or managing staff and board members to fundraise for or market your program, the responsibilities of an executive director can seem daunting. In this featured session, you will hear from a panel of new executive directors who have worked to navigate these challenges. Participants will also hear from managers of ProLiteracy pilot sites who participated in the new Adult Management and Literacy Training as they tell how that training helped inform their leadership work.
Distance Education and the Future of Instruction
In 2020 many literacy programs transitioned their services to distance learning in response to the pandemic. Now, as programs transition back to providing services in person, what role will distance learning continue to play? In this featured session, hear panelists from literacy organizations discuss how they adapted their services to a remote-learning environment and what they plan to sustain and integrate into their ongoing instructional services.
When Does a Merger or Collaboration Make Sense for Your Program?
As funding for adult education becomes more competitive and public and private funders continue to emphasize collective impact, literacy programs are being forced to consider alternative structures and service delivery. Oftentimes, mergers, acquisitions, or strategic partnerships are necessary to facilitate delivery of services—and this restructuring is happening more and more due to the pandemic and its economic implications. In this featured session, panelists from literacy organizations will discuss how they have successfully collaborated or merged with other organizations to continue to serve adults in their community. Panelists will share the challenges and best practices from their experiences.
Effective Marketing of Your Program and Services
Service providers often struggle with marketing their services to various audiences. In order to do this, they need effective messaging to help people find their program, convince people to volunteer in the program, and appeal to people for financial support. Refined content that targets the specific audience programs are looking to reach will help programs achieve their goals and convey their organization’s professionalism. In this featured session, ProLiteracy marketing staff will share tips and practical steps for how to achieve these marketing goals. Additionally, programs will get the chance to tell ProLiteracy what their programs need.