Connect with Purpose. Reframe Challenges. Strengthen Your Impact.

Leading change takes more than a good plan. It requires understanding people, building trust, and communicating a vision that inspires action.

Join nonprofit, philanthropic, and education leaders for an interactive, in-person experience where you’ll explore a real leadership challenge from your own organization or community. Through practical exercises, guided reflection, and peer conversations, you’ll learn to listen more deeply, connect change to shared values, and navigate the perspectives that shape how people respond to change.

Step away from the day-to-day, learn alongside peers who understand your challenges, and leave with practical tools, fresh perspectives, and a clearer path toward meaningful change.

You will leave with:

• A clearer framework for understanding and framing a real leadership challenge
• Practical listening techniques to uncover stakeholder concerns, perspectives, and values
• Strategies for connecting change to the values that build trust and commitment
• A storytelling framework to communicate challenges and inspire action
• New connections and insights from leaders across the social sector

Presented in partnership with:

Event Details

Date: Wednesday, December 2

Time: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

Location: The Duke Endowment | 800 East Morehead Street, Charlotte, NC 28202

Cost: $50  

Hosted by: Center for Creative Leadership and North Carolina Center for Nonprofits

Why This Day Matters

There is nothing more powerful than people united by purpose.

Across the social sector, leaders are navigating increasing complexity without simple answers. Community needs continue to grow while resources remain stretched, making our ability to connect, collaborate, and communicate more important than ever. There’s nothing more powerful than people with purpose.  

Leadership is not a solo act; it emerges when people create direction, alignment, and commitment together. At the center of that process is connection—and storytelling remains one of the most effective ways to build it.

The stories we choose to tell shape how others understand our mission, our impact, and our vision for the future. They help build trust, foster belonging, and inspire people to move from understanding to action.

This gathering creates space to reflect on your leadership, strengthen meaningful connections, and develop practical storytelling skills to engage others with clarity and purpose. Together, we will explore how connection and story enable stronger leadership, deeper collaboration, and greater impact for the communities we serve.

Learning Objectives

• Diagnose and Frame Change: Articulate a current, real-world organizational challenge through a structured change leadership lens rather than just as an operational hurdle.
• Shift from Description to Narrative: Transform dry facts, data, or problems into a compelling, stakeholder-centric 2-minute story that builds emotional connection and urgency.
• Practice Listening to Understand:  Experience and apply "Listening to Understand" techniques to uncover underlying stakeholder fears, hesitations, and values.
• Anchor in Core Values: Connect the proposed change directly to organizational or community values to anchor stakeholder trust and commitment.

Agenda at a Glance