Speaking Engagements

Nell Edgington, President of Social Velocity and writer of the popular Social Velocity blog, gives thought-provoking, inspiring, content-rich keynotes and presentations at conferences, workshops, trainings, meetings and board retreats.

Her presentations show nonprofit staff, board and donors new ways to approach their work, and strategies for overcoming the hurdles standing in the way of great social impact and financial sustainability.

Prior to a speaking engagement, Nell will:

Speaking Topics

Below is a list of the types of speaking topics Nell can offer, but we can also work with you to customize a specific topic. Any of the following topics can be delivered as a keynote, workshop, training, panel presentation or webinar.

Financing not Fundraising for Social Impact
Based on our popular blog series, Financing Not Fundraising, this topic shows nonprofits a new, more effective way to fund their work. The nonprofit fundraising cycle is a vicious one. Nonprofit staff and boards are worn out with countless events, direct mail letters and grants. There is a better way. This session will explain how to finance, not fundraise for, the social impact your organization wants to achieve. Participants will learn about concrete ways to move their efforts to raise money in a totally new direction, resulting in more money flowing through the doors, a more engaged and effective board, a more energized and integrated staff and ultimately more achievement of the mission of the organization.

Getting Your Board on Board with Fundraising
A nonprofit’s board of directors is often not doing as much as they could to bring money in the door. This interactive session gives board members and nonprofit staff an understanding of how fundraising works in the nonprofit sector, where boards can be most effective, how to get the board excited and engaged in fundraising, and the concrete steps to get them moving.

An Overview of Social Innovation for Nonprofits
This session will give participants an overview of the social innovation movement and the innovative people, organizations and funding vehicles that are solving social problems in new, exciting ways. This session is full of case studies and examples that will give nonprofits a great understanding of this new movement and ideas for how they can approach their work in new ways.

Creating a Successful Fundraising Plan
Without a plan it is very difficult to raise enough money to meet your goals. This session gives participants a roadmap for creating a realistic, achievable, tactical plan for raising the money the organization needs to operate. Participants will learn the steps and begin the process for creating their own annual fundraising plan that they can take back to their board and staff.

Raising Money in a Recession
It seems like it is getting harder and harder to raise money in the nonprofit sector, but it doesn’t have to be. There are things nonprofits can do in their planning, messaging, work with boards and volunteers, and fundraising activities to find new areas for raising money. Indeed, the recession can be a real opportunity to do away with those fundraising activities that don’t work and experiment with new vehicles that hold much more promise.

How Nonprofits Can Be More Entrepreneurial
The social entrepreneurship movement holds a lot of promise for transforming how social change happens. These renegades are doing things quite differently from business as usual in the nonprofit sector. By understanding how these social entrepreneurs operate, fundraise, grow their organizations, and communicate, nonprofits could gain a new perspective and learn new methods for creating social change.

Raising Dollars from Individuals
Individual donors are an untapped opportunity for many nonprofit organizations. Individual dollars make up 80% of the private money flowing into the sector, yet many nonprofits don’t have an active individual donor program. This session will give participants a roadmap for finding and cultivating individual donors, communicating effectively with them, engaging them in the work of the organization, and ultimately keeping them invested for the future.

Growing Nonprofit Organizations
As part of the social innovation movement there is a desire among philanthropists to grow what works. Nonprofits are beginning to look at factoral, as opposed to incremental, growth of their programs. But in order to replicate their programs, a nonprofit needs to understand what growth in the nonprofit sector looks like. This session will explore nonprofit growth case studies, discuss how you fund significant growth, and what a growth plan needs to look like.

How to Raise Growth and Capacity Capital
Growth and capacity capital are just fancy terms for the money that is often so hard for nonprofits to find: money to build their organizations. Funders traditionally like to pay for programs and direct services, rather than salaries, infrastructure, technology and systems. However, with a good funding pitch and a strategy for finding funders interested in building an organization, nonprofits can break out of the starvation cycle and start raising money to strengthen their staff, organization and infrastructure. This session will help participants do just that.

Messaging Impact
Philanthropy is changing. More and more donors are interested in funding organizations that can demonstrate impact, as opposed to those that simply talk about organizational needs. If a nonprofit can figure out how to message the impact they are having in the community, they will be much more successful attracting donor investors. This session will explore how to message impact and give concrete ways to more effectively communicate with potential investors.

Past Speaking Engagements

These are some of the organizations or entities that have invited Nell to speak.

Speaking Fees

To find out more about the fees for having Nell Edgington speak, please call (512) 694-7235, fill out the contact form on this page, or email info@socialvelocity.net.