News & Events

Target Audience

Board Members, HR Subcommittee, CEO, Deputy CEO and Senior Management.

Outline

This single, focused workshop is designed to help the Board and senior management initiate a structured and professional approach to leadership succession. It will create shared understanding, assess current vulnerabilities, and outline clear next steps to ensure smooth leadership transition and organisational continuity. The objectives of this workshop are:

• Establish the strategic and leadership context for transition. 

• Identify organisational risks and opportunities linked to leadership change. 

• Explore resource-based scenarios (reduced, steady, expanded). 

• Clarify leadership roles and responsibilities for key senior positions. 

• Agree next steps for documentation, mentoring, and communication.
  

Methodology

Delivered virtually via Zoom.

Target Audience

This course is aimed at board members, trustees and senior staff of non-profits..

Outline

This course will provide participants with a practical structure and interactive scenarios for identifying and managing conflicts of interest and loyalty.

Topics covered include:

• Frame, define & diagnose a conflict of interest.
• Recognise conflicts.
• Conflict radar: where issues commonly show up.
• Case clinic.
• Chair & record conflicts.

Methodology

Delivered virtually via Zoom.

Target Audience

Managers, staff, community leaders and volunteers in community organisations, NGOs and public services who work with diverse local communities, and want to build stronger, more equal relationships between people and services.

Outline

This interactive online workshop will help participants move from “doing to” and “doing for” communities towards genuinely “working with” them. Through short inputs, small‑group exercises and practical tools, participants will:

– Practice community conversations and positive story‑sharing.

– Map who they currently reach, who they rarely engage, and who is missing.

– Examine one key service/process from a community member’s perspective.

– Identify simple changes to make information and access clearer and fairer.

– Explore ideas for social two‑way mentorship and peer explaining.

Methodology

Delivered virtually via Zoom.

Target Audience

• Non-profit organisation staff and volunteers
• Non-profit leaders and managers
• Communications and marketing teams
• IT and operations staff in non-profits

Outline

1. Introduction to WordPress for Non-Profits
   • Benefits of using WordPress (cost-effective, customisable, scalable)
2. WordPress Basics: Creating and Managing Content
3. Essential Plugins for Non-Profits
4. Customising Your WordPress Site for Impact
5. Enhancing User Engagement with Key Features
   • Integrating contact forms (e.g., WPForms, Contact Form 7)
   • Embedding social media feeds and donation buttons
   • Adding newsletter subscription forms (e.g., Mailchimp integration)
6. Security and Backup Strategies
   • Importance of securing a non-profit website
7. SEO and Analytics for Non-Profit Success
   • Understanding basic SEO principles for visibility
8. Case Studies and Best Practices
9. Q&A and Hands-On Workshop

Methodology

Delivered virtually via Zoom.

Target Audience

This workshop is suitable for learners who have completed a Canva beginner-level course or who already use Canva regularly and wish to advance their skills.

Workshop Content

This workshop provides an in-depth exploration of Canva’s intermediate and advanced features, focusing on branding, content planning, and professional design workflows. Participants will develop practical skills in maintaining brand consistency, applying colour and typography principles, creating engaging video and presentation content, and producing documents at scale using bulk design tools. The course also introduces accessibility features to ensure designs are inclusive and user-friendly. Throughout the training, learners will leverage Canva’s AI tools to streamline content creation and enhance creativity, equipping them with the skills needed to produce high-quality designs across multiple platforms is a free-to-use online graphic design tool. Use it to create social media posts, presentations, posters, videos, logos and more.

Topics covered during the workshop include:

• Canva Branding Kit
• Canva Colour Wheel
• Canva Content Planner
• Linking Canva account to social media accounts
• Typography and Text Apps
• Creating and Editing Videos
• Creating Presentation
• Document Design
• Creating Emails/Newsletters
• Bulk Create Design
• Canva Translate
• Accessibility Features
• Canva AI Tools
  • Canva AI 2.0 (or newest version)
  • Magic Write
  • Magic Studio
  • Magic Media

Methodology

Delivered virtually via Zoom.

Target Audience

Non-profit staff working in operations, communications, fundraising, administration, and programme delivery who want to move beyond curiosity about AI and start using it confidently in their day-to-day work. Suitable for those with little or no prior experience of AI tools, as well as those who have experimented casually but want structure, technique, and sector-specific use cases. No technical background is required.

Outline

1. Setting the Scene

• Where the non-profit sector sits in the Irish AI adoption picture
• Current data on adoption rates, productivity gains, and the widening gap between organisations using AI strategically and those that aren’t
• What AI realistically can and cannot do for a non-profit
• Highest-value opportunities: grant writing, communications, reporting, donor engagement, and internal administration

2. Understanding the Tools

• Working overview of the main large language models: ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and Claude
• What each tool is good at and where they differ
• Practical view on free versus paid tiers to inform organisational spending decisions
• Short demonstration of how an LLM generates a response and why prompting matters

3. Writing Prompts That Work

• The core skill of the session: moving from vague requests to structured prompts
• A clear prompting framework covering role, task, context, format, tone, and constraints
• Worked examples drawn from realistic non-profit tasks — drafting a funder update, summarising a board paper, turning meeting notes into an action list, rewriting a newsletter intro for different audiences
• Live hands-on exercise in attendees’ chosen AI tool

4. Practical Applications for Non-Profit Work

• Drafting and refining grant application content
• Accelerating social media and newsletter production
• Using AI to interrogate long documents (policy papers, funder guidelines, legislation) without reading them in full
• Each use case demonstrated live with time for attendees to try it themselves

5. Custom Assistants and Next Steps

• Introduction to Custom GPTs and similar features
• How a non-profit can create a reusable assistant trained on its own tone of voice, funder language, or service information
• Practical tips on building an AI habit and avoiding common pitfalls
• Resources for continued learning

Methodology

Delivered via Zoom.

Target Audience

This 3-hour online programme is designed for staff, managers, coordinators, project leads and volunteers working in community, voluntary and nonprofit organisations who are responsible for planning, delivering or overseeing projects.

It is particularly suitable for those who are new to project management or who have gained project management experience informally and would benefit from a practical, structured approach.

No previous formal project management training is required.

Outline

Community organisations regularly deliver projects involving multiple stakeholders, limited resources, funding requirements and competing priorities.

Effective project management helps ensure that these projects remain focused, achievable and aligned with organisational and community needs.

This practical programme introduces participants to the fundamentals of project management in a way that is relevant and accessible to community and nonprofit organisations.

Participants will explore the key stages of a project, from defining the initial need and establishing objectives through to planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

The programme will cover:

1. Understanding what constitutes a project and the project lifecycle.
2. Moving from an identified need or idea to clear project objectives and outcomes.
3. Defining project scope and avoiding scope creep.
4. Identifying key stakeholders and planning effective engagement.
5. Breaking a project into manageable activities, milestones and deliverables.
6. Clarifying roles, responsibilities and accountability within the project team.
7. Developing realistic project timelines and allocating resources.
8. Identifying and managing project risks.
9. Monitoring progress and responding when projects move off track.
10. Managing communication, reporting and documentation.
11. Evaluating project outcomes and capturing learning for future projects.

Methodology

Delivered virtually via Zoom.

This is a practical and interactive workshop combining short presentations with facilitated discussion, practical exercises and examples relevant to community and nonprofit organisations.

Participants will have opportunities to apply the project management principles and tools introduced during the session to real-life project scenarios. The emphasis will be on straightforward, adaptable approaches that can be used in organisations of different sizes and with varying levels of resources.

Participants will also receive practical tools and templates that can be adapted for use in planning, managing and reviewing their own projects.

Target Audience

For current or aspiring leaders and managers in not-for-profit organisations e.g. Board officers, CEOs/Managers, team leaders, project managers. 

Outline

Section 1: The strategic environment for high performance 

·        Setting clear vision and objectives for the organisation
·        Effective leadership and team development and management 

Section 2: Managing performance 

·        Understanding performance management
·        Being clear on what and who we are measuring
·        Setting and agreeing performance indicators
·        Monitoring performance 

Section 3: Communications and conversations 

·        Dealing with motivation
·        What makes for good communications
·        How to plan and manage for performance improvement
·        Structuring the performance conversation
·        Giving feedback

Methodology

Delivered virtually via Zoom.

Target Audience

“Are we governing reputation and stakeholder trust before something goes wrong or only managing them afterwards?”

The course is designed for those with responsibility for organisational governance, leadership, and decision-making: CEOs and senior leaders, including board members and trustees. It approaches crisis preparedness, reputation and stakeholder trust as governance and leadership responsibilities rather than as specialist functional issues.

Outline

Reputational crises can begin with decisions, behaviours, governance failures or stakeholder concerns that have not been recognised or addressed early enough. Nonprofit organisations operate in environments of high public trust, complex stakeholder relationships, and increasing regulatory and media scrutiny. From governance failures and leadership decisions to cybersecurity, AI and stakeholder controversy, the range of issues capable of damaging organisational trust continues to grow.  Yet reputational and stakeholder trust risks can be underestimated or addressed only after problems have arisen.

This practical session will explore how governance culture, leadership behaviour and organisational decision-making influence reputation, legitimacy and organisational sustainability, particularly during periods of change, challenge or crisis.

1. Reputation and Trust as Governance Issues

• Why reputation and stakeholder trust matter to organisational sustainability.
• Understanding reputation as more than a communication issue.
• The relationship between organisational behaviour, stakeholder expectations and trust.

2. Anticipating Reputational Risk

• Identifying potential sources of reputational and stakeholder risk.
• Recognising how governance, culture and decision-making can increase or reduce risk.
• Considering reputation and stakeholder perspectives before a crisis arises.

3. Leadership and Governance During a Crisis

• The respective roles of the board, CEO and senior leadership.
• Decision-making when an organisation is under pressure.
• Maintaining stakeholder trust during periods of uncertainty, change or challenge.

4. Practical Scenarios

• Applying the principles to realistic nonprofit scenarios.
• Questions boards and senior leaders should be asking.
• Practical actions organisations can take to strengthen preparedness.

Methodology

Delivered virtually via Zoom. The session will combine presentation and discussion with practical examples and scenarios relevant to nonprofit organisations.

Target Audience

Non-profit staff in operations, communications, fundraising, administration, and governance roles who need to understand the legal and ethical responsibilities that come with using AI in their work. Particularly relevant for anyone with responsibility for AI tool selection, data handling, safeguarding, communications sign-off, or organisational policy. Suitable for attendees who already use AI tools informally, and for those whose organisations are now being asked by funders, boards, or regulators to demonstrate they are using AI responsibly. No legal or technical background required.

Outline

1. Why This Matters for Non-Profits

• Why AI compliance and ethics have moved from “nice to have” to a governance issue
• Funder expectations and the shifting regulatory landscape
• Safeguarding obligations for organisations working with children or vulnerable adults
• The reputational stakes of getting AI wrong in a sector built on trust
• What “responsible AI use” actually means for a non-profit

2. The EU AI Act Explained

• Plain-English walkthrough of what the Act is and who it applies to
• The risk-based approach at the heart of the legislation
• The four risk categories — unacceptable, high, limited, and minimal
• Examples drawn from non-profit contexts: CV screening, chatbots on service websites, AI-generated campaign imagery, eligibility assessment tools
• Key enforcement dates already in force and what’s coming next

3. Ireland’s Enforcement Architecture

• The AI Office of Ireland (Oifig IS na hÉireann) and its coordinating role
• The 13+ sectoral regulators with enforcement responsibilities in their own domains
• Ireland’s graduated enforcement pathway — investigation, contravention notice, prohibition notice, adjudication, High Court confirmation
• The public sector fine cap of €1 million and what it means for charities delivering public services
• The Provider vs Deployer distinction and why most non-profits are deployers with real obligations under Article 26

4. Ethics in Practice

• Bias and fairness in AI outputs
• Transparency with service users and donors
• Consent and data protection when feeding information into AI tools
• Sensitivities specific to non-profit work: client data, case notes, beneficiary imagery, communications about vulnerable groups
• Worked examples of where organisations have got this wrong
• Key questions to ask before using AI in a given situation

5. Building an AI Policy for Your Organisation

• Mapping AI usage across the organisation
• Classifying risk and assigning responsibility
• Setting principles and planning oversight
• Embedding the policy through staff training, procurement checks, and an AI system register
• A clear policy framework attendees can adapt rather than a template to copy

6. Q&A and Next Steps

• Open questions
• Resources for staying current as the law evolves
• Signposting to further support

Methodology

Delivered via Zoom.