Presenter: Amanda Wilson and Jessica James, Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region

Cultivating lasting relationships with donors is essential to sustainable fundraising, but creating a stewardship plan can feel overwhelming. This session will discuss practical strategies to develop and enhance your donor stewardship program, regardless of your organization’s size. You’ll learn how to foster meaningful connections to inspire continued support.

We’ll present HSPPR’s stewardship plan, outlining our timeline of touchpoints and communications, offering insights for measuring the impact of your efforts. You’ll leave the session feeling empowered to grow your plan, improve donor retention, and achieve long-term success.

Presenter: Simon Bailey, Researcher, Author

Who are your stakeholders? Staff? Volunteers? Board members? Donors? Community members?

In today’s oversaturated market, average customer service is extinct. Based on his seven years as a Disney cast member and sales director of the Disney Institute, Simon reveals transformative insights that elevate stakeholder experiences – both internal and external – from mundane to magical.

Learn how to:

• Cut through digital noise with emotional connections
• Turn every interaction into a wow moment
• Harness the power of being a “plus in a minus world”
• Create viral, organic growth
• Engage stakeholder’ heads, hearts, and hands for unshakeable loyalty

Walk away from the session understanding how to implement these payoffs:  

• Create passionate brand advocates 
• Elevate your competitive edge in a world driven by recommendations and reviews 
• Transform your team 
• Electrify your brand
  

Presenter: Jamie Lee, Jamie Lee Coach, Inc.

This interactive workshop introduces leaders to evidence-based techniques that can down-regulate the nervous system, spur neuroplasticity, and lead to empowered communication. Attendees will learn to harness practical neuroscience to improve their mental, emotional, and verbal agility. By applying these tools, leaders can reduce the stress cycle of freeze-flight-fight, resolve conflicts effectively, and foster engagement within and across teams.

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Apply simple, evidence-based exercises to reduce stress and build confidence in high-pressure situations
• Use practical tools to navigate workplace conflicts and communicate with authority
• Develop a personalized “confidence toolkit” to sustain leadership growth and maintain clarity under pressure 
• Translate lessons from real-world case studies into actionable plans for their leadership challenges

Presenter: Elkie Wills and Amanda Foster, Austin Pets Alive! HASS

The days of animal sheltering organizations operating in silos are behind us. This session will discuss not only the importance of partnering with human service organizations in your community, but also how to get started. Based on insights from recent collaborations between human services and animal welfare— through roundtables and surveys—we’ll explore how these powerful partnerships can strengthen your community by supporting both ends of the leash.

Attendees will leave the session with knowledge on:

• A step-by-step overview on how to set up round tables to partner with human service organizations in their community, including how to get started, who to invite, and lessons learned.
• Key takeaways from human service provider surveys and pet owner surveys 
• A toolkit with a step-by-step guide on how to set up a round table with human services in your community, ecosystem mapping, and more

Presenter: Kelsey Ingram, CauseMic and Laine Killingsworth, Atlanta Humane Society

Is your organization trapped in a maze of disconnected systems, manual workarounds, and unclear ownership? You're not alone. Animal welfare organizations across the country are struggling with fragmented technology that drains resources and holds teams back from their life-saving work. Drawing from Atlanta Humane Society's transformation journey, this session reveals a practical roadmap for turning technology from a burden into a strategic asset. You'll discover how to empower your teams, protect your resources, and accelerate your mission.

We'll explore:

• Facilitating collaborative planning conversations that focus on future states and gain buy-in
• Building an inclusive, streamlined process that brings clarity and purpose to technology decisions
• Connecting your tech initiatives directly to strategic goals, ensuring every project drives real mission impact
• Creating a prioritization framework that focuses resources on what matters most
• Establishing clear escalation paths and stakeholder engagement that keeps projects moving forward 
• Making the case for centralized technology management to enhance security, reduce costs, and improve outcomes

Whether you're wrestling with outdated systems or planning your next technology investment, you'll leave with actionable strategies to transform how your organization approaches technology. Join us to learn how to build a foundation for digital success that serves your staff, your donors, and most importantly, the animals in your care.

Presenter: Hanna Lentz, SPARC and Azali Boyd, Boyd Veterinary Services and Consulting

Animal welfare often focuses on programs and services, but it can overlook the stories and cultural nuances that drive true community engagement and systemic change. This session bridges that gap by combining SPARC's focus on storytelling with Critters and Cultures’ emphasis on cultural agility, offering attendees a roadmap to create more inclusive, impactful initiatives.

Learn how storytelling and cultural understanding can reshape the animal welfare field. This collaborative session focuses on the power of narratives to challenge stereotypes, foster empathy, and build stronger connections between organizations, communities, and the animals they serve. By blending SPARC's expertise in using stories to support people and critters with Critters and Cultures’ mission to bridge cultural perspectives, this session provides actionable tools for leaders looking to inspire change and deepen their impact.

Key Takeaways:

• Harness the Power of Storytelling: Learn how to collect and share impactful narratives that inspire action and promote deeper community connections.
• Align Culture with Mission: Explore strategies for integrating cultural intelligence into animal welfare practices to engage diverse audiences effectively.
• Shift Perspectives: Discover how challenging entrenched stereotypes through stories and cultural understanding can lead to systemic changes in animal welfare.
• Collaborative Approaches: Gain insights into building partnerships that amplify shared goals, whether between organizations, communities, or stakeholders. 
• Take Action: Walk away with a practical toolkit to start transforming narratives and fostering inclusion in your own organization.

Presenter: Alisa Rubinstein, Fetch Pet Insurance

Internships are few and far between at animal shelters despite the immense value they provide. Interns assist with critical day-to-day operations and projects, and at a time when shelters are having difficulty with medical staffing, we have seen a high retention rate with veterinary interns who are eager to assist with medical care and surgery. Internship programs can not only help you further your mission of advocacy and education, but also produce students who energize the workplace, champion the shelter after the internship is over, and even transition into staff members who come pre-trained in your shelter's protocols and plugged into your animal welfare philosophy.

Alisa will share the experience of building an internship program from the ground-up and the positive impact it had on her organization and its students. As with all programming, internships are not a one-size-fits-all endeavor and establishing a program does not come without its challenges. After attending this presentation, attendees will learn the basics of creating a professional and sustainable internship program, including: evaluating whether or not interns are right for your shelter, attracting qualified and diverse candidates, overcoming pitfalls along the way, and embracing elements that make for a successful program that is mutually beneficial to the shelter and to our students.

Presenter: Shawn K. Woods, Shawn K. Woods & Associates

Today, there are five generations of employees in most workplaces. In addition, many cultures and personalities must all come together, get along, and accomplish goals and tasks to help their organizations grow and thrive.

Without the proper tips, tricks, and tools, navigating this road can be disappointing, hard, and chaotic. This workshop will bring real-world examples and success stories around understanding and building dynamic workplace relationships. Participants will also learn powerful strategies for bridging the generation and culture gaps.

How You Will Benefit:

• Accepting all people with empathy and compassion. The secrets to building successful relationships – through effective communication
• How age, gender, and culture impact effective workplace communication
• How to promote and embrace healthy conflict while respecting generation and culture differences
• Bridging the generation gap while communicating with poise power and confidence 
• Experiential exercise revealing the similarities and differences and value that each generation bring to an organization

Presenter: Nancy Blum, Harvard Medical School and Edward Schettino, Animal Rescue League

Compassion Rounds is a unique forum designed to help veterinary and animal welfare organizations grapple with morally challenging situations that arise at work. In compassion rounds, panelists prepare brief descriptions of their own work experiences and share the ways they are emotionally taxing. These situations, when described in the staff’s own words, powerfully resonate with other staff who often share similar experiences. Furthermore, they can also enlighten members from different parts of the organization about what their colleagues’ work entails. This appreciation helps to break down barriers amongst staff and create a more cohesive and compassionate organization, building on trust and transparency.

In this session, using the Animal Rescue League of Boston as a case study, you will learn:

• Speaking openly about difficult experiences is validating, healthy, and helpful
• The important role compassion can play in the workplace
• The ways Compassion Rounds can impact the organization
• Increased staff-reflection
• Increased empathy for colleagues and their roles at work 
• A new-found sense of connectedness to colleagues and the organization

Presenter: Jerrica Owen and Mike Wheeler, National Animal Care & Control Association

Navigating the complexities of government relations is crucial for animal control leaders aiming to drive impactful change and secure essential resources. This session will provide a comprehensive overview of how to establish and maintain effective government relations, tailored specifically to address the unique challenges and opportunities in animal control.

Explore best practices for engaging with local, state, and federal government officials, including how to effectively advocate for policy changes that support animal welfare and public safety. The session will cover strategies for building long-term, collaborative relationships with legislators, understanding the legislative process, and effectively communicating the needs and successes of animal control agencies. 

Attendees will learn how to influence decision-makers, navigate political environments, and leverage their role to advocate for the needs of their communities. This session is designed to empower animal control leaders with the tools they need to be effective advocates and partners with government entities, ultimately leading to stronger support and better outcomes for the animals and communities they serve.