Meet the Moment: Workshops, Trainings, and Grant Opportunities for Delaware Nonprofits
The nonprofit landscape is shifting—funding sources, donor priorities, and the legality of services are more uncertain than ever. To help nonprofits “meet the moment,” the Delaware Community Foundation, Healthy Communities Delaware, the Delaware Alliance for Nonprofit Advancement, the Longwood Foundation and others continue to host learning opportunities and provide funding to help nonprofits identify steps and supports they need to adapt. Opportunities below are listed by date.
Learning Opportunities:
Volunteer Management Hybrid Conference – co-hosted with Delaware Association of Volunteer Administrators
Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2026 | 11:00AM – 6:00PM EDT
The 2026 Volunteer Management Hybrid Conference, a one-of-a-kind professional development experience that brings volunteer engagement professionals together through local host sites across Canada, the United States, and around the world. VMHC combines the best of both worlds—world-class speakers and a shared international conference experience, paired with the opportunity to connect, network, and learn alongside colleagues in your own community. This year’s conference theme, Embracing the Future of Volunteer Engagement: Building for Resilience and Sustainability, will explore the ideas, strategies, and innovations shaping the future of our profession. We hope you leave inspired, equipped with practical ideas, and connected to peers who share your passion for engaging volunteers.
Delaware Community Foundation and the Delaware Association of Volunteer Administrators will be co-hosting at two site locations:
- Community Service Building – Conference Room 105 (100 W 10th St, Wilmington, DE 19801)
- Rural Innovation Hub (21133 Sterling Ave, Georgetown, DE 19947)
Lunch and refreshments will be provided at both locations.
Registration is required. Links available below.
- Wilmington, Community Service Building: https://vmhc2026.ticketbud.com/wilmingtonde
- Georgetown, Rural Innovation Hub: https://vmhc2026.ticketbud.com/georgetownde
Delaware Community Foundation is opening applications for the Nonprofit AI Capacity Cohort
Kickoff Date: Monday, November 9, 2026
Twenty Delaware nonprofits will receive a fully funded year of AI built into how they operate — with configured systems, staff training, and one-to-one support designed to scale AI capacity beyond the grant.
Readiness qualifies who is selected.
- Apply Oct 1–31
- Kickoff Nov 9
The work runs on TappHQ (from Tapp Network): one nonprofit operating workspace where the readiness assessment starts and selected orgs keep building — CRM, fundraising, communications, and AI assistants in the same place your team already works.
Ongoing Support
Nonprofit GPS Helpline
The Helpline offers a judgement-free thought partner, someone experienced in nonprofit finance and strategy who can help you slow down, sort through the noise, and think out loud about the path in front of you. It’s not about quick fixes or canned answers. It’s about informed brainstorming and a practical perspective, like:
“If we might lose a major funding stream, how should we approach next year’s budget?”
“How do we compare the financial impact of several possible scenarios?”
Reach out to the helpline.
Developed in consultation with nonprofit leaders and other stakeholders, The Fund for Delaware Collaboration is designed to support Delaware’s nonprofit sector through sustained collaborations between two or more organizations. These collaborations can range from voluntary back-office consolidations to programmatic joint ventures, to mergers and acquisitions. The Fund opened November 3, 2025 and provides grants, tools, and advisory support to help nonprofits explore and implement strategic collaborations that enhance impact, efficiency, and resilience. The funding for this project is provided by the Longwood Foundation.
Facilitator: Lindsey Kijewski, Partner, SeaChange
Access Previous Learning Opportunities
Grant Preparation Webinar Series – with Shoestring Solutions
Webinar 1: Develop Your Grants Toolkit
Access Webinar Here | Passcode: ea3Q??h4
Facilitators: Ellisha Caplan and Lynn Calder, Shoestring Solutions for Nonprofits
In this one-hour online session, Shoestring laid out grant readiness basics, which included things like having a digital folder with your organization’s 501c3 letter, current board lists, most recent 990s, audit, organizational budget, project budgets, staff bios. Shoestring shared best practices for grants management, reporting, and tips for grants research and basic grants strategy.
Grant Preparation Webinar Series – with Shoestring Solutions
Webinar 2: Establish a Grant Language Bank
Facilitators: Ellisha Caplan and Lynn Calder, Shoestring Solutions for Nonprofits
Webinar Access Here | Passcode: uW7%xp.i
In this one-hour online session, Shoestring will offer practical tips and an outline for organization leaders and staff to develop a bank of language that they can reference when writing all types of grants. This will help simplify the grant writing process and allow for set language that will save time for grant requests, and help shift the work of grant writing to staff that are not necessarily the Executive Director.
Manageable Major Giving for the Small Advancement Office
Presenter: Maribeth Przywara, Director of Advancement, Delaware Community Foundation
This session will provide practical strategies and tools for smaller nonprofit development teams to build and sustain a major gifts program – no large staff or fancy systems required. Topics include identifying prospects, building a realistic portfolio, effective donor moves management, and simple but impactful stewardship ideas. Attendees will leave with actionable next steps and resources to get started (or reinvigorate) major giving efforts.
Access Webinar Here | Passcode: 82y7S.p=
Exploring Collaboration: Lessons from Regional Nonprofit Peers
This session will provide insights into the Fund for Delaware Collaboration, featuring real stories of partnerships that have been fostered through this fund. Participants have the opportunity to hear directly from nonprofit leaders who’ve taken bold steps to align missions, merge operations, and forge lasting partnerships. Through candid stories and actionable insights, this session will shed light on both the challenges and rewards of collaborative strategy.
Access slides HERE.
Crisis Communications for Nonprofits: Internal, Public & Social Media Considerations – Offered by the Delaware Community Foundation
Facilitator: Nancy Dibert, CEO and Co-Founder, Epic Marketing Consultants Corporation
As a nonprofit leader or communicator, you know that in challenging times, your mission and the trust of your community are on the line. This session is designed to empower you to leverage social media not merely as a broadcast tool, but as a vital lifeline for building stronger, more resilient communities before, during, and after a crisis. Nancy will move beyond generic communication plans to focus on the unique demands and opportunities of social media crisis management in the nonprofit sector.
Diversified Funding Streams – by DANA
Sponsored by: Delaware Community Foundation
Facilitated by: Sheila Bravo, DANA
A dynamic, solutions-focused webinar designed to help nonprofit leaders strengthen and diversify the revenue needed to fuel their mission.
Access the slides HERE.
Access the recording here.
Build-A-Strategy: Meet the Moment on Social Media
Sponsored by: Delaware Community Foundation
Facilitated by: Liz Getman (she/her), Maddie Leonard (she/her), Rise Collective
This hands-on, one-hour webinar is designed to help your organization build a social media strategy that not only breaks through the noise but also builds genuine, values-aligned digital community.
Access the slides HERE.
Access the recording here.