In the up-and-down world of running a nonprofit agency, unpredictability may be the most predictable thing about the job: Steady streams of funding can suddenly slow to a trickle, and the winds of political fortune can shift without warning.

Surviving such blustery conditions requires more than plain-old passion and commitment – it demands ceaseless self-improvement, a nimble approach, and the steady hand of supportive colleagues when tough times arrive.

Nonprofit professionals will find all of those things and more at the 2025 DANA IMPACT Delaware Annual Conference, a daylong get-together that seeks to share the knowledge agencies need to flourish, and the allies they need to thrive. Set for May 1 at the University of Delaware’s Clayton Hall in Newark, the conference features primary breakout sessions designed to enhance skills in such areas as fundraising, collaborative decision-making and coalition-building.

That kind of proactive learning is especially crucial in today’s climate, say nonprofit leaders who have been casting worried glances in recent months toward Washington, D.C. The nonprofit sector in Delaware is also still feeling lingering aftereffects of COVID-era staffing shifts, and elections have once again shuffled the political cards, both around the state and across the nation.

“I don’t think people are hitting the panic button yet, but we definitely need to be having these conversations now,” said Hannah Kimani, engagement manager at the Delaware Alliance for Nonprofit Advancement, host of the conference. 

“The need is something that we can definitely feel.”

Sheila Bravo, president and CEO of DANA, agreed.

“There are a lot of questions out there,” she said. “There are a lot of concerns around how organizations can navigate these times. This conference gives folks a chance to sit down together and share how they’re working through these solutions. Whatever questions they may have, there will be people there that have answers.”

One of those people with answers is keynote speaker Mariah Calagione, co-founder of Delaware’s Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, known for its “off-centered” style and innovative attitude. Calagione will speak on “The Chemistry of Collaboration and the Entrepreneurial Spark: Lessons Learned from an Off-Centered Career.”

“Dogfish Head is a very inventive company, and Mariah and her husband Sam are entrepreneurs, innovators,” Bravo said. “In this moment, we all have to think differently. We’re going to have to embrace change, and I think that she’s going to be able to offer some insights on how to do that, and how to do it in a context of social good.”

Recent times have also heightened the need for nonprofits to keep pace with technological change, especially as the somewhat baffling potential of artificial intelligence peeps over the virtual horizon. A breakout session on “Crafting Smart A.I. Prompts to Get Better Results” will coax wary attendees to embrace its potential.

“It may feel very uncomfortable right now, but sometimes, when you’re faced with challenges, new opportunities present themselves,” Bravo said. “As we all think about how we may need to be more efficient, artificial intelligence can be a tool or a resource for that, but folks need to understand how to do that responsibly.”

Networking opportunities at the conference will help shift the conversation from the technical to the personal, and Communities of Practice sessions will allow attendees to discuss issues with others in their areas of expertise, from marketing-communications to program evaluation to public policy.

Without that kind of support from DANA and its member allies, one fledgling nonprofit leader says it would have been far tougher launching her effort to help foster children in the state.

“It opened my eyes to a lot of things that I didn’t even know I should know,” said Donna Storan, founder and executive director of the Fostering Wishes Foundation, which provides gifts and some much-needed attention to Delaware’s children in foster care. 

Storan is taking part in DANA’s Nonprofit Accelerator Program, where nonprofits learn how to grow and thrive. “It helped us see the things we might not be doing now, but could be doing six months from now.”

Recent times have only heightened her sense that she needs to be ready. “It’s scary right now. It’s like pinball every day. You don’t know what to expect and everyone’s holding their breath. This conference will give us the opportunity to express our fears, talk to each other.”

Stories like that are familiar to the folks at DANA, which has more than 500 members and has been helping nonprofits thrive in Delaware for 39 years.

“At the IMPACT Conference, we have people who are going through what you’re going through,” Kimani said. “We get it. We speak the language. Come and sit in that familiar space, and then we can figure it out from there, together.”

To learn more about the IMPACT Conference or to register, visit https://delawarenonprofit.org/annual-conference.