- Michelle Poler, founder of Hello Fears, delivers her keynote speech on facing fears and breaking barriers in nonprofit organizations. (Photo Credit: Photo: Courtesy of Laila Sorurbakhsh (University of Houston Downtown))
- Kristyna Torres-Cruz from PRKristyna gives a lecture on "Building a Community through Social Media" at this year's Power Tools for Nonprofits Conference. (Photo Credit: Photo: Courtesy of Laila Sorurbakhsh (University of Houston Downtown))
About 800 people who represent approximately 50 local non-profits gathered this Wednesday at a conference organized by the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD) and that was held at NRG Center.
With a program that included several panels and speakers, the conference focused on concepts that non-profits can use to make their operations more effective, such as developing strategic plans and organizing fundraising events.
Laila Sorurbakhsh, director of the Master of Nonprofit Management Program at UHD, told Houston Public Media one of the notions the conference tried to highlight is that non-profit organizations can learn and replicate from the private sector.
Sorurbakhsh highlighted that Houston-based non-profits “try to solve community problems from a holistic approach,” which, in her opinion, makes sense because “in Houston, we sort of see how each problem overlaps with each other and they’re sort of interconnected.”
As an example, Sorurbakhsh talked about a project that the non-profit Connect and Amplify is putting together in the Sharpstown area.
The goal is to build a so-called Cafe-Gymnatorium, which will be a cafeteria, a gymnasium and an auditorium all in one to address several needs the community has as a whole.