Conferences & Executive Education

Each year, we offer a number of partial scholarships for our membership community, detailed below. We are committed to growing this program and the scope of opportunities, with a specific focus on increasing accessibility for BAIPOC leaders in the nonprofit sector. Please see each opportunity below to learn more about how to apply. Recipients must be current members, have a strong connection with CEN, and be able to communicate how this opportunity will enhance their effectiveness/community impact. Finally, we ask that you please note that past participation in either CEN Leaders Institute or Nonprofit Boot Camp will continue to be considered as another indicator of a candidate's continued commitment to learning and development when evaluating applications.

​Nonprofit Management Institute

This year, CEN is offering two full scholarships for individuals from our member community to attend the 2023 Nonprofit Management Institute, "Thriving Through Change." This year's conference will be offered both in-person and online.

Why NMI? The challenge we now face is how to build better systems and solutions than before. How do we create systems – for ourselves, our organizations, our constituents, and our communities – that are healthier, more equitable, and more sustainable than those we had? Over the course of two full-day sessions, SSIR will bring together nonprofit and business executives, noted academics, and prominent public-sector leaders to explore pathways to strengthening and renewing our collective commitment to improving society.
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2023 Conference Dates: September 12 - 14
CEN scholarship applications are due: August 31st
Interested in applying? CEN members, please email information@cen.org.

Harvard Business School Course:
Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management

CEN provides up to two partial scholarships for our members, annually, to access this incredible program. The Harvard Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management course (SPNM) is a week-long executive education and leadership development program offered by the Social Enterprise Initiative. The program, which will take place in person on July 28 - August 3, 2024 on the Harvard Business School Campus, is tailored to nonprofit executive directors and CEOs and explores mastering nonprofit leadership in uncertain times. Through SPNM, participants develop a strategic outlook to improve the effectiveness of their organizations by understanding core management concepts, applying these concepts strategically, and learning how to implement change within their organizations.

2024 Program Dates: July 28 - August 3 (in-person)
CEN Scholarship Applications are due: March 4th
Interested in applying? CEN members, please email information@cen.org.

SPNM was outstanding in every way. I am so thankful for the scholarship assistance. I found the course to be a dynamic combination of lecture, small group discussion, independent study, in-class learning and peer consultation that kept me engaged and excited to attend each day. It was appropriately demanding content, requiring hours of preparation and case-study reading and preparing for 'class' each day, but the payback was a feeling of deep understanding and stretching my critical thinking skills. The faculty and support team were fantastic. I could tell they all brought their A-game in the presentation style (they even had subject-appropriate music/playlist for each day!) and the way they urged us to engage with the material but more than that, they deeply value nonprofit leaders and the work we do. I could feel the way they were caring for our spirits and morale, in recognition of the incredibly tumultuous year we've all lived through and tried to lead through. I left with such a solid grasp of a good theory of change model and strategies for moving my organization through and beyond the pandemic. It was a life-changing experience.

I am very glad that CEN was able to offer the scholarship and publicize the availability of this program. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

-Sharon Navarro, Executive Director at Acknowledge Alliance