Workshops & Speaking

When we change how we learn, we change how we work.

Most nonprofit "training" is something you survive — a passive hour spent watching a slide deck while your inbox continues to fill up. Real change doesn't happen through bullet points. It happens when we shift how we see our work and each other.

I design sessions as gatherings: spaces where people slow down just enough to get realigned, ask harder questions, and leave with something they can actually use. I draw from multiple disciplines — children's literature, poetry, song, the patterns of the seasons — because the best thinking rarely happens inside our usual "nonprofit brain."

Whether I'm leading a staff retreat, speaking at a conference, or guiding a multi-week learning series, my focus is the same: help people see the architecture of the system they're in, and find a steadier way forward.

What I Speak and Teach About

  • The sector's "culture of busy" isn't a personal failing — it's a structural problem. These sessions help leaders name the systems driving exhaustion, move beyond individual self-care toward institutional sustainability, and build a pace that actually holds.

  • Boundaries aren't about protecting yourself from your work. They're about redistributing labor more fairly — across teams, across roles, and across time. This reframe changes how organizations make decisions about capacity, hiring, and culture.

  • Moving away from the frantic crisis model toward steadier rhythms rooted in relationships and repeatable systems. Fundraising as an invitation to join a movement, not a perpetual emergency.

  • How you gather people is a leadership act. These sessions teach nonprofit leaders to facilitate — not just present — so that meetings become generative and decisions reflect the full intelligence of the room.

  • Using CliftonStrengths not as a personality quiz but as a design tool: understanding how your team's collective strengths shape what's possible, and where friction is likely to show up.

  • Planning processes that honor your team's actual bandwidth. Moving beyond the binder on a shelf to a living roadmap that creates energy rather than draining it.

Ways to Work Together

  • I work with nonprofit associations and leadership cohorts to design multi-week learning containers — like my annual Winter Roots series — that build on each other and foster sustained growth.

  • Available for regional and national conferences. I've spoken at AFP, Move United, and the NH Nonprofit Conference, among others. Sessions are interactive by design — I don't do passive slide decks.

  • Half-day and full-day formats for teams ready to move from insight to implementation. Based in Vermont; available in person nationwide and virtually everywhere.

Select Speaking Engagements

  • Radically Rural Summit (2026)

  • AFP NNE Annual Conference (2025, 2026)

  • Move United Conference (2026)

  • NH Nonprofit Conference & Expo (2026)

  • Reynolds Journalism Institute, Rural Revenue Workshop (2026)

  • Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship (2026)

  • GoodWork Gatherings (2026)

  • Heritage Family Credit Union Community Conversation (2025)

  • Sparkle on the Rocks (2025)

  • Rutland Downtown Partnership, Women in Business Series (2025)

Podcast Conversations

What people are saying:

  • “I felt very relieved to be able to turn my hopes and ideas over to Abbey’s competent hands”

  • “I think Abbey can read minds!”

  • “We are much better for our time working with Abbey. She was a joy!”

Bring a new perspective to your next gathering.

Inquire About a Workshop

Not ready to book yet? I share bi-weeklyish reflections on sustainable leadership, organizational culture, and finding a steadier rhythm.

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