2026 PowerUP: Funder Collaborative for Grantee Success

This event is open to grantees and partners of both foundations to learn about ways to strengthen your organization and hear about important work happening across the UP.

8:30 - 9:00 a.m.
Check-In and Breakfast

9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Workshop — Resilient Leadership: Strengthening Leaders, Boards, and Funding Models in Rural Health Organizations

Trish Dewald and MiVida Burrus, Mondo Unlimited

In this interactive workshop, you'll learn how to equip your organization with practical tools that strengthen organizational resilience.

Takeaways: assess structural vulnerabilities, evaluate board engagement and governance effectiveness, identify financial concentration risks and diversification opportunities, strengthen organization’s case for support, develop a practical 90-day action plan

12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Grantee Awards and Lunch

1:00 - 1:10 p.m.
Break

1:10 - 1:50 p.m.
Grantee Spotlights

Hear insights from:

-Jake Witt, Lac Vieux Desert Health Center
-Katrina Keough, Moxie Moms
-Caitlin McEvilly-Rosenbach, Michigan Health Endowment Fund

1:50 - 2:00 p.m.
Break

2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Round Table Discussion

Engage with fellow attendees and a group facilitator to discuss your health-related focus area and additional capacity building topics like fundraising, communications, and more.

3:00 - 3:10 p.m.
Break

3:10 - 4:10 p.m.
Breakout —What Could We Do Together? Collaboration Skills for Community Change

Victoria Leonheardt, Director, Communities, U.S. and Canada Hub at Giving Tuesday

Collaborations are built by organizations that can bring people together around a shared purpose. In this session, you'll develop the practical ways to organize, motivate, and sustain a team to take on a community challenge.

Takeaways: coalition-building skills, shared ownership and role clarity

Breakout — Cake to Cupcakes: Smarter Communications for Small Teams

Rori Bordeau, Communications Officer, Superior Health Foundation

Communications and marketing are easy to deprioritize when you're a small mission-focused team. This session gives you a realistic system for planning ahead and staying consistent without adding to your workload.

Takeaways: content inventory and repurposing worksheet, ready-to-copy Airtable editorial calendar, one-page guide to free and low-cost communications tools

Breakout — NMU Center for Rural Health Initiatives

Elise Bur, Director, Center for Rural Health at Northern Michigan University

Join Elise Bur, Director of the NMU Center for Rural Health, for a broad overview of rural health in Upper Peninsula, including some of the key barriers to healthcare access across the region and the work the center is doing to address them. Elise will also discuss the importance of a U.P.-wide Community Health Needs Assessment, plans to carry it forward, and how your organization can help encourage participation. Attendees will additionally learn about the benefits of Community Health Workers and practical ways to integrate them into your work.

4:20 - 4:30 p.m.
Close

Please register by May 13.

Questions? Contact us at [email protected].

Info: This interactive workshop equips rural health leaders with practical tools to strengthen resilience at four interconnected levels. Interested in a virtual pre-workshop preparation session for more in-depth learning and application in this workshop? View the link the event description.

Info: Hear insights from:
Jake Witt, Lac Vieux Desert Health Center; Katrina Keough, Moxie Moms; Caitlin McEvilly-Rosenbach, Michigan Health Endowment Fund

Info: Engage with fellow attendees and a group facilitator to discuss your health-related focus area and additional capacity building topics like fundraising, communications, and more.

Info: Collaborations are built by organizations that can bring people together around a shared purpose. In this session, you'll develop the practical ways to organize, motivate, and sustain a team to take on a community challenge.

Info: Communications and marketing are easy to deprioritize when you're a small mission-focused team. This session gives you a realistic system for planning ahead and staying consistent without adding to your workload.

Info: Join Elise Bur, Director of the NMU Center for Rural Health, for a broad overview of rural health in Upper Peninsula, including some of the key barriers to healthcare access across the region and the work the center is doing to address them. Elise will also discuss the importance of a U.P.-wide Community Health Needs Assessment, plans to carry it forward, and how your organization can help encourage participation. Attendees will additionally learn about the benefits of Community Health Workers and practical ways to integrate them into your work.

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Host or Publisher Michigan Health Endowment Fund