How do we create an incredible conference year after year? The secret is you, our community! We are now accepting session proposals to begin to shape the agenda for 26NTC.
Thinking about proposing a 26NTC session? Read on for information about the session selection process, categories, and formats.
Session selection process
The NTC is community-driven from the start. NTEN staff work with our volunteer committees to shape learning content, develop programming, and make sure the conference is beneficial to you.
Proposals
September 2–19, 2025
Anyone from the nonprofit technology community is welcome to propose a session for consideration.
Community input
September 23–October 3, 2025
The community and Session Advisory Committee review sessions and tell us which ones they like best.
Review
October 6–7, 2025
We identify missing topics and either look for session proposals to fill the gaps or contact potential speakers.
Notification
October 9, 2025
We notify session proposers and add sessions to the agenda. If yours isn't accepted, there may be other ways to participate.
Nonprofit Technology Conference
March 10–13, 2026
Join us in Detroit or attend virtually — whichever is right for you.
Community calls
See a recording of the community call held on 10 September, 2025, or read through the transcript.
View the transcriptSession categories
We invite proposals in six session categories. You may use an artificial intelligence tool for brainstorming, but do not submit a proposal written by AI.
To inspire your brainstorming, check out the topics our Session Advisory Committee suggests based on their practitioner knowledge and NTC experience. These are a jumping-off point, not a limit, nor representative of the diversity of categories that are surfaced at the NTC. Put your best proposal forward, even if the topic is different than what's suggested.
Equity
Address the inequities that are created or exacerbated by technology. You might feature deep reflections on digital inclusion and social justice, highlight programs or practices shown to alleviate inequity, or share analysis of existing and proposed policy changes.
Suggested equity topics
- Bridging the gap: Community strategies for affordable internet access
- From access to empowerment: Building digital literacy for all
- Designing technology with inclusion at the core
- Breaking barriers: Digital equity solutions for rural and underserved areas
- Policy in action: Advocating for an equitable digital future
- How to develop and update content to make it accessible to individuals with diverse needs and abilities
- Building your online brand: Creating portfolios, professional networking, and personal websites
- Digital justice conversations: Exploring equity, bias, and fairness in technology use
- Digital equity 101 for nonprofits: What digital equity means, why it matters, and how it connects to social impact
- Best practices for running online classes, support groups, or counseling
- Using AI tools to support outreach and operations in low-resource environments while addressing ethical concerns and access gaps
- Practical strategies to help organizations and staff with low digital skills navigate the shift from paper-based systems to digital tools and platforms
- Helping underrepresented communities create digital narratives to amplify their voices and advocate for change
- Equipping underserved communities with digital tools, skills, and resources during natural disasters or crises
- Firsthand accounts of how nonprofits improved digital literacy, access, and inclusion in underserved communities with actionable takeaways
Fundraising and development
Help participants learn about development, grant-seeking, and fundraising topics. You might cover fundraising tech that works (and doesn't), evaluating and selecting fundraising tools and databases, best practices for using fundraising technology, or trends and new ideas.
Suggested fundraising topics
- Combining data with stories
- How to communicate outcomes rather than just outputs
- Building a donor base for collective impact
- Ethical storytelling in a digital age
- Fundraising on TikTok
- Future-proofing fundraising: Navigating privacy laws, AI, and digital shifts
- Behavioral triggers in fundraising: Using donor actions, timing, and patterns to automate outreach without losing authenticity
- Fundraising funnels 101: Mapping the donor journey from awareness to action
- Small shop, big impact: Scaling fundraising with limited resources
- Collaborative fundraising: Building partnerships for greater impact
- Emerging fundraising channels: Exploring social commerce, livestream giving, alternative payments (crypto, micro-giving, tap to give), gamification, voice-activated giving, and new community spaces (Discord, niche platforms)
- Disrupted search: How AI is rewriting the fundraising playbook
- Peer-to-peer fundraising tech and automations to drive revenue
- Stack creep in fundraising tech: How much is too much?
- Fundraising skill gaps
- New approaches to donor journeys
- Keeping donor communications human in the age of AI and automation
Leadership
Examine the role technology has in our organizations. What frameworks can help participants make smart decisions and manage change toward the organization’s vision? Participants will be in or aspiring to leadership roles, and ready to grapple with challenges.
Suggested leadership topics
- Staying human-centered in an agentic AI world
- Exploring the code and ethics of open source AI models
- AI skilling strategies for nonprofit jobs to survive and thrive
- Preserving human creativity, intelligence, and wisdom in an automated world
- AI adoption strategy: What leaders need to know
- Cutting through the buzzword of “AI”: The difference between AI and automation when evaluating technology tools
- New hire onboarding: Creating impactful engagement and equipping employees with the know-how to feel part of your organization
- Leading with knowledge: How to create accessible and sustainable internal knowledge bases
- Culture change: Defining and practicing the behaviors that guide your team and organization
- Growing pains: Balancing policy and procedure with the “perks” of nonprofit work to create an equitable workplace
- Educating your organization with its own knowledge
- Capturing and retaining knowledge as a succession planning strategy
- Who makes the decisions—technology or leadership? Ensuring technology stays mission-focused
- Leveraging stakeholder experience and education to build a mindful, thoughtful organization
- Is it culture or is it othering?
- Leading a nonprofit during funding reductions: Keeping your team aligned
- Successfully adapting and being resilient in a fast-changing environment
- Is DEI still important to your organization—and why?
- AI vs. PI (personal intelligence): How do you balance the two?
- Is your long-term strategic plan still working? Challenges, pivots, and standing your ground
Communications and marketing
Spread the word about nonprofit programs and strengthen community relationships. Help participants learn about successful (and failed) ways to integrate new communications technologies and tactics through tangible guidance and inspiration.
Suggested communications topics
- Generative AI for marketing: Identifying, assessing, and using AI for websites, social media, and collateral
- Inclusive communications recipes: Baking intentional inclusivity into your messaging
- Reaching for the stars: Extending your marketing reach and understanding your audience
- Human-centric storytelling: Creating impactful and authentic stories in the age of AI
- Marketing/communications AMA: Live Q&A with 3–5 sector leaders
- Maximizing outcomes by improving the marketing/communications–fundraising relationship
- Using AI to ethically and cost-effectively manage your marketing/communications plan
- Creating a culture of collaboration between marketing/communications and program/ops teams
- Video marketing on a budget: Creating ethical, impactful content with free and low-cost tools
Operations and information technology
Share IT resources and best practices with participants, especially those who manage and support tech infrastructure. Participants will want to share success stories and challenges, voice concerns, and hear wisdom from one another, no matter how they arrived at their roles.
Suggested IT topics
- Building a culture of digital comfort and confidence across all staff levels
- Tech budgeting for non-techies: Planning for tools and advocating for investments
- Exploring agentic AI for nonprofit operations: Responsible use, applications, ethics, and governance
- Demystifying technology policies: What policies your organization needs and how to create them
- Improving security on a budget: Preventing breaches and training staff in cybersecurity hygiene
- AI adoption as change management: Leading nonprofits through digital transformation
- From data chaos to clarity: Building a culture of data stewardship in mission-driven organizations
- Hybrid engagement strategies: Redefining events for inclusive participation
- Digital accessibility as a strategic priority, not just a compliance checklist
- Scaling personalization without burning out your team
- Essentials accidental techies need to know about AI (security, policies, operations, etc.)
- Getting the pay, title, and recognition you deserve (for accidental and formal tech staff)
- What nonprofit IT teams need to consider in the near future
- Keeping sensitive client data safe in high-risk scenarios (e.g., law enforcement warrants)
- Untangling the tech stack you inherited
- Information security basics for smaller nonprofits
- Modern credential management: How password managers and managed SSO improve security and usability
- Why your organization needs a disaster recovery and business continuity plan
- The state of endpoint security in 2026: How nonprofits are (or aren’t) keeping data safe
- Procurement in this economy: Equipment pricing and purchasing trends for nonprofits in 2026
Program and service delivery
Explore how technology can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of people on the front lines serving their communities. Introduce these participants to cutting-edge applications or methodologies, and share how to use them successfully.
Suggested program topics
- Designing for digital equity: Ensuring programs and services are accessible to all
- Telling the story behind the numbers with AI: Blending qualitative data, storytelling, and community narratives
- Building digital culture across programs: Fostering tech confidence, shared language, and cross-team learning
- AI for program teams: Practical use cases that respect your values
- Futures thinking for nonprofit programs: Anticipating change and staying mission-aligned
- Better feedback, better data: Collecting actionable insights while building long-term relationships
- Fish where the fish are: Meeting your audience where they already are
- In a world of AI, be human: Strategies for genuine communications and programming
- In-person programs, digital footprints: Creating events that live beyond the moment
- Protect your community: Ethical feedback collection and long-term data protection
- The importance of language throughout the data life cycle
- Is your data culture fun? Making data approachable and engaging
- Who needs what? Conducting needs assessments for program development
- AI conversations we’re avoiding: Missing voices and overlooked perspectives
- Project management without a manager: Building effective structures in decentralized organizations
- Social network analysis: Introduction to evaluation using network mapping
- AI as coach: Tools, tips, and strategies for team innovation
- Don’t reinvent the wheel: Research skills to learn from shared lessons
- AI prompting: Ideas to make the most of your time
- LMS in the age of online learning: Strengthening your program management skillset
Product agnostic approach
The technology products, services, and providers that nonprofit staff work with are important participants and topics of conversation at the Nonprofit Technology Conference. We also understand how diverse the experiences are across the community, how many different products are used, and the plethora of ways to accomplish any given need within each tool.
We strive for a product-agnostic approach that avoids prescribing specific tools. However, we recognize the value of discussing specific products when appropriate and understand that not every goal or function has multiple product options.
The focus of educational sessions at the NTC should primarily address the needs of attendees regardless of the specific platforms, apps, or services they are currently using. This policy is not intended to prohibit the technical details or references to specific technologies but to make those details secondary to the topic’s strategy, process, or goal.
| ❌ Not recommended | ✅ Recommended | |
| Product-first sessions | Goal or strategy-first sessions | |
| Prescribing a tool as the only route to achieve a goal | Prescribing a tool as one solution among others to achieve a goal | |
| Focussing on a single tool that meets the goal | Exploring multiple tools that meet the goal | |
| Adding product names to the session title | Adding products to the session description | |
| E.g., “How to use Squarespace to manage content calendars” | E.g., “How to manage content calendars within your website CMS” |
Session formats
You may wait to hear if your session is selected before recruiting additional speakers.
30-minute session
One to two speakers
Provide an energizing, fast-paced opportunity for participants to hear expertise on a specific topic. Got a hot take about meeting facilitation? A must-do list for project managers? Top tips for email conversion? Propose a tight session focused on practical application and tangible takeaways.
60-minute session
Two to four speakers from at least two organizations, one of which must be a nonprofit
Think beyond the panel to better engage participants and send them off with new ways to approach their work. Speakers determine the format and distribution of time. They may collaborate on a single experience or divide the time on different perspectives.
60-minute workshop
One to three speakers
Help participants think through the big questions and organizing principles for successfully kicking off a significant project. Build the workshop around a template (strategy guide, project plan, pitch, or other tool) so people can play along. There should be high engagement between speakers and participants.
