The Nonprofit Management Institute for Senior Level Nonprofit Managers and Directors

Marla Cornelius, MNA, is a Senior Project Director at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services. She developed and manages several of CompassPoint’s nonprofit management and leadership programs and research projects. She co-authored the national research report UnderDeveloped: A National Study of Challenges Facing Nonprofit Fundraising (2013). She also led the development of the studies Ready to Lead? Next Generation Leaders Speak Out (2008) and Daring to Lead 2011: A National Study of Nonprofit Executive Leadership. She develops content, trains, and consults in the areas of individual and organizational leadership and governance. Marla also speaks and writes on these topics and can be reached at MarlaC@compasspoint.org.

Workshops

Steve Lew is a Senior Project Director for CompassPoint Nonprofit Services and works with organizations in creating strategic plans, fund development plans, and board development plans. Steve also coaches staff and board members in fundraising approaches and teaches board fundraising within the CompassPoint training series. He is Director of the Fundraising Academy for Communities of Color, an 8 month training and coaching series offered in collaboration with the Grassroots Fundraising Journal. Email Steve.

Workshops

Shannon Ellis, MNA, is a Project Director at CompassPoint responsible for consulting and training in finance and strategy. Her work focuses on supporting nonprofit leaders in the unique challenges of effectively managing a dual bottom line to ensure both program impact and financial viability.

With more than 20 years of experience working in the nonprofit sector, Shannon has a strong commitment to supporting organizations working for social change. Prior to coming to CompassPoint, Shannon worked in the domestic violence movement since 1994, spending the last 12 years at Family Violence Law Center in Oakland. She learned nonprofit financial management on the ground, working with FVLC during a period of significant growth and moving through the leadership pipeline from Office Manager to Interim Executive Director. In addition, she is a Certified Nonprofit Accounting Professional and has supported many Bay Area nonprofits in establishing solid accounting systems through her work with Mark Halpert, CPA + Associates.

Workshops

Nelson Layag is the training director for CompassPoint Nonprofit Services. Nelson’s current responsibilities include the design and management of CompassPoint’s leadership and management workshops, networks, and conferences; strategy and implementation of organizational communications and marketing; and design and delivery of training focused on people/performance management and project management.   Some of Nelson’s recent work and projects includes:

• Co-author and curriculum designer for Supervision: Helping People Succeed Part 1 and 2
• East Bay Nonprofit Forum Program Design and Implementation: Writing Your Organization’s Next Chapter: Strategic Actions for Organizational Impact 
• Performance Management 101: Achieve Results with Your Team, presentation at the Bank of America Neighborhood Excellence Initiative, emerging leaders convening
• Board Basics Online – Curriculum design and development of online course for potential board members (www.compasspoint.org/boardbasics)
• Mission Neighborhood Health Clinics – Three part supervision training and facilitation

Nelson’s passion is working with staff and leaders of social change organizations that serve under-represented communities. He understands and enjoys seeing the power a group of individuals can have when they find a way to work effectively together.  He brings this excitement to his work in performance management, project management and developing a training program that meets the needs of people working in the nonprofit sector.

In his 16 years at CompassPoint, Nelson has held numerous posts including Director of Technology and Director of Education.  During his time as Director of Education, he led the nation’s largest nonprofit training program with 500 workshops and 6 major conferences.  In 1997, Nelson was instrumental in developing the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network  (YNPN) in San Francisco.  YNPN has since grown into a national movement to support emerging leaders in the nonprofit sector.  He currently sits on the board of the Alameda Education Foundation and on the steering committee of the nonprofit online magazine, BlueAvocado.

Prior to joining CompassPoint, Nelson was the Accounting Operations Coordinator at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco and Group Home Supervisor for Star House in San Jose. He was a social worker serving at risk youth in Baltimore before coming to California. Nelson has a BA in Business Administration and Marketing from Loyola College in Baltimore, MD and was part of a group of students that helped lead the development of the Center for Values and Service at Loyola. 

Nelson currently lives with his wife and three kids in the San Francisco Bay Area where he spends much of his spare time coaching youth sports and trying to keep up with school projects, field trips, and homework.  Somehow he finds just in enough time to play drums in a “dad garage band.” Email Nelson.

Workshops