Free 2 Teach CEO Alison Kling shares strategies for nonprofit growth at Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville’s annual conference

Hundreds of nonprofit leaders, community partners, corporate sponsors, and volunteers gathered for the Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville’s 13th annual NAVIGATE Nonprofit Network Conference in Huntsville on May 12 at the Von Braun Center. 

According to the foundation, this year’s conference drew a record 582 registrants representing 244 organizations from across the region. 

The annual conference focuses on nonprofit leadership, networking, and collaboration while connecting organizations with community and corporate partners.

During the event, Melissa Thompson, the foundation’s CEO and president, highlighted the organization’s continued support of nonprofit work across North Alabama. 

“At the Community Foundation, we love to find innovative and new ways to support your work as nonprofit organizations. Innovation is, after all, one of our core values,” Thompson said. 

Thompson said the organization continues to invest heavily in local nonprofits and community initiatives across the Rocket City and surrounding counties. 

“Last year, the Community Foundation was proud to distribute over $19 million to support the vital work of nonprofit organizations in North Alabama. The best part of that is that over 80% of those dollars stayed right here in our five-county footprint, improving the quality of life right here at home,” Thompson said. 

The conference’s keynote speaker, Alison Kling, CEO of Free 2 Teach, shared her “Lead with How” framework, a template designed to help nonprofit organizations better articulate their impact and scale their work.

 

Kling said that by focusing on how they achieve their mission, through honoring stories, organizing them with data, and weaving them into a clear narrative, nonprofits can move from inspiration to investment.

She also shared lessons from her years working in the nonprofit sector both locally and internationally, encouraging organizations to better communicate how their work creates measurable impact.

“Over my years of serving on nonprofit boards and volunteering or doing all the things, I have had an up close and personal look at the highs and lows of nonprofit life,” Kling said. 

Throughout her keynote, she encouraged nonprofit leaders to gather and share stories that demonstrate the impact of their organizations.

“Honor the work of the people, the volunteers, the donors, and the people you’re seeking to serve by listening and gathering their story,” Kling said.

 

Drawing on her own experience attending Navigate over the past decade, Kling said the conference’s focus on networking reflects how nonprofits grow through collaboration, especially in North Alabama. 

“I think that Melissa and her team named the conference pretty strategically when they called it not just a nonprofit conference but a nonprofit network conference,” she said. 

Kling continued, “From my perspective, the scale and the growth that we have experienced is only because of the strength of the people in this room who we’ve been able to call and rely on and build vision for together.”

She also spoke about the importance of recognizing organizational limitations while still finding ways to collaborate with community partners.

“We all know so acutely that just because we care does not create infinite capacity, that you are not the answer to every problem. You are the answer to the problem that your ‘how’ was built for. Sometimes it’s a no,” Kling said. 

She continued, “But what I’ve seen again and again is that we innovate through our yes, and often we can collaborate through our no.”

The annual conference concluded with networking sessions and workshops designed to help nonprofit organizations build partnerships and expand their impact across the communities they serve.