Leading a community foundation is rewarding work — and uniquely demanding work. The decisions are complex, the stakeholders are many, and the peers who truly understand the role are few.
This gathering is designed for exactly that: time with colleagues who get it. This is something different — a smaller, more intimate gathering designed specifically for the kind of candid peer exchange that a full conference schedule rarely leaves room for.
Come with your real questions — the ones that don’t always have a safe place to land. Come ready to share what’s working and what isn’t. The CEOs in this room have navigated board transitions, organizational pivots, and the weight of leading institutions that matter deeply to their communities. Their experience is the curriculum.
You’ll leave with practical insights you can put to work, and with a network of peers you can call on long after you return home.
To register to be a part of the Peer Forum at the KACF’s Annual National Conference for Growing Community Foundations, CLICK HERE
Tuesday, October 13 – 6:00pm-8:00pm
Welcome Reception
River City Brewing
Say hello to your fellow CEOs at River City Brewing for a relaxed evening of food and drink. No agenda, just a fun night of reconnecting and conversation.
Wednesday, October 14 – 8:00am-11:45am
Peer Forum
Wichita Hyatt Regency
8:00am-8:30am Welcome
8:30am-9:30am The Coaching Edge: Practical Tools for Leading at the Top
The higher you climb, the harder it becomes to get honest, useful feedback — and the more it matters. Whether you work with an executive coach, lean on a trusted peer, or carve out your own reflective practice, the leaders who keep growing tend to have one thing in common: they’ve found deliberate ways to see themselves more clearly.
In this session, a community foundation CEO, and the executive coach she partners with, share what that process looks like for them — the questions it surfaced, the shifts it produced, and the tools that made the difference. The goal isn’t to sell you on coaching. It’s to give you practical frameworks and strategies you can apply in whatever way fits your own leadership style and circumstances.
You’ll walk away with at least one concrete tactic you can put to work immediately. And in the table discussion that closes the session, you’ll have space to reflect on your own experience and exchange ideas with peers.
Speakers: Tracy Edgerton, Lincoln Community Foundation, and Ellen Katz, CEO, Greater Cincinnati Community Foundation, retired.
9:30am-9:45am Break
9:45am-10:45am Evaluation, Expectations, and the Two-Year Cycle: Building a Chair-CEO Partnership That Holds
CEO evaluation in a nonprofit shouldn’t feel like a surprise — but too often it does. And when board chairs rotate every two years, even a well-designed process can lose its footing. How do you build a framework that outlasts any single chair relationship?
This session tackles the challenge in two parts. The first part takes a close look at what a strong evaluation process actually requires — from grounding goals in the strategic plan to ensuring that what you’re being measured on is genuinely within your control. Real documents will be shared, including a strategic plan with CEO goals built in, a position description that defines mutual accountability, and a weighted evaluation matrix that makes performance conversations more transparent and less fraught.
The second complementary part turns to the relational work: what it takes to navigate the two-year cycle, orient a new board chair without losing momentum, and maintain a productive partnership even as the dynamic shifts.
Come ready to engage with peers who’ve wrestled with the same challenges, ask questions that don’t always have a safe space, and leave with tools you can put to work before your next chair transition.
Speakers: Chris Quaka, Benton Community Foundation, and Carrie Sanders, Cherokee Strip Community Foundation
10:45am-11:40am Hot Topics
What’s keeping you up at night right now? Hot Topics is your open forum — a chance to surface the issues, questions, and challenges that are most pressing in this moment, not months ago when the agenda was written. A few weeks before the event, attendees will be invited to submit their topics. Submissions will be compiled and posted at 8:00am on the day of the forum. Attendees can add additional topics and vote for their favorites throughout the morning. The most popular topics will anchor small group discussions, giving everyone a chance to dig in with peers who are navigating the same terrain.
10:45am-11:15am Hot Topics Discussion 1
11:15am-11:40am Hot Topics Discussion 2
11:40am Wrap Up
11:45am Conclude