Nonprofit supervisors usually come up through direct service, then take on staff, volunteers, and a program budget with no training for any of it.
We train supervisors on the people side of the job: setting expectations, handling conflict, holding standards, and keeping good staff. Every program is live, customized to your organization, and sized for a nonprofit budget.
Supervisor & Manager Training Curriculum
Our curriculum addresses the challenges nonprofit supervisors face most often. It works for a group of newly promoted program leads and for directors who have supervised for years without formal training. Training can be customized before delivery, so participants practice on situations relevant to them.
- Understand what changes when you go from serving clients to leading the people who do
- Identify the traps that catch new nonprofit supervisors, starting with absorbing the work yourself when the team is stretched
- Apply clear criteria to expectation setting when roles are broad and job descriptions are out of date
- Establish regular one-on-one interaction with each team member and demonstrate trust-building behaviors
- Recognize the impact of open and honest communication on a small, tightly connected team
- Engage in the active listening process, including with staff who are carrying a lot and saying little
- Identify Wiley DiSC® social styles and behavioral tendencies across staff, volunteers, and partners
- Apply strategies to strengthen relationships across programs, development, finance, and the board
- Recall the most common causes of conflict in mission-driven organizations, including competing priorities and unequal workloads
- Identify the five Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) conflict handling modes
- Formulate strategies for a culture where disagreement often gets avoided instead of resolved
- Apply tools for challenging situations, including a long-tenured volunteer or staff member who resists direction
- Define the performance management partnership between supervisor, employee, and leadership
- Implement an easy-to-remember process for effective performance evaluation, even without a formal review system
- Apply a standardized model when documenting feedback, so a hard decision later rests on a clear record
- Confidently hold timely conversations that are honest and still kind
- Understand the supervisor’s role and responsibilities in employment-related legal compliance
- Recognize when key employment laws are compromised and what action is required
- Apply tools for building and maintaining effective documentation when there’s no HR department to do it for you
- Prevent unlawful and unprofessional workplace behavior, including discrimination, harassment, and bullying
- Identify the unique motivators and strengths of each person on the team
- Demonstrate listening with purpose, including with staff showing early signs of burnout
- Understand why mission-driven talent stays and why it leaves, and what a supervisor controls in that equation
- Apply engagement and retention strategies that work without a compensation budget
- Identify accountabilities when several people share overlapping responsibilities
- Examine priorities and implement time management techniques for supervisors who still carry program work
- Develop a meeting structure that respects a stretched team’s time
- Apply criteria to test the urgency and importance of requests from funders, the board, and partner agencies
- Define the characteristics of high-performing teams in mission-driven work
- Recognize the behaviors of a cohesive team and the leader who builds one
- Apply consensus-building practices in a culture that values everyone’s voice and still has to decide
- Assess the team’s stage of development when the roster mixes staff, part-timers, and volunteers
- Understand change management roles and responsibilities during funding shifts, restructures, and program launches
- Identify their sphere of control and influence when a grant outcome is out of their hands
- Demonstrate how to steady a team through uncertainty while being honest about what’s unknown
- Differentiate between change style preferences and recognize emotional responses to change in a mission-committed team
- Understand what it means to take ownership of your work and your program’s results
- Identify common barriers to accountability, including the belief that holding a standard is unsupportive
- Implement strategies for holding people accountable consistently across staff and volunteers
- Apply a standardized model for recognizing and rewarding good work when raises aren’t available
- Recognize common approaches to problem solving and where supervisors default to consensus when a decision is needed
- Demonstrate improved problem-solving and decision-making under resource constraints
- Apply a standardized model the team can use together
- Create an action plan and evaluate results against program goals
- Identify professionalism expectations in an informal, close-knit organization
- Differentiate between the closeness that builds a team and the boundary-blurring that creates problems
- Recognize the link between a supervisor’s credibility and the standards their team follows
- Apply respect standards to common situations, including how staff speak to each other in front of clients and volunteers
Flexible Supervisor Training That Fits Your Team
Choose the program structure
Custom program built around your priorities
Individual course(s) on specific topics
Choose the length and cadence
Half-day or full-day sessions or 45, 60, or 90-minute training bursts
Weekly, monthly, multi-day, or custom schedule
Choose the delivery format
Virtual
In-Person at your location
In-Person at ERC
Blended approach
Loop Learning™ Model
Our Loop Learning™ Model makes training stick by helping participants understand themselves, learn practical skills, practice in realistic situations, and then apply it on the job. Our approach leads to real behavior change, not just a good training session.
1
Assess: Participants learn their unique style, strengths, and areas for improvement.
2
Learn: Participants gain behaviors, skills, and tools that can be applied in real workplace situations.
3
Practice: Participants apply new skills through realistic scenarios, role-playing, and peer discussions.
4
Apply: Participants apply what they’ve learned on the job.
Leadership Application Lab
The Leadership Application Lab is an optional addition to training that helps participants practice and retain the skills they’re building during training. Participants meet with their ERC trainer and bring the situations they’re facing right now. Every session works on their live problems, so the skills from training get used while they’re still fresh.
Why Leadership Application Lab?
Most participants can’t retain everything they’ve learned during training. Without reinforcement, skill retention can drift during or after a session.
Research suggests that about 70% of development happens on the job, 20% from coaching and mentoring, and 10% from structured training.
The Application Lab is designed for the way that people actually learn. Spaced check-ins reinforce the skills right when your people are putting it to work, so more of it sticks.
Led by Experienced Trainers
Your supervisors learn from people who have been in the seat: managing teams, running programs, and handling the day-to-day friction that comes with the job. Our trainers use relatable stories, plain language, and a collaborative style.
Tom Ault
Chris Powers
Nada Djordevich
Damon Lindor
Who Should Attend ERC’s Supervisor Training?
Newly promoted program coordinators and supervisors
Help them make the move from peer to supervisor without losing the team’s trust.
Program managers and directors who never got formal training
Many have supervised for years on instinct. A shared set of tools raises the whole organization.
Development, finance, and operations supervisors
The same people skills apply outside of programs, and training everyone together improves how departments work with each other.
Preview Our Supervisor and Manager Training
See an ERC trainer in action
Watch a video of a real trainer instructing a training course.
Download a sample workbook
Preview a participant workbook and see examples of lessons and activities.
Access training program outline
See full training program details and share with your team.
Free Course Preview
See a real ERC trainer in action, download a sample workbook, and access the full training program outline.
Testimonial
“Truly the outcome far exceeded the expectations… the participants were blown away at how practical and immediately applicable the training was.”
– Jerry Gilin, DRB
Frequently Asked Questions
The skills are the core supervisory skills every leader needs. The customization is what makes it nonprofit training. Before delivery, we work with you to build the scenarios, examples, and language around your organization, so participants practice on situations from your programs: the volunteer who won’t follow the new process, the staff member heading toward burnout, the grant that just changed everyone’s job.
No. This program covers the people side of supervising: communication, accountability, performance conversations, conflict, engagement, and retention. Fundraising credentials, grant management and compliance, clinical licensure supervision, and board governance training come from your sector partners and licensing bodies. Our clients typically run those alongside this program.
Yes, and we recommend it. Leading volunteers takes the same core skills applied with less positional authority: clear expectations, direct conversations, and recognition that lands. We adjust the scenarios so volunteer managers see their own situations in the examples.
It depends on how many topics you choose and how you want them delivered. Most nonprofit clients start with a handful of modules in 90-minute sessions spread over several months, which keeps the per-month cost manageable. Pricing scales with the number of sessions, the group size, and whether we deliver on site or virtually. Tell us your group size, your topics, and your budget range, and we’ll tell you what’s realistic.
Many organizations do, through capacity-building grants, general operating support, or an existing professional development line. We’ll provide a written scope, session outline, and cost that you can attach to a funding request or a board packet.
Get Pricing or More Information
Get pricing for ERC’s Supervisory Training. Have questions? Speak with a training expert to learn more.
