Leadership Retreat

A Valuable Experience for You

The leadership journey of nonprofit leaders involves constant challenge and the need for renewal. The more passion one brings to one’s work, the more vital it is to renew one’s spirit, reflect on one’s meaning and purpose, and reconnect with what one does. To meet this pressing need, Fieldstone Leadership Network offers leadership retreats for nonprofit executives and emerging leaders. Each retreat offers a transformational experience that engages nonprofit leaders in an experiential learning process that is reflective, inspiring, and rejuvenating.

Our Approach:

Our retreats are based on the Circle of Trust® approach developed by Parker J. Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal. Skilled Courage & Renewal Facilitators create a “safe space” that welcomes the soul to show up. In solitude, large- and small-group discussions, you’ll be invited to reflect deeply using poetry, nature, art and various wisdom traditions to guide you. A Clearness Committee, a process of discernment that lets you hear your inner wisdom, will be the capstone of the retreat.

Join us for a unique opportunity to:

• Renew heart, mind and spirit as you explore the connection between what you do and who you are;
• Reconnect to your vocation by identifying and honoring your gifts and strengths, and also acknowledging limits;
• Engage with like-minded peers in a safe space for honest dialogue, careful listening and deep connection that honors diversity in person and nonprofit experience;
• Learn to create trustworthy environment for others that help communities learn and grow together;
• Develop healthy ways to hold the tensions inherent in a life of leadership or service;
• Discover self-reflective practices for leadership that help you gain clarity about deeper questions and become more intentional about your work.

Leadership Retreats are on hiatus until we are able to safely travel and gather again in person.

People at C&R retreats say:

“Wonderfully surprising! I came tired, feeling the responsibilities of work weighing me down… I left feeling relaxed, rested and clear in my beginning steps to move forward.”

“The facilitation was lovely… caring, gracious and purposeful.”

“This gave me the courage and renewal I need to continue doing the work that my soul and the world are asking me to do. I’m deeply grateful for the gift of that experience, and for all the ways it continues to resonate in my daily life.”

Past Leadership Retreat Topics

2018 Retreat – The Courage Way: Fortifying Nonprofit Leaders

Intended to provide time and space for leaders to deepen self-awareness and renew their energy to live and lead with authenticity, integrity and courage, this retreat recognized that in turbulent and challenging times, we need courage to stay true to our deeply held values amid the complexity of our roles and responsibilities. For those of us who lead and serve our communities, it was especially crucial to use the three-day retreat to renew our spirits and reflect on the purpose and passion that underlie our work so that were able to return to our vocations with clarity and momentum to sustain ourselves for the long haul.

2016 Retreat – Pilgrimage: A Leadership Journey

Designed as a time for reflection, renewal and relationship, this two-day retreat followed the universal steps of pilgrimage, exploring the ways in which the common rites of a sacred journey might inspire the modern leadership journey of today’s nonprofit leader. Pilgrimage is defined as a “transformative journey toward a sacred center. A journey of risk and renewal; as a journey without challenge has no meaning; a journey without purpose has no soul.” Participants learned to walk their own path, and transform the inevitable ordeals of their leadership journey into opportunities to learn something about themselves, while renewing their spirit, reflecting on their purpose and reconnecting with who they are.

2014 Retreat – Courage for the Journey – Living Your Leadership Story

Crafted to provide an opportunity for nonprofit leaders to recognize the importance and power of one’s stories and how they influence one’s leadership capacity. The retreat offered a place to consider how one lives and leads authentically. It was a unique experience that provided quiet and solitude for individual reflection within a communal setting. Participants cultivated community while gaining new tools for self-discovery and leadership development.

2012 Retreat – Courage to Lead for Nonprofit Leaders

Using the four seasons as a guide, this retreat served as an introduction to the Courage to Lead philosophy and included a time for leaders to renew themselves while cultivating their leadership. The retreat framework allowed those engaged in leadership, service and social change the opportunity to address the challenge of sustaining themselves and their commitment to deeply held values and beliefs. The retreat allowed nonprofit leaders the time to renew their spirits – to reflect on the wellspring of their service to others – to reconnect who they are with what they do and focus on the relationship of the inner life to the outer work of service in the world.

For more information, please contact Janine Mason or click here.