William (Bill) Bennington

Bill Bennington is a planning, organizational development, community affairs, marketing, training and public relations professional with more than 40 years of experience. He has been widely recognized by corporations, professional societies, and charitable organizations for his work in turning around fragmented and floundering organizations and departments and for developing innovative programs and approaches to advancing organizational impact.

Bill is the acclaimed author of the “Bennington Plan” a process used with great success by hundreds of non-profits and for-profits alike.

Bill has long experience in the corporate sector served as an officer of three New York Stock Exchange corporations as well as successful careers in Public Relations, journalism and non-profits.

Major clients include Xerox, ITT Corporation, Colgate-Palmolive, Florida Power and Light, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, Bell of Pennsylvania (now Verizon), Scott Paper Company, Philadelphia Electric Company, Arco Chemical Company, Raytech Corporation, Capital Holding Corporation, Bankers Trust Inc., the Pew Charitable Trusts and other national foundations.

He has worked with hundreds of non-profits in matters related to organizational development, strategic planning and senior-level policy development. He is co-creator of and member of the faculties of The Institutes For Non-Profit Excellence in the United States and Great Britain, The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Healthy Community Institute and of the Inner City Impact Institute. He has provided training to 20,000 staff and board members from more than 4,500 charitable organizations in strategic planning, marketing, communications and board and organizational development.

He has also taught courses in strategic planning, budgeting, problem solving, communications and non-profit board development at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Special Studies.

Visit Bill's website at http://www.billbennington.com

Susan Cotterall

Susan Cotterall is founder and principal of The Training Source, an organization that provides consultants and speakers to both for-profit and non-profit organizations. The Training Source was established in 1996 to help leaders find and manage the best consultants, trainers and programs for their organization's needs thereby bringing people, programs and results together. Services are provided in the areas of strategic planning, board development, fund development, public relations, communications, sales and productivity issues.

Susan’s experience in assessing and meeting organization needs as well as managing and bringing training programs to successful completion was forged as she directed The Institute for Non-Profit Excellence, a statewide program. In 1991, she formed Cotterall/McGillin Associates, a partnership, to expand the Institute program and respond to other needs of non-profits; she was key in producing customized training programs, trainers' guides and supportive materials, a training video production, newsletters plus meeting management. In these capacities, Susan’s organization provided programming and technical assistance for well over 1,000 non-profit agencies between 1988 and now. Additionally, her work with the national companies, Grant Guides Plus and GrantSeeker.com in recent years expanded her non-profit assessment experience greatly.

Besides her representational services, Susan has also presented her own workshops in the areas of board development, volunteer leadership, time management, business communications, presentation skills and successful meetings. Her client list includes corporate, foundation, municipal, non-profit agencies and individual clients.

Susan is active in her community; her volunteer leadership started while raising her family through PTO and church involvement. Since that time Susan earned her B.A. in behavioral science with minors in business and psychology at Neumann College, graduating summa cum laude. Today, her community activities have included her serving as Board Chair of The Darlington Arts Center and Planning Committee member of the Concord Crossing Homeowners’ Association. Other board experience includes the Neumann College Alumni Executive Board, United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania's Community Services Committee (former committee chair and trustee) and Wallingford-Swarthmore Community Classes. Susan is a 1997 graduate of Leadership Delaware County.

Sam Harrell

Sam Harrell is Senior Consultant and Principal for Capacity Building Associates, a national private consulting group that specializes in organizational and program development services. Sam also serves as Senior Program Officer for Public Policy and Community Partnership at Public/ Private Ventures, a national organization whose mission is to improve the effectiveness of social policies, programs and community initiatives, especially as they affect youth and young adults. In carrying out this mission, P/PV works with philanthropies, the public and business sectors, and nonprofit organizations.

A twelve-year veteran of the faith-based community development field, Sam has distinguished himself by providing leadership to programs and services that have assisted primarily faith-based nonprofits with increasing their organizational viability, sustainability and fundability. Mr. Harrell has also held the positions of:

• Vice President of Community Relations at the Zoe Life Enrichment Foundation, a national foundation he helped develop to provide grants (monetary and in-kind), nonprofit training and technical assistance;
• Senior Program Manager for the Faith-Based Community Economic Development Initiative at the National Congress for Community Economic Development (NCCED), the trade association for the community economic development industry, representing the interests of all community development corporations nationwide; and
• Director of Center for Urban Resources’ Community Impact Institute, which provided nonprofit development training and technical assistance to hundreds of church-based nonprofit social service providers in Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania.

Sam also serves as an adjunct professor on the topic of Fundraising for Eastern University’s Fast Track Masters of Business Administration. He has served on several advisory committees over the years, including the Summit Bank Community Advisory Council, LaSalle University Nonprofit Management Development Committee, Eastern University Curriculum Development Committee, Helping Hands Rescue Mission and Inn Dwelling’s housing and economic development program. He served as an Executive Board member of both Habitat for Humanity North Central Philadelphia and the Agape Community Outreach in South Philadelphia and was a contributor to a practical book on welfare reform (in the late 1990’s) and other filed publications and research papers.

Sam has held the position of Associate Minister at both Ezekiel Baptist Church and Refuge Evangelical Baptist Church (both in Philadelphia). He is co-founder of Bread of Life Bible Fellowship in Swatara Township, PA and was privileged to spend some time in Kenya East Africa as a short-term missionary in the early 1990’s.

Mr. Harrell holds his Bachelor of Science in Bible with an emphasis on Christian Leadership from the Philadelphia Biblical University (PBU); is presently a candidate for his Masters of Science in Bible from PBU and is a loving husband and proud father of two.