WORKSHOP A: Who’s at the Table? Lessons in Community Participation

Community participation is at the heart of community cafés—but what does participation really mean, and how do our choices influence it over time? In this interactive workshop, participants will explore a shared definition of community participation and examine how it shows up in day‑to‑day café operations, programs, and culture.

Using Taste Community Restaurant as a case study, we will take a retrospective look at participation rates and trends over time. Participants will learn about specific adjustments the café has made—such as changes in service model, outreach strategies, volunteer engagement, and guest experience—and how these shifts impacted who participated, how often, and in what ways.

The workshop will then turn outward, creating space for dialogue among attendees. Each café will be invited to reflect on their own participation goals and challenges, share strategies they are currently using to influence participation, and learn from peers across the Community Café network.

Participants will:

• Develop a working, values‑aligned definition of community participation

• Review real participation data and programmatic adjustments from Taste Community Restaurant

• Explore practical strategies cafés use to increase access, belonging, and engagement

• Share successes, challenges, and questions with fellow community café leaders

• Leave with ideas and tools to intentionally shape participation in their own café context

This session is designed for café leaders, staff, and board members who want to better understand participation—not just as a metric, but as a meaningful expression of community connection and impact.

FACILITATOR: Jeff Williams, Taste Project

WORKSHOP B: Evidence to Investment - Using Community Café Research to Build a Funding Pipeline

The community café movement has reached a pivotal moment. For the first time, the growing body of research on the community café model is beginning to rival—and in some areas surpass—the depth of research that has long shaped traditional food bank systems. This shift presents a powerful opportunity: funders are no longer only asking what we do, but what the evidence shows.

This workshop explores how community cafés can effectively use existing research to strengthen grant proposals, deepen funder confidence, and build sustainable funding pipelines. Participants will examine the current community café research landscape and discuss how data, evaluations, and shared learnings can be translated into compelling funding narratives that align with philanthropic priorities.

Beyond simply citing studies, the workshop will focus on how cafés are actively leveraging research to demonstrate impact, articulate systems change, and position their work within a broader movement toward dignity‑centered, community‑driven food access. Participants will share how they are using—or struggling to use—research in grant writing, reporting, and long‑term funding strategy, learning from peers who have successfully embedded evidence into their development work.

Participants will:

• Explore the growing body of community café research and why it matters to funders

• Discuss how this research compares to and challenges traditional food system models

• Learn practical ways to integrate research into grant proposals and funder conversations

• Share approaches for turning evidence into long‑term funding strategy, not just one‑time grants

• Reflect on how research can collectively strengthen the community café movement

This workshop is ideal for executive leaders, development professionals, board members, and anyone responsible for fundraising who wants to move from anecdotal storytelling to evidence‑informed investment—and help shape the future of community cafés as a proven, fundable model.

FACILITATOR: Lori Borchers, Texas Christian University

WORKSHOP C: Why Donors Burn Out (and What That’s Telling Us)

Donor fatigue is often addressed with tactical fixes—fewer emails, clearer asks, better storytelling. While these practices can help alleviate immediate symptoms, they don’t always address the deeper reasons donors disengage over time. This workshop invites participants to look beneath the surface and explore the root causes of donor fatigue, both within individual organizations and across the broader nonprofit and community café ecosystem.

We will begin by briefly naming and reviewing common best practices used to avoid basic donor fatigue, such as cadence management, donor segmentation, transparency, and gratitude. From there, the workshop will shift into a deeper discussion about why fatigue emerges in the first place—examining issues like misaligned expectations, transactional relationships, lack of shared impact ownership, inconsistent messaging, and systemic pressures affecting both donors and organizations.

Through guided discussion, reflection prompts, and shared experience, participants will be encouraged to critically assess how their own fundraising models, narratives, and organizational culture may unintentionally contribute to donor fatigue. The session will emphasize donor relationships not simply as revenue streams, but as long‑term partnerships rooted in trust, meaning, and mutual sustainability.

Participants will:

• Identify common signs and surface‑level causes of donor fatigue

• Examine deeper relational, cultural, and systemic contributors to disengagement

• Reflect on how fundraising practices and organizational habits shape donor experience

• Share challenges and insights with peers across community cafés and nonprofits

• Leave with questions, frameworks, and ideas for addressing donor fatigue at its roots

This workshop is ideal for development staff, executive leaders, board members, and anyone involved in donor engagement who wants to move beyond short‑term fixes and towards healthier, more resilient donor relationships.

FACILITATOR: Julie Williams, One World Everybody Eats

WORKSHOP D: Speaking Funders’ Language - Aligning Community Café Work With What Foundations Say They Need

Recent research from Candid and the Center for Effective Philanthropy reveals a growing disconnect between what nonprofits say they need to survive and thrive—and what foundation leaders believe they are providing. Survey data gathered from hundreds of nonprofit and foundation leaders highlights rising service demand, increasing pressure on nonprofit leadership, and the urgent need for flexible, relationship‑based funding—yet also shows that foundation leaders often underestimate the scale and urgency of these challenges. [candid.org]

At the same time, community cafés are evolving rapidly. Across the network, cafés are responding to increased demand, workforce strain, shifting donor expectations, and a growing emphasis on dignity‑centered food access. More cafés are collecting data, refining participation models, strengthening partnerships, and positioning themselves as both service providers and systems‑change organizations.

This workshop brings these two realities into conversation. Participants will explore key findings from Candid’s research and examine how community cafés can intentionally align their narratives, funding asks, and grant strategies with what funders say they’re prioritizing—while still clearly articulating what cafés actually need. Together, we’ll discuss how cafés are using data, research, and lived experience to reframe conversations around general operating support, sustainability, collaboration, and long‑term impact.

Through facilitated discussion and peer sharing, attendees will reflect on how to use funder research not as a constraint, but as a strategic tool—one that strengthens grant writing, improves funder relationships, and helps build funding pipelines that support the next phase of the community café movement.

Participants will:

• Review key insights from Candid’s research on nonprofit and foundation leader perspectives

• Explore how these findings connect to current trends in community cafés

• Discuss how cafés are adapting funding strategies in response to increased demand and sector pressure

• Share practical ways to align grant language with funder priorities without compromising mission or values

• Leave with ideas for leveraging philanthropic research to strengthen funding conversations and proposals

This workshop is ideal for café leaders, development staff, and board members seeking to better understand the philanthropic landscape—and to position community cafés as evidence‑informed, resilient, and fundable models in a changing food system.

FACILITATOR: Jennifer Earle, Grace Cafe

WORKSHOP E: From Helpers to Co‑Creators: Building Volunteer Programs Through an Asset‑Based Lens

Volunteer programs are often designed around organizational needs—filling shifts, covering roles, and meeting capacity gaps. But what if we reimagined volunteering through the lens of Asset‑Based Community Development (ABCD)—seeing volunteers not just as helpers, but as individuals bringing skills, relationships, and lived experience that strengthen the entire café community?

This workshop explores how community cafés can align their volunteer programs with ABCD principles to build more sustainable, engaged, and community‑rooted models of service. Rather than focusing solely on what cafés lack, participants will examine how to identify and mobilize the assets already present within their volunteer base and broader community.

We will begin by grounding participants in the core principles of ABCD and discussing how they apply specifically within the community café context. From there, the session will move into practical application: exploring how volunteer recruitment, training, roles, and retention strategies can shift when designed around strengths, ownership, and mutual benefit.

Participants will also engage in conversation about sustainability—how asset‑based volunteer programs can reduce burnout, deepen participation, and create pathways for volunteers to grow into leadership roles. Through peer sharing, cafés will reflect on how they are currently engaging volunteers and where opportunities exist to move from transactional volunteering to relational, community‑driven engagement.

Participants will:

• Understand key principles of Asset‑Based Community Development and how they apply to community cafés

• Reframe volunteer programs from need‑based to asset‑based models

• Explore strategies for identifying and activating the gifts, skills, and networks of volunteers

• Discuss approaches for increasing volunteer ownership, retention, and long‑term sustainability

• Share challenges and successes with peers and leave with practical ideas to strengthen their volunteer programs

This workshop is ideal for café leaders, volunteer coordinators, and board members who want to build volunteer programs that are not only effective—but deeply aligned with dignity, belonging, and shared community power.

FACILITATOR: Julie Williams, One World Everybody Eats