Devon Bank's Free Workshop Series for Nonprofits Forges Connections

When Giovanni Valdez walked into the meeting room of Devon Bank for a workshop on grant writing in April 2026, he was immediately impressed by the welcome the organizers offered.

“I showed up early, and the hospitality from the start was amazing,” says Valdez, who is the development director for the Greater Southwest Development Corporation, a nonprofit that supports nine neighborhoods in the southwest part of Chicago. “They had a nice layout, doughnuts and coffee, and we got a folder with material about what was going to be discussed and material regarding Devon Bank. And the people were wonderful.”

Valdez’s experience at the workshop, called Grant Writing: Crafting Your Not-for-Profit Narrative, is exactly what the organizers were hoping for. The event was the second in a series of workshops for not-for-profits sponsored by Devon Bank, located in the West Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago.

“Chicago has some incredible not-for-profits that are really the backbone of the community,” says Maggie O’Keefe, assistant vice president of treasury management for $436 million-asset Devon Bank. “We figured this project was a great opportunity for us as a community bank to provide an education series that would support the folks right here in our backyard.”

Kicking things off

O’Keefe explains that the idea for the workshop series, called the Not-for-Profit Education Series, emerged in mid-2025 as the bank was considering ways to cultivate new nonprofit clients and further integrate with the community.

Devon Bank has partnered with other organizations to help with the logistics of the workshops. For the first workshop, Grant Writing 101, in September 2025, it partnered with a nonprofit organization that provides technology training and attracted 35 attendees from Chicago-area nonprofits.

“After the workshop in September 2025, we really thought, ‘OK, we have something here that we can build on,’” O’Keefe says. “So, we got the thumbs-up on doing a quarterly series.”

The community bank partnered with Missionful—a consulting firm that helps nonprofit organizations with donor cultivation, campaign planning and other tasks—on the April workshop and plans to work with them going forward. Missionful designs the education components of the workshops and provides the moderator or trainer.

Additionally, Devon Bank does not charge for the events, and Missionful—a bank client—does not charge the bank for its services.

What’s in a workshop

Each workshop begins with networking time over coffee and pastries, something that Valdez found valuable.

“We’re a small nonprofit, and we’re always looking to make connections,” Valdez says. “Sometimes, making a connection is as valuable as what you’re going to learn from the presentation.”

The educational portion of the April workshop, which lasted about an hour, included information on how to identify an organization’s profile, how to draft and improve a grant proposal, and how to communicate with potential donors, Valdez says.

Attendees also broke into smaller groups to discuss the concepts they learned with their peers.

“I was able to speak to folks on my right and my left, hear about their mission, hear about what’s working for them and what’s not working for them. And I was able to share what I’m working on and what I’d like to build out,” Valdez says. “It was a wealth of information.”

Next up

Devon Bank’s latest workshop was on July 21 and focused on donor cultivation. The event, called From Transaction to Trust: The Future of Donor Engagement, was a panel discussion featuring two nonprofit executive directors and one development director, along with a Missionful trainer. 

The workshop covered topics such as moving from cold introductions to deep donor relationships, and leveraging board members and volunteers to strengthen donor relations.

This month, the community bank will hold a workshop on the tools for organizational success. The final workshop of 2026, in December, will be about building an effective board of directors.

“I’m on the board of a local not-for-profit, and building the board is something that our board is dealing with. Building a board is always a challenge,” says Penny Wallingford, Devon Bank’s Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) officer. “I think Maggie and Missionful have been excellent in crafting workshops that answer the questions that nonprofits, especially smaller nonprofits, are struggling with.”

Success on all fronts

Valdez says he has already applied some of the knowledge he gained from April’s workshop.

“When I’m communicating, I [know when to] speak in a donor-centric tone, and when to switch off from donor-centric to community-centric,” he says.

Devon Bank has gained new clients through the workshops, which is a key marker of the program’s success, O’Keefe says. But she is also glad the program has helped Missionful connect with potential clients. 

“Bringing in Missionful from the client side to the educator side and showcasing them has been great,” she says.

Fundamentally, the workshop program has advanced the bank’s mission of serving its community. 

“We’re just really excited about being able to bring people together in a time of need more than ever,” says O’Keefe.

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