Robust Deaf Organisations
Building sustainable and resilient organisations to support the Deaf communities.
Plenary Presenter: Mr Shane Feldman (USA), expert in driving transformative change and strategic growth in mission-driven.
WFD Conference 2025 Session Equips Leaders with Governance, AI, and Fundraising Tools
At the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) Conference 202 on the third day, organisational strategist from Inivee, Mr Shane Feldman led an interactive session titled “Robust Deaf Organizations”, aimed at empowering Deaf National Associations worldwide to strengthen governance, embrace adaptive leadership, integrate artificial intelligence (AI) ethically, and build sustainable funding strategies.
Mr Feldman highlighted the importance of addressing both technical challenges (e.g., learning new systems, improving processes) and adaptive challenges (e.g., changing team culture, improving equity, building trust). Feldman stressed that sustainable organisations go beyond quick fixes, instead fostering long-term resilience through purpose-driven leadership grounded on the following four principles: 1. Purpose Before Organisation, 2. Respect for Ecosystem, 3. Equity Mindset, 4. Authorized power.
On funding, Mr Feldman urged organisations to diversify income sources and strengthen donor relationships by combining measurable impact data with authentic community stories.
Participants during the workshop were able to connect with their related organisations during the afternoon session in a group activity strengthening their networks and sharing their experiences, advances, setbacks with directed questions that were facilitated with the support of the WFD Board Members who participated actively in the session.
The keynote presentation and workshop left participants, from 50 countries attending the Conference, inspired, energised, empowered, connected, and confident in fostering and heightening sustainable deaf organisations capable of making impactful lasting changes following the focused themes of the conference.
