CRANBERRY TWP — The Pittsburgh North Regional Chamber of Commerce will sponsor a conference next week to help nonprofit groups get grants.

It will be July 29 at The Chadwick building in Wexford, starting at 9 a.m.

Megan Julius, the marketing director for the chamber, said this year’s event will focus more on networking between individuals and one-on-one interactions instead of a seminar-like approach.

“We went away from the keynote speaker model and instead invited them to network,” she said. “One of the challenges we see is that people don’t have the time to get out there and meet other business people. This is the first year we’ve tried this, and it’s all about relationship building.”

Julius stressed that the conference is for everybody, not just nonprofit groups.

While the day will focus primarily on small group networking, there will be several sessions with business leaders.

The morning sessions will include Karen Rath of Huntington Bank, who will speak about planning, and Paul Harris and Debbie Walker from Alcoa, who will discuss procedures for getting grants and corporate partnerships.

The afternoon session will include a seminar on creative fundraising presented by Bri Cole of the Junior Achievement of North California. She will also talk about social media marketing.

There also be a panel featuring Judy Eakin, the executive director of HEARTH; Grace Coleman, the executive director at Crisis Center North, and Fay Morgan, president and CEO of the Passavant Hospital Foundation.

Becky Morella, a past chair of the chamber board, said, “The nonprofit conference is designed to help nonprofits within our regional business footprint to maximize their presence in the community, initiative strategic partnerships and grow funding.”

To register, visit the chamber’s website or call the organization at 724-934-9700.

More than 100 people are expected to attend which is good because nonprofit organizations make up a large number of the chamber’s members.

“We have a large nonprofit section within the chamber itself, and we have to do as much as we can for all of our members to market them,” she said. “It’s also important to give back to the community, and this is one little way we can do that.”