It all started with a bake sale. An origin story doesn’t usually start that way, yet surely enough that’s how this one did.
Christian and Nash stuffed a stale, frosted, sugar-filled cupcake into their mouth for another charity bake sale on their university campus, looked at each other and said “enough is enough”
While it wasn’t immediate, Christian and Nash knew that they had to do something to stop the epidemic of bake sales, selling chocolate bars and almonds, and shaking people down for change in their campus hallways.
So they began learning from the best in the field, trying and experimenting with fundraising ideas and decided to start a podcast to capture some of the things they and their friends were doing.
Over our careers, we’ve helped raise over a million dollars for various charitable and nonprofit causes; mobilized hundreds of volunteers to give thousands of hours; and raise awareness for causes that we’ve been passionate about.
That’s where Beyond the Bake Sale was born out of: to help those who think that the bake sale is adequate and that it’s the only way to help. We reject the low overhead, high amount to the cause, and “doing good” is good enough mentality and instead embrace the need to be effective and impactful in a measurable way. So in everything we do, that’s what we aim for, and constantly believe that we’d much rather choke on greatness than swallow mediocrity.
We hope you share in this vision of ours and can move to a point where we don’t all put on a freshman 15 (or 30) from charity bake sales.
Christian Robillard
Christian is a disciple of excellent fundraising , event planner out of necessity, and speaker and authority on the charitable sector. He’s raised money for causes from children’s health care, to youth civic engagement, to men’s health, and empowered countless rookie community fundraisers to go out into their communities and do something for the causes they care about. Christian specializes in peer to peer fundraising events, cause sponsorship, and fundraising strategy development. He’s a frequent speaker on fundraising, sponsorship the charitable sector, and the power of storytelling. He’s advised numerous organizations on how to amp up their fundraising programs, and even developed a few from the ground up. He’s a recipient of the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers, the #OC150 award by the Government of Ontario, the Barbara McInnes Jr Superhero Award, and a number of other accolades for helping to build a smarter, more caring nation.
Nash Mendes
Nashveen (Nash) Mendes is a marketing and PR expert, creative strategist and communications professional. Nash has a diploma from Algonquin College in Public Relations, as well as a degree from Carleton University in Political Science. Nash has designed awareness campaigns, as well as guerilla marketing activations for a number of different causes to raise their profile in a significant way. Nash has also successfully led, and mobilized, hundreds of volunteers for various charitable and nonprofit causes, and motivated them to do the most good in the community.
Together, Christian and Nash have mobilized hundreds of volunteers, directed thousands of volunteer hours, and raised over a million dollars for various charitable and nonprofit causes. They’re curious about how people can do good better, as well as how individuals and groups can move beyond the bake sale, and raise more time, talent, treasure and awareness for the causes they care about.
We can’t wait for you to join us as we aim to put the “fun” back into “fundraising”, and strive to move beyond the bake sale
Team Members
No organization can succeed without its members. We are proud to have these individuals as a part of our team!
Adam Janes
Adam comes to BTBS with almost 20 years of service in not for profit leadership – specifically within the Voluntary Sector.
Will the recruitment, training and leadership of thousands of volunteers, Adam’s work has led to hundreds of thousands of hours of work being done in the community: from running community fundraisers, food drives, to trips to first nations reserves in Northern Saskatchewan, work parties and the leadership of multi-site arts, recreation and leadership programs here in the city.
Currently Adam can be found working at Christie Lake Kids, giving back as a facilitator and speaker at Volunteer Ottawa and on the board of the Ottawa Administrators of Volunteer Resources. When he is not cooking up more ways to make a difference in the community Adam is growing his own little community at home with his wife Christa and kids Ivy, Julia and Caleb (age 12,11 and 9).
Dipeshwar Singh
Dipeshwar (Dipesh) Singh has extensive experience volunteering for organizations that educate and support youth. Dipesh has worked with organizations such as Best Buy, The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), and tutoring international students. With Best Buy, Dipesh educating young people in cybersecurity as an instructor. With CHEO, Dipesh helped organize and fundraise for CHEO’s Dance Marathon along with other community roles.
Dipesh is a graduate of the Computer Programming diploma program from Algonquin College. Currently, he is pursuing further education in Business Administration.
As Beyond the Bake Sale’s digital marketing coordinator, he puts his skills in social media content creation/curation, SEO and web-programming.
