Guests: Season 3

Seasons 1 & 2
Season 4

S03E11: Testing your Fundraising Messages with Ronen Tal

Director, Integrated Marketing & Fundraising at Nature Conservancy of Canada 

Like just about everyone in the sector, Ronen fell into fundraising by accident. But it turned out to be a stroke of good luck! He remembers that very first fundraising role as opening his eyes to the beautiful, data-driven puzzle of integrated fundraising.

Ronen currently oversees Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC) Integrated Marketing & Fundraising department. His team interacts with donors at all touchpoints along their journey, from initial awareness of NCC to their first gift and, ultimately, to becoming a monthly donor or leaving a bequest. Ronen’s previous experience includes both charity and agency work, managing direct marketing departments for the former, and overseeing campaigns across all channels at the latter, including face-to-face, outbound telephone, direct mail, planned giving, and digital.

In his own words, he loves the work because “It is complex and fun. Messy and full of opportunities to experiment. An Excel-driven playground that is only limited by our imaginations and the stories we tell donors.”Somewhere within the numbers lies a perfect spot for every organization, where spending is optimized and donors feel engaged. It is the search for this admittedly personal fundraising utopia that drives Ronen.

When Ronen is not analyzing results or developing fundraising campaigns, he is probably throwing himself around a basketball court or baseball diamond with reckless abandon. Or cooking something tasty.

Connect with Ronen

Email: ronen.tal@natureconservancy.ca
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronental-cfre/

S03E10: One Day’s Pay Campaign with Kris Archie

CEO, The Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada

Kris Archie, a Secwepemc and Seme7 woman from the Ts’qescen First Nation, is passionate about heart-based community work and facilitating positive change. Kris is the Chief Executive Officer of The Circle. In all of her roles, Kris works to transform philanthropy and contribute to positive change by creating spaces of learning, relationship-building and activation.

Connect with Kris

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeyktKris

S03E10: One Day’s Pay Campaign with Josh Hensman

Founder, One Day’s Pay

The importance of giving was instilled in Josh by his mother (now deceased) while he grew up in New Zealand. She often gave her time and talent selflessly to older folks and people with disabilities. Not always open to these lessons as a teen and young adult, something must have stuck, as he now strives to give of his time, talent, and donations, in areas he feels passionate about. “Most of our childhood, Mum didn’t have money to give to others, but she sure made up for it in giving her time, talent, and love.” 

Employed by the City of Vancouver for the last 10 years, until a couple of years ago Josh was a Community Youth Worker for the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation. His work there involved creating safe spaces for young people in community centres and working with youth from diverse backgrounds.

He now works with Engineering Services at the City. In his spare time, Josh contributes his the non-profit ChopSwap, and before COVID, was a regular helper with PeaceMeal. He gives financially to Employ to Empower and works with Who Gives a Brick to provide used Lego to children who are less privileged and organizations that work with kids. 

The idea for One Day’s Pay came out of the frustration Josh felt for how Indigenous Peoples are treated in Canada, in particular the disconnect in creating a federal statutory holiday that would not directly benefit those for whom the day is meant to recognise – Indigenous Peoples. This discomfort with inequity started long before, upon hearing about boil water advisories in remote Indigenous communities, and before that, his own experiences growing up in New Zealand alongside Maori friends and classmates.

In describing himself and One Day’s Pay, Josh explains, “I’m someone who had an idea that might make a difference if business leaders and regular Canadians get on board. I hope to create a groundswell of support. I was lucky enough to have some amazing friends who saw the potential impact in One Day’s Pay and so we ran with it. 100% team effort.”

Connect with Josh

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-hensman/

S03E9: Excellence not Perfection, the Hard Work and Impact of Professional Volunteer Leadership with Nicole R Smith

Volunteer Management Leader, Author and Podcast Creator

Nicole is a Panamanian-American, workforce development specialist, published author of Game On! Relentlessly Pursue Your Dreams and the 101 Note-taking Affirmation Journal Series, motivational speaker, blogger podcast host of From The Suggestion Box; Navigating Feedback The Good The Bad and the Say Whaaatttt??? and dancer.  She earned her Bachelor’s degree via a Division I full-ride track scholarship. After graduating, she founded Step It Up! Inc., a non-profit dance organization. Her experience in sports and entertainment, radio, TV and the performing arts has spanned nearly 20 years covering the Chicago, Houston and Miami markets. She has danced and cheered for four Professional and Semi-Professional sports teams, has prepared more than 500 interns to enter the workforce and has inspired crowds upwards of 2000. She was a contributing writer for The Life of a Single Mom for two years and in  October 2020 she was awarded an Emerging Leader Award from Alive Impact Awards  for Volunteer Engagement Professionals and in November 202 joined the Board of the Association for Leaders In Volunteer Engagement.  In 2019, She joined the Board of the Arts and Business Council of Miami, was listed as one of WLRN’s “Local Women Who Inspire You” and was selected as one of Legacy Miami’s Most Prominent and Influential Black Women In Business and Industry of 2019.

Connect with Nicole

S03E8: The $750,000 BBQ with Mike Machargo

Co-Founder and Director of Partnership Development, CHEO BBQ

Mike wants to live in a world where everyone takes the time to extend kindness to others, with the hope that the kindness may be paid forward.

For his entire adult life, Mike has been running the CHEO BBQ. It started from the humble roots in his Grandma’s backyard 27 years ago, to the premier event that it has evolved to today. It is difficult to think of Mike without thinking about the CHEO BBQ, for the most part they are one and the same.

Mike is proud of what the CHEO BBQ has become and his efforts have not gone unnoticed. He has earned him some impressive recognition along the way.

The CHEO BBQ has raised over $750,000 and engaged hundreds of volunteers. 

  • Distinguished Volunteer of the Year Award 2008, City of Ottawa
  • Community Builder Award 2011, United Way Ottawa
  • State Farm Good Neighbour Award 2011, State Farm Ottawa
  • Recipient of the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers, Rideau Hall 2018 
  • His team has received the Order of the Good Bear award twice from the CHEO Foundation

When Mike is not working as a Inside Sales Representative for Paul Rushforth Real Estate, you can find him training for various 10K running events in the city or enjoying some down time with his family.

Mike’s Motto is famous: “Come and have some fun in the sun, because, Hey! It’s for the kids”

Connect with Mike

S03E7: How to Make Philanthropy Better, Building Trust in the Sector and Delusional Altruism with Kris Putnam-Walkerly

President, Putnam Consulting Group

Kris Putnam-Walkerly is a trusted advisor to the world’s leading philanthropists. 

For more than 20 years, wealthy families, ultra-high net worth donors, foundations, Fortune 500 companies, and celebrity activists have sought and benefited from her advice to transform their giving and catapult their impact. 

As President of the Putnam Consulting Group, a philanthropy advisor, speaker, and award-winning author, she’s helped over 100 philanthropists strategically allocate over half a billion dollars in grants and gifts. Additionally, Kris works closely with estate planning attorneys, financial and wealth advisors, and family offices to serve wealthy families who wish to deepen their philanthropic commitments.

Kris has been named one of America’s Top 25 Philanthropy Speakers for the past three years running. She is the author of the book, Delusional Altruism: Why Philanthropists Fail to Achieve Change and What They Can Do To Transform Giving (Wiley, 2020)and Confident Giving: Sage Advice for Funders, and is a Forbes.com contributor on philanthropy.

Kris’s clients include the J.M. Smucker Company, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, National Center for Family Philanthropy, Blue Shield of California, and the Cleveland Foundation.

Connect with Kris

S03E6: Online Event Planning, Engaging Your Community, Virtual Sponsorship and More with Drew Vincent

Founder and Creative, Stay At Home Fundraising

Drew is the Founder and Creative behind Stay At Home Fundraising. 

Drew and his team’s first event the Stay at Home Gala was born out of necessity to support charitable endeavours at the start of COVID. Launching March 27th after 11 days of planning, 

Since March of 2020 Stay at Home Fundraising has worked with over 45 communities and organizations to help make engaging and innovative online events a reality, helping organizations raise over 1.6 Million for their cause.

Drew has a background in large scale events including Ironman Triathlons and TEDx, as well as a Masters Degree in International Business From the University of Worms in Germany.

Connect with Drew

S03E5: Using Lived Experiences, Tactful Resource Management and Avoiding Mission Drift with Candies Kotchapaw

Founder and Executive Director, Developing Young Leaders of Tomorrow, Today (DYLOTT)

Candies Kotchapaw is a passionate change maker focused on amplifying the excellence within Black communities in Canada and beyond. She holds a Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in social work from York University, and a Diploma in Child and Youth Work from George Brown College. 

Candies’ work centers around education, training, and mentorship in careers where Black talents are stereotypically under-represented. Over the course of the last 3 years, she has successfully spearheaded the development of two community-based leadership development programs. #LeadLikeAGirl is a program for Black girls ages 8-17. Young girls in this program are mentored by Black women and allied women to disrupt the gender wage disparity in professional careers. From her own lived experience of lack of access to the diplomatic education and training space, she developed the Black Diplomats Academy for young professionals interested in careers in diplomacy and negotiation.

Connect with Candies

Bailey-Greenspon

S03E4: Involving More Young Women on Boards with Bailey Greenspon

Co-CEO at G(irls)20

Bailey Greenspon is the acting Co-CEO at G(irls)20. She has served in progressive leadership roles overseeing programming and global engagement at G(irls)20 since 2017. With a background in gender equality and development, Bailey has worked with young leaders across the G20, in West Africa, South Asia, and Canada. She is a global advocate for young women’s economic participation and is advancing intersectional, gender-based policies through the G20’s Women’s Engagement Group as the Canadian delegate, as a former advisor to the Department for Women and Gender Equality’s (WAGE) GBA+ Forum, at Canada’s G7 Youth Engagement Group. Bailey is also a proud ambassador for her hometown Toronto. She is a Founding Advisor to Progress Toronto and for the Institute for Canadian Citizenship’s 6 Degrees, and is most likely found cycling through Toronto ravines.

Connect with Bailey

S03E4: Involving More Young Women on Boards with Sarah Mariani

Sarah Mariani is an emerging voice on inclusive innovation. She leads digital transformation projects at North America’s largest urban innovation hub, is an Executive at Young Diplomats of Canada, and a Girls on Boards program participant currently seated at the Canadian Women’s Foundation. Through the Munk School of Global Affairs, Sarah has published research on youth entrepreneurship, public-sector digitalization and the global governance of artificial intelligence. She is a passionate leader and mentor, actively working to bring diverse, youth voices to decision-making tables around the world.

Connect with Sarah

S03E3: Our Experiences as Young Black Fundraisers with Camila Pereira, Ph.D

Senior Fundraising Professional 

Born and raised in Brazil, Camila comes from a very mixed family including Black, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Indigenous. She understood from a very young age that race relations, identity and gender roles were central not only to her family but to herself and that skin color in Brazil dictates your role, future and existence within society. 

Since childhood Camila has been involved in philanthropy through her family’s community initiatives. Her career in the nonprofit sector is a means to contribute towards the eradication of all forms of prejudice preventing the advancement and betterment of humankind; she is a senior fundraising professional in Toronto and a coach to Brazilians involved in philanthropy and fundraising in Brazil and Canada. Camila holds a PhD in Public Policy/Public Administration & International Relations from Howard University-USA.

Alongside her career, Camila keeps a strong connection with her family in Brazil and loves spending time with her husband – Adrian and cat – Lila and travelling. 

Connect with Camila

S03E3: Our Experiences as Young Black Fundraisers with Melissa Leite

Senior Manager, Philanthropy – Individual Giving at Women’s College Hospital Foundation

Melissa is a Certified Fundraising Executive committed to creating a charitable sector that is inclusive, equitable, and reflective of the communities it serves. Melissa has spent the better part of her career in social change philanthropy, developing expertise in major gifts, donor advised funds, planned giving, annual giving, and global philanthropy. Melissa takes great pride in her Cape Verdean roots and is a member of the Black Canadian Fundraisers Collective. 

Connect with Melissa

S03E3: Our Experiences as Young Black Fundraisers with Adya Afanou

Afanou – (Pronounced A – FAN – OU)

Fundraising consultant at BNP Philanthropic Performance 

Adya Afanou is an enthusiastic and dedicated philanthropic management professional with over fifteen years of experience in fundraising, marketing and event management.

Her extensive experience working and volunteering with multiple NPOs in Quebec, Ontario, and West Africa has triggered a passion for creating connection points with audiences and building relationships across countries, sectors, and industries.

Adya is a cinephile, an avid consumer of pop culture and a bookworm! She reads about a multitude of subjects− arts & culture, business, sciences, international development, social challenges and community building; and is always on the lookout for global communications, marketing, and fundraising trends.

She sits on the board of directors of Twice Upon a Time, a volunteer-run organization dedicated to supporting early literacy skills and providing free books to Ottawa children under 12 years old.

Connect with Adya

S03E2: A Message of Hope to Young Black Fundraisers – Nicole Salmon

An avid reader, gardener and sports enthusiast, Nicole is anchored by family and a deep appreciation of strong personal relationships. She embraces her natural curiosity with a thirst for variety and new challenges. A skilled presenter and communicator, her work style is collaborative and she places a high value on building relationships based on truth, respect, integrity and trust. 

She has spent the majority of her professional life working within the non-profit sector with over twenty-five years of fundraising and senior leadership experience. In 2014, Nicole founded Boundless Philanthropy, a fundraising consultancy providing a range of services, including interim leadership, fund development strategy support and planning, and board and leadership development. Prior to founding the consultancy, she was Director of Fund Development at Oxfam Canada. 

She serves on the board of Realize, an organization working to improve the lives of people living with HIV and other episodic conditions, and is Board Chair of WellFort Community Health Services. A Book Review Panelist with The Charity Report Literary Hub, she is also a co-editor of the soon to be released book (November 2020) called Collectng Courage: Joy, Pain, Freedom, Love (www.collectingcourage.org) which features first person narratives of 14 Black fundraisers from Canada and the United States. She is also an inspired member of a Black Canadian Fundraisers Collective.

Connect with Nicole

S03E2: A Message of Hope to Young Black Fundraisers – Nneka Allen

Nneka Allen is a Black woman, a descendant of the Underground Railroad, an Ojibwa of Anderson Nation, a Mother and a sixth generation Canadian.

Born in the 70’s, Nneka was raised during a time of Black power and acute political awareness in North America. As a result, the air in her childhood home was generous, brilliant and proud. Her parents and their siblings with great intentionality poured their consciousness into her multi-ethnic identity. 

As a lover of justice, Nneka has inspired philanthropy in the non-profit sector for 20 years. She honours the spirit of generosity in all people and is passionate about the many contributions of Black Canadian philanthropists and fundraisers. 

Nneka is an author and joint editor of a book featuring the first person narratives of 14 Black fundraisers in the United States and Canada called Collecting Courage: Joy, Pain,Freedom, Love (collectingcourage.org). She is also one of the founding members of the Black Canadian Fundraisers Collective, a group dedicated to the advancement of Black fundraising professionals.

Nneka is also the principal and founder of The Empathy Agency (theempathyagency.ca) where she helps organizations deliver more fairly on their mission and vision by coaching leaders and their teams to explore the impact identity has on organizational culture and equity outcomes.

Nneka’s ultimate joy is her daughter Destiny, an Environmental Scientist working with Indigenous communities in British Columbia. Together Destiny and Nneka continue their family legacy of philanthropy and activism in Canada.

Connect with Nneka

S03E2: A Message of Hope to Young Black Fundraisers – Joy Gooding

Joy Gooding currently works at Seneca College, and is responsible for securing major gifts for programming, capital initiatives, sponsorships and financial aid. She has held senior fundraising positions at The Next 36, Toronto International Film Festival and JAZZ.FM91. Her experience includes annual and major gifts fundraising, donor relations, project management, event planning, and volunteer management. Throughout her career Joy oversaw a variety of annual programs including direct mail, telemarketing, on-air campaigns, on-line and special event fundraising. Joy graduated with honours from both Radio and Television Broadcasting at Seneca and Fundraising and Volunteer Management at George Brown College. Joy sees her role as a facilitator, helping organizations achieve their marketing and social responsibility goals and inspiring individuals to realize their philanthropic priorities.

When not at work, Joy’s interests include travelling, film, and recently, astronomy.

Connect with Joy

Senior Development Officer, Seneca College
Phone Number: 416-491-5050 x 77945
Email: joy.gooding@senecacollege.ca

S03E1: The $200,000 Birthday Party with Logan Hussein

Logan Hussein had a complicated arrival on November 26, 2008 at the Queensway Carleton Hospital. He was born with a collapsed lung and was immediately taken to CHEO’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in a specialized incubator. Logan remained in the NICU for nine days.

From the day Sue and Wael Hussein took Logan home from the NICU, they knew their lives would never be the same. Filled with gratitude on their son’s recovery, they wanted to find a way to give back to CHEO, help save the lives of other children and give families hope.

Instead of traditional fundraising options, such as golf tournaments, auctions or formal dinners, the Hussein’s decided to have an event that was more unique and personalized for their family and friends.

For Logan’s first birthday, the Hussein’s hosted their first fundraiser, asking that guests make donations to CHEO’s NICU in lieu of gifts. 12 years later, Logan has established a lifetime of fundraising for CHEO, his birthday fundraiser has since become an annual tradition.

Logan’s ultimate goal is to raise $200,000 for a Neonatal Transport Incubator.

Logan is the youngest recipient of the CHEO Foundation’s ORDER of the GOOD BEAR. He also participates each year in the CHEO Telethon and his family participates in CN Cycle for CHEO. At the 2019 AFP Ottawa Philanthropy Awards, Logan was awarded the Youth Philanthropy Award.

Connect with Logan