Beyond the Bake Sale

On this episode I sat down with Nneka Allen, Nicole Salmon and Joy Gooding, three accomplished black women fundraisers who shared with me a message of hope for young black fundraisers, and young fundraisers of colour who work in the charitable sector.

In our conversation, we spoke about sponsorship vs mentorship, filling our souls, living by our values and virtues, agency, and much more.

If you'd like to learn more, as well as connect with Nneka, Nicole and Joy please visit our show notes for this episode at www.btbs.ca. While you're there, I highly encourage you to take a look at the important work of the black canadian fundraisers' collective, and also look at 'collecting courage: joy, pain, freedom, love that is co-edited by both Nneka and Nicole.

An extended cut of our episode 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.

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.

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.

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.

David believes philanthropy's power belongs to all – not just the 1%.

Working with clients across Canada and internationally, he develops and executes successful strategies for annual giving and legacy marketing programs that build value through meaningful donor relationships and empower donors of modest means to achieve their philanthropic dreams.

David is the founder of Western Canada Fundraising Conference, Canada's only multi-award winning conference for professional fundraisers.

In our conversation, David and I discussed

• Legacy Marketing Fundamentals
• Choosing the right story
• Not talking about death
• Getting your website legacy ready

Dave is Vice President of Advancement at ACHIEVA and an adjunct professor of informatics at Muskingum University's Master of Information Strategy, Systems and Technology program.

A certified Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Master Trainer, he received the Outstanding Fund Raising Executive Award from the AFP Western PA chapter in 2013, has had numerous articles published in professional journals and has written curriculum for The Fund Raising School® at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University.

Dave is a past president of the AFP Western PA chapter and has served in many volunteer roles for AFP International and his own chapter, where he is currently the Vice President of Resources.

He is the current board treasurer for the Brentwood Athletic Association where he also coaches youth softball. He is also serving on the UpPrize Advisory Committee. Dave has served in leadership positions on additional nonprofit boards including the Pittsburgh Planned Giving Council, Young Nonprofit Professionals Network of Pittsburgh (YNPNPgh), APRA Western PA, PA Kiwanis, and Brewhouse Artists.

Meridian Swift was hired for her first volunteer manager job in 1995 because she was "nice." Since that fateful day, she earned the CVA accreditation in 2005, has won several volunteer program awards and has presented workshops on the state and national level. She poured her passion for elevating volunteer programs into authoring two books, The Volunteer Shelf Life and The Disruptive Volunteer Manager. She blogs on her website, VolunteerPlainTalk.com, and because she can't stop talking about volunteerism, she podcasts on the Volunteer Plain Talk podcast. She loves analogies and anything absurd and she never replaces an appliance until it can no longer be duct-taped together and then she cries while bidding her old friend adieu.

Nadia Lloyd is a Toronto-based artist and entrepreneur who is sewing and donating face masks for front line care workers in Toronto. Thanks to community support, and her entrepreneurial and artistic spirit, she's been donating 60 masks/week. Nadia shared with me that her sewing skills and entrepreneurial spirit manifested themselves at age 6 when she started sewing pencil case in order to make money for herself. At age 36, her artistic pursuits took shape when she picked up a paintbrush for the first time...and the rest is history.

Tom Ahern is considered one of North America's leading authorities on donor communications.

Tom works with dozens of clients nationwide every year. They include brand names like the Sierra Club and Save the Children, as well as hospitals, universities, foundations, and local charities. He specializes in bequest marketing; donor communications evaluations; direct mail; newsletter interventions; and case statements for big-ticket campaigns.

Each year, he delivers dozens of workshops on the techniques of (and psychology behind) effective fundraising communications. He is also the author of four well-received books

Tom is also an award-winning magazine journalist, for articles on health, women's rights and other social justice issues. He has his MA and BA in English from Brown University, and a Certificate in Advertising Art from the RI School of Design. His office is in Rhode Island. He writes his books at his second home in France.

In our conversation we discussed

• How fundraising is about activity
• Why now, why us, why anyone would care
• How nonprofits and charities need authenticity

Scott is an award-winning executive director who is passionate about helping not for profits and associations develop and sustain excellent leadership at the board, CEO/Executive Director, and key staff levels.

In the last 15 years, Scott has raised over 25 million dollars with the multiple agencies he has worked with including the Ottawa boys and girls club, the Nanaimo child development centre, and phoenix human services.

Scott has been recognized for his work with the Ottawa Boys and Girls club for over a decade of service with a united way community builder award and has also been recognized with the Queen's Diamond jubilee award, the chamber of commerce non-profit of the year award, and multiple accreditations from the commission of the accreditation for rehabilitation facilities. He also has a music studio named after him for his work with the Ottawa Boys and Girls Club.

Leah Eustace, M.Phil, MInstF, CFRE, ACFRE. President, Blue Canoe Philanthropy

Leah is an idea-generator and strategic thinker with a wide and varied background in charitable fund development. Over the past 25 years, Leah has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for organizations around the world.

After many years as a practitioner, Leah now works as a consultant to the non-profit sector. She partners with her clients to help tell powerful stories through direct marketing, cases for support, legacy giving and social media. She has a particular interest, and extensive experience, in strategic planning and 'looking under the hood' of fundraising programs to help tune up revenue-generation activities and build stronger relationships with donors.

Leah's volunteer work is extensive. She is Immediate Past Chair of the AFP Foundation for Philanthropy – Canada, a Board Member of AFP International, a member of the ACFRE Credentialing Board, and on the Board of the newly formed AFP Canada.

Leah speaks internationally in the areas of legacy giving, donor psychology, leadership, and philanthropic trends. As well, she's a regular contributor to Advancing Philanthropy, Hilborn e-news, and many other publications.

In 2014, Leah became the 101st person in the world to receive the ACFRE accreditation (and only the 8th in Canada). She was also honoured with the 2014 AFP Ottawa Chapter Outstanding Fundraising Executive Award.