In addition to being a director, you’re a Certified Fundraising Executive. What traits or tactics make an effective fundraising team?

Fritz: The use of volunteers. It’s something my mentors taught me. People give to people, and oftentimes, the best person to make an ask is a peer, not just someone representing the cause. It’s definitely more common to use volunteers in a campaign context.

Also, every nonprofit has a board, but those volunteer boards are not always used in a fundraising capacity. You need to train your board members, who are arguably the closest to your organization in terms of volunteering. You need to be equipping them with how to tell their story, how to be compelling, how to speak about your organization.

You worked at McGill University for 13 years. When did you begin thinking of moving beyond that?

Fritz: One of the things with staying at McGill as long as I did was that I had a lot of different jobs. I had six different titles. One thing about career change or role change is that you should try to look within your own organization for new roles if you can. Sometimes people’s first instinct is to work somewhere else, but maybe you can work within the same place in a different role.

It’s important to get exposure to different types of fundraising and find a type that matches your interests. There are fundraising roles for introverts and for extroverts. I think if more people knew that, more people might think about careers in professional fundraising.

Do you think there was enough exposure to different parts of fundraising in the MPNL program? What are your biggest takeaways from the fundraising courses?

Fritz: If you want to work with nonprofits, you need to understand how fundraising is crucial to them. I’d say the intro course (PANL 5301) is a must for everyone. If you have a background in fundraising, you absolutely need to take the advanced course (PANL 5306), because it goes beyond basics. It gets into advanced topics, such as power in philanthropy, as well as trust-based philanthropy and community-centric giving models – topics that break down long-standing power dynamics. We need our incoming professionals to have these concepts in their heads before they enter the field.

Can you speak more about the principle of trust that incoming professionals need?Ěý

Fritz: You need to be transparent with your donors. Some donors will fund just new projects, but many nonprofits are working on shoestring budgets and need other kinds of funds. This over-emphasis by many donors on new projects means that you get funding for a new program but don’t have money to pay for your location or your water bill. Mission fundraising is important; rebalancing philanthropy to recognize mission fundraising is important.

How did the pandemic affect fundraising, and how do you think it’s going to affect the sector long-term?

Fritz: The pandemic forced a number of organizations to update their online giving platforms, and many have transitioned away from events. Many organizations used to rely on five or six labor-intensive fundraising events during a year. They’ve now put those efforts and resources into online giving, major-gifts programs and other forms of philanthropy, particularly at smaller organizations. That’s an important transition, because events are good at raising awareness and money, but they take a lot of effort – effort that could be better spent focusing on major gifts, on volunteers and on better forms of philanthropy.

Amanda Fritz is on . Sherlyn Assam is on and .

How does stewardship and donor relations differ in a billion-dollar campaign? Do you find a significant change depending on the campaigns, like fundraising for facilities rather than for research or events?

Peacock: I’d say the terminology and the language we use is different, and how we go about proposing and pitching the redevelopment of our campus, compared to research or events, are different. Our biggest issue is that it’s going to be a few years until the campus is fully redeveloped. We have to recognize donors in a way that’s meaningful while the building won’t necessarily be there yet. Figuring out digital recognition, print recognition, and how to move recognition in the current hospital over to the new hospital has been an interesting project for me. Also, we ensure that our donors are clearly communicated with and that they feel recognized during this interim stage of our campaign.

What are challenges with the communications aspect of fundraising for such a campaign?

Peacock: I’d say the length of the campaign is part of the struggle to keep donors engaged. Also, the vast number of donors we have, and keeping their data and requests in line to ensure we’re providing the best donor experience — and making every single donor feel special and not like a number on a checklist. We pride ourselves on having that bespoke donor experience. It’s very customer-experience-centric. We want to get to the core of trying to make people feel special, and create more programs to enhance their individual experiences.

What fundraising model and tactics are SickKids Foundation adopting?

Peacock: We’re focused on basics in regards to thank-you letters and thank-you phone calls. We try to hand-sign every thank-you, and we physically mail them. Yes, that’s strenuous and considered “old school” — it can take a lot of time and energy — but the return can’t be compared to something digital. Anytime we mail anything to a donor, whether that be an impact report, an invitation or tax receipt, we try to add a handwritten note from the respective relationship manager. Throughout the year, we’ll send postcards of patients’ stories. And all of these don’t have another ask attached to them. We think this is increasingly important to show value and show we’re not knocking on their door for another donation.

What do you consider the most rewarding part of this campaign, considering you have yet to reach the goal?

Peacock: Working with the families and seeing them come together to name something or recognize a tribute child, or a child currently undergoing treatment — that, to me, is huge. I had the privilege of working with one family that wants to name a specific area in a cancer unit in honour of their child. Hearing that story and understanding it makes an impact on what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. They’re rallying their community to raise a large sum of money, and being able to share their vision and make it come to life has been fun and extremely rewarding. When I learn more about a family or organization that has a certain tie to the hospital, I can create something special for them, something that makes them remember they’re important, something meaningful.

How has the pandemic affected the campaign?

Peacock: We’ve been fortunate, as we could continue to focus on our core fundraising for the campaign and evolve as the COVID pandemic changed. SickKids has led a lot of research about COVID. With similar children’s hospitals, we’ve led the research of COVID in children. We’re nimble as a foundation and hospital, because we need to be quick to respond to communication coming from the government and infectious-disease leaders in the paediatric space. Luckily, we had a lot of interest in how our building was going. COVID hasn’t affected our fundraising too much; we just pivoted in the short term. There’s been research into vaccines, PPE, decontamination and COVID-testing units. It brought out many community members who might not have been able to donate funds in the past; they donated PPE or food for example. People just wanted to help, and it was beautiful to see our community expand.

Tori Peacock is on . Sherlyn Assam is on and . Photos are courtesy of Peacock and SickKids Foundation.

What drew you to the agrifood industry, and how long have you been involved?

Keena: I was born and raised in Manitoba, so this interest in agriculture and in Canada as a global leader in agriculture and food was always present. What drew me to the industry is the role of the agriculture industry to drive economic opportunity for Canadians.

Is there anything that surprised you about the agricultural landscape, now that you work behind the scenes?ĚýĚý

Keena: As an undergrad, I learned about how nuanced the industry was,Ěýand about how much technology, financial expertise and insight were required to make the decisions involved in food production, processing and marketing. But the depth of it did surprise me. There’s so much behind the scenes, compared to what the average Canadian sees when driving down the highway in the summer.

This is similar to my experience in the MPNL program, as I wasn’t aware of the breadth and depth of expertise and research required in the nonprofit sector. The program exposed me to resources for the sector, research on sector needs and government mandates, and to future needs related to funder objectives and giving trends. The nonprofit and charitable sector in Canada makes up 8.1 percent of our national GDP and employs almost 10 percent of our labour force; it’s an important area for Canadians and our economy.

How does changing landscapes and political wills affect EMILI, the different organizations it partners with, and your leadership?

Keena: There’s an ever-changing landscape, whether it’s government objectives or mandates, or other funders and grantors. Staying aligned with objectives and going through fundraising processes, while staying true to EMILI’s vision and mandate, can be a bit of a maze to navigate. Part of that challenge is keeping up with how things are changing, being able to communicate effectively about what EMILI is doing well, and why it matters to the people we work with. There’s a need to stay nimble. We have to be strategic and show value and alignment in the present and keep an eye on our long-term vision and how we can work to realize it.

Where would you say EMILI will be in the next five to 10 years, after goals shifted with the pandemic?Ěý

Keena: Well, the pandemic accelerated transformations, some of which would have happened over one year, instead of all at once. The pandemic has allowed us to reach more people in more places and raise the profile of digital agriculture innovators in the Prairies. We adjusted to a virtual environment for our conferences, during which we increase awareness about agricultural opportunities and technological innovations.

EMILI mostly works in Manitoba and with partners across the Prairies to expand the digital agricultural ecosystem. We’re going to keep building on this work — and scale elements of our work across Canada.

How do you think the MPNL program contributed to the way you work as a professional in the nonprofit sector?

Keena: I loved my experience at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University, an incredible learning institution. Because of its long history, its geographic location in our capital city, andĚýits world-class scholars, ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ is an incredible place to learn from world-class experts, hear from global leaders and experience the connectedness of Ottawa. I had the opportunity to learn from leading researchers who I’d previously read the work of, like Dr. Susan Phillips and Dr. Callum Carmichael. We also heard from industry leaders who taught us based on their lifetimes of experience. There were many speakers who applied the theory we were learning.

ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ broadened my perspective about what’s possible and available in the nonprofit sector. Now, I know people who I went to school with who work in diverse sectors, but we have similar challenges, because we’re under the banner of “nonprofit.” We can learn from people who are either more advanced in dealing with an issue or have had success in addressing it — or maybe have tried something that wasn’t very successful and can help us to avoid a misstep. That has been extremely valuable, and I’m sure it will continue as everyone advances in their respective areas. I didn’t know how transformational my experience at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ was going to be when I started the program. I’m so grateful for the program, what I learned, how I was taught and the fellow students who I met along the way.

Jacqueline Keena is on .ĚýSherlyn Assam is on and . Photo of Manitoba farm is courtesy of Pete McBride.

Harmony House is the only second-stage shelter in Ottawa. What are some of the barriers to second-stage, domestic-violence shelters?

Eskritt: The province wasn’t funding them anymore. We were lucky, because we had private donors who kept us afloat. Government policies actually matter: the police budget is about $332 million, and meanwhile, 160 agencies that operate in the city have to compete for $25 million. That’s quite a disparity. We’re trying to get people into housing, but there’s a housing crisis; Ottawa Community Housing has a seven- to 10-year waitlist. There’s just nowhere for people to go.

But now we’re in the time of COVID, where domestic violence got pushed to the forefront. It tripled during the pandemic. We had a woman murdered in this country every two and a half days during the pandemic. But we’re not counting on it staying this way forever. There’s going to be mental health services that need support, children that need support, elderly people that need support, newcomers — everybody’s going to be competing for these dollars

With agencies competing for money, do you find success with foundation grants for your organization?

Eskritt: We find huge success with grants. We find that foundations are good for funding projects. During the school closures, we transformed our boardroom into a school classroom. We offered free laptops and a teacher to be in our classroom every day to help kids whose parents couldn’t help them at school for whatever reason. They were traumatized and they couldn’t get up — and they spoke maybe five languages, but English just wasn’t their best one — or they had bigger problems to worry about besides making sure their kids were sitting in front of a computer. So, the foundations really stepped up to support education.

The same with our food bank. We moved from giving people unsaleable food that you often get at food banks, and we started giving direct gift cards to buy the food they need. We thought: “Go make it work for your family, not just what we think you might need.” Foundations are good for pilot projects and going above and beyond what we’d normally do. But you can’t count on them for core funding, because they’re being pushed and pulled in many directions.

What other projects had to shift gears with COVID? What are you working on for the future?

Eskritt: The thing you need when you’re healing from trauma is community. That’s the thing that will make your pieces come together again. That’s what COVID robbed us of. We weren’t allowed to have communal meals, we had limited programs, and services went virtual. A lot of the people we deal with have trauma around screens, whether they were being filmed against their wills, having trackers put on their equipment, or not trusting tech anymore because their partner used it against them. It was really hard on everybody because we wanted to see them, they wanted to see us, and it just wasn’t going to happen the way we wanted it to.

We ended up hiring a peer support worker for the first time. She’s a woman who had been at Harmony Hope for years in the past, but came back to volunteer. We offered her a full-time position to help the women get through COVID, so there was always somebody to call, always someone available on video call. Now that we’re transitioning back, we’re bringing back in-person programming. We’ve been lucky that Rogers donated a bunch of phones and plans, so we could give women clean technology if they were exiting an abusive situation, or thinking about it but their partners were monitoring their messages.

Now that we can have people inside again, I’m instituting a new program where, in order to live in Harmony House, people have to teach a course of their own choosing. It’s because they’re all brilliant. You have to be to survive, and there has to be something you can teach someone else, whether it’s a craft, how to knit, or an Algonquin language. They have to do it for an hour once a month just to reinforce that they are capable of running something.

Our boys’ program has also been successful because we hired a young man who grew up here. Now the little gents who have never had a positive man in their life can have someone show them how to be strong, but also how to hug, and cry, and cook, and run.

Can you speak more about the process of incorporating those with lived experience as your employees?

Eskritt: Everybody who works here has been touched by trauma; we have lived experience. This peer support worker we just hired is the only one on staff who has lived here, and this job was specifically for somebody who has lived at Harmony House. We also have a position on the board that’s held specifically for somebody who has graduated from our housing, and that’s really important to us. Most people on the board have either experienced, or are close to someone who experienced domestic violence. We tend to hire people who understand it internally, more so than hiring people going through school.

How did the MPNL program contribute to the work you do in your organization?

Eskritt: I’m a radical. When you’re a radical, you need that paper behind you. They may never respect what you have to say, but they know you’re not stupid. I was looking for respect from my colleagues because I had lived experience and two degrees, but I was struggling to make ends meet. I knew I was an expert, so I decided to upgrade my education. Now, I’m included on national panels and I’m an international speaker. I was able to take the microphone because I had initials after my name. Not that it’s fair. Not that it’s correct. Not that the smartest people get it. I was lucky to have the support of my family and have great success with school.

It was also really great to experience solidarity with other nonprofit professionals who don’t agree with the industry’s rules, and now we get to go change it, because we’re in charge now. It was exciting.

Ray Eskritt is on . Sherlyn Assam is on and . Photos are courtesy of Eskritt and Harmony House annual report.

How has COVID-19 impacted the university’s work?

COVID-19 has impacted every corner of the University of Saskatchewan. All classes were moved to remote delivery and the campus was closed, something that has never happened in the university’s 113-year history. Except for a few essential services (custodial, protective services, animal care and critical research related to the pandemic), all staff and faculty are now working remotely. Of course, USask isn’t alone in this, all universities across Canada, North America and the world are facing these same challenges. The pandemic has led to difficult decisions around staffing and will continue to have a serious impact on the university’s finances.

In most cases, universities closed overnight. Staff were working seven days a week to manage this abrupt change while ensuring students could still finish their term and important COVID-19 research could continue. Universities across Canada are working on plans to slowly open campuses and determining how to ensure safe physical distancing while continuing to provide the labratory and clinical training necessary for students to receive their education.

The pandemic also greatly affects the large number of international students that come to Canada for their post-secondary education. With international travel unlikely to open any time soon, universities across the country that depend on those students for their enrolment numbers will be significantly impacted. Institutions are considering whether residences could make space for a two-week isolation period after students arrive from out of the country or if there are alternatives.

The effects of this pandemic will be seen in post-secondary education for a long time.

What are some of the steps your organization is taking to adapt to the new environment presented by COVID-19?

USask has developed an institutional planning committee to organize the academic term. Part of this planning includes provisions for the possibility that another rapid increase in cases could occur as society begins to relax pandemic restrictions and the university may need to abruptly shut down again.

Most signs indicate that it will be quite some time, likely into 2021, before gatherings larger than 100 people are permitted. It will take some time to realize what this means for both large university classes but also crowded hallways, residence halls and communal eating spaces. All units within the university need to be working together to understand what this new environment means for students, faculty and staff.

I believe we will see a lot of people become more tech-savvy and able to connect with their co-workers using online tools. Some of these kinds of collaborative applications, like Microsoft Teams and Slack, have been around for a long time but people didn’t feel they had the time or interest in learning to use them. I believe these kinds of productivity tools will continue to help people work together even after we’re able to connect in person again.

What are lessons that sector leaders should prepare to mitigate situations?

I don’t think the post-pandemic world will be the same as the pre-pandemic world. Priorities have shifted and our economy is going to be struggling for quite some time after this. I don’t believe this is the only global health scare we will see and there are likely to be some permanent changes to how society operates to better prepare us for anything like this in the future.

With the quick shift to complete online learning within universities and the likelihood of continued remote learning, institutions should be better prepared to handle this kind of situation in the future.

Our university benefitted from having set up an emergency management structure ahead of this pandemic (for previous potential disruptions). This was an incredible asset. It meant that there was a team ready to go when it became clear that this pandemic would be affecting our province. These groups have been crucial to effective decision-making and collaboration across the entire University. Being forward-thinking can be a challenge for large institutions, but we can and will learn from this monumental experience and will be better prepared for future crises.

How has your sector adapted since the COVID-19 crisis started?

The onset of the pandemic prompted human-service organizations to re-examine the needs of beneficiaries, find new ways of using resources and form meaningful partnerships with other organizations to meet community needs. This is certainly true of Causeway. The priorities of a large portion of our beneficiaries shifted from searching for work to accessing basic necessities, such as food. This meant we needed to shift, too.

Can you explain a success story in terms of adapting to the COVID-19 crisis in your sector?

Leveraging our catering social enterprise, , we secured temporary funding to deliver hampers of essential items to our clients. The flexibility of a funder also enabled us to partner with Parkdale Food Centre to help deliver food, and prepare meals for the . By adapting in this way, we were able to continue employing clients in a social enterprise that otherwise could not carry out its business due to COVID-19 restrictions. By looking at community needs rather than simply organizational needs, our sub-sector is better equipped to face the new landscape.

Juliana Rodger is on and . Photos are courtesy of Causeway Foundation.

How has your sector adapted since the COVID-19 crisis started?

I’ve continued to work steadily, if not more, since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. Our team at TRC, a disaster-response organization, has found new ways to serve communities to help reduce the spread of the virus and continue with our mission. The challenge we face, which is not unique to our organization, is how do we continue to fundraise with restricted travel and without in-person events? The absence of these traditional networking opportunities and personal touchpoints with donors has prompted us to re-evaluate how we communicate and has forced us to consider new platforms for engagement.

Can you explain a success story in terms of adapting to the COVID-19 crisis in your sector?

The sector-specific data and resources that and have published continue to help us better understand that we aren’t alone in this struggle and that charities across the country are growing as a result of having to rethink traditional fundraising practice. While society continues to adapt to its new normal, I encourage charities to embrace the discomfort and see this as an opportunity to grow through innovation.

Ashley Pardy-Serre is on and Team Rubicon is on and . Photo is courtesy of Team Rubicon Canada.

How has COVID-19 impacted the work of your organization?

COVID-19 has had a negative impact on the Foundation’s financial returns from investments, although we’ve rebounded somewhat since March 2020. The transition to a 100% remote work environment, including staff working at home, was smooth because we’d already had the flexibility to work remotely. The pandemic also re-focused our funding efforts: we launched a phased, funding package that focuses on emergency response and that supports organizations in our strategic sectors, including in Indigenous communities. Phase 1, now complete, supported rapid-response initiatives related to the pandemic. Phase 2 supports critical infrastructure organizations and is still in the works. Phase 3, supporting Indigenous communities, is also taking shape as we work alongside Indigenous partners.

What are the steps your organization is taking to adapt to the COVID-19 crisis?

Steps initially included: (1) lifting restrictions on existing grants, so grantees could deal with urgent issues; (2) suspending reporting requirements; and (3) continuing to flow grant payments, and in some instances, providing advanced grant payments. The Foundation hasn’t pulled back on its grantmaking and will continue to give more than 5% of endowed assets annually.

Which changes or insights do you think are here to stay?

The need to learn quickly to use virtual platforms and create internal systems (training, security, etc.) may permanently change the way organizations work. More broadly, the challenge of physical distancing due to COVID-19 reveals the systemic inequalities in our society. It highlights who has financial security and who doesn’t, and who has broadband access and who doesn’t, and a hundred other inequalities, big and small. It emphasizes how important it is to support social infrastructure — all the ways that we connect, whether we’re family, friends, colleagues or strangers — and to check in on one another and help each other, especially the most marginalized among us.

How could sector leaders help?

Sector leaders should be prepared for a huge, economic fallout and a corresponding increase in government debt. The charitable sector is going to be both more strained and more relevant. Philanthropy will never replace government, nor should it. Yet this is the time for philanthropy to increase charitable giving — to address people’s direct needs and to support social infrastructure. Foundations should be prepared to give at least 5%, and hopefully more, both in response to COVID-19 and after it passes.

How has COVID-19 impacted the work of your organization?

My work has been altered drastically. Cultural organizations have been hit hard by the pandemic. Many have a high fixed costs, rely on admissions and event-based revenues to survive, or operate close to the bone at the best of times. The BC Arts Council established an easy-access relief program, called the , for clients, and is providing advances on annual grants. Also, government is often stereotyped as being slow and stodgy (for good reason), but it’s been interesting to witness how quickly government systems can adapt and respond to an emergency. While the BC Arts Council is carrying on with providing funding to BC artists, arts practitioners and arts organizations, everything has now been filtered through a lens of COVID-19 relief. We’re looking closely at how we can foster resilience within the community.

What are steps your organization is taking to adapt to the COVID-19 crisis?

Listening to the sector has been the most important step. I’ve been constantly on the phone for months, and the information from those calls, along with data sets collected through the , has been instrumental in making decisions about how best to assist. The arts and culture sector in BC is incredibly diverse, so understanding the issues is as important as establishing a bird’s-eye view of the situation.

Which changes or insights do you think are here to stay?

The initial outpouring of support for the non-profit sector will slow, and there will be a new financial landscape. While the situation has galvanized public investment, with ongoing government assistance, I think in reality (perhaps cynically) we’re going to see an increase in public-private partnerships. Ultimately, the rise of philanthropy will continue and will hold more power than before. Organizations will have to navigate this landscape. Also, the COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated the importance of the non-profit sector establishing an ethics of care. How do we better provide for nonprofit workers? How do we mitigate mission drift in chaotic times? How do we foster diversity and inclusion? How do we access and develop philanthropy sustainably and ethically? The sector must advocate not only for its work but must advocate for the people who do the work.

How could sector leaders help?

The crisis is demonstrating the importance of providing decent work, including medical benefits and sick days. It’s becoming increasingly untenable for the non-profit sector to continue to rely on precarious labour. Implementing best practices around decent work is an essential skill set for leadership, especially now, when we’ve learned the hard way. And with the increasing dependence on philanthropic funding, the sector needs to be critical of donations types and how these impact our work. Developing skills related to building relationships, establishing boundaries, conducting difficult conversations, and negotiating with donors and funders will be essential for strong nonprofit leadership in the future.

How has your sector adapted since the COVID crisis started?

COVID-19 has forced social profit organizations to adapt and accelerate their innovations, mainly by transitioning from in-person to online services. The sector had been lagging behind others in terms of technology. Sector after sector, all of us have been impacted by COVID, and online service is becoming the new channel to provide social services.

Can you explain a success story in terms of adapting to the COVID-19 crisis in your sector?

Anne Tower, Executive Director, of Adoptive Families Association of BC, on which many children and families rely, said, “The pandemic accelerated our plans of providing all our services online. Today, families across the province can access our full range of services and supports.” And Jenny Marsh, President of the VPL Foundation said, “For us, COVID-19 meant closing our doors for in-person operations and pivoting to online programs. More recently an Indigenous storytelling event had more than 900 attendants online, locally and from all over the world.” The VPL is the Vancouver Public Library and hosts nearly 5,000 programs for children, youth and adults annually.

Nancy Cardozo .