Top 10 Reflections from KCI’s What’s Next Interview Series

Our thanks to Erin Sargeant Greenwood of Saint Mary’s University for joining Nicole Nakoneshny on this episode of KCI’s The Ask. Erin shares her insights, advice, and thoughtful list of “must do’s” for charities as they move forward with fundraising during and after the pandemic. “The lasting effect that I hope we come away with…is an enhancement of the appreciation of the role of philanthropy and the power of fundraising, both in terms of impact on recovery and to build resilience in people and communities.”

Dans le baladodiffusion The Ask de KCI, Lili-Anna Pereša, Présidente et directrice générale de Centraide du Grand Montréal prédit les effets à long terme de la pandémie : entre autres, un virage vers des approches ultralocales, une consolidation au sein du secteur, une augmentation de partenariats à impact collectif avec les secteurs public, privé et sans but lucratif et une meilleure utilisation des données, des informations, de l’expertise et des connaissances pour la prise de décisions éclairées. Aussi disponible en anglais.

In KCI's The Ask podcast, Lili-Anna Pereša, President and Executive Director of Centraide of Greater Montreal predicts lasting effects of the pandemic, including a shift to hyperlocal approaches; sector consolidation; more public, private, non-profit collective impact partnerships; and better use of data, facts, expertise, and knowledge to inform decisions. Aussi disponible en français.

In this episode of KCI's The Ask, Eva Friesen, President and CEO of the Calgary Foundation offers her thoughts about mission relevance, mergers, and doing things differently in both service delivery and grant making.   “The COVID 19 epidemic has shed light on some areas of society where we know we need to do things differently for evermore after.”

Thanks to Ted Garrard, Chief Executive Officer of SickKids Foundation for sharing his wisdom and guidance! In this episode of KCI's The Ask, Ted offers thoughts about the impact of the pandemic on fundraising in Canada. “Donors and volunteers are reappreciating the importance of having a very strong social safety net…recognizing that government can’t do it all…and an opportunity for charities to work collectively and with government to ensure we are all well prepared for what the future holds.”

Unprecedented. Uncharted. Uncertain. These are just a few of the words being used to describe the times we’re navigating as we deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and its fallout.  And given the degree of uncertainty we continue to face, it’s hard to know exactly what this will mean for Canadian charities and their fundraising. What will be the impact of the pandemic on Canadian charities? What are the challenges and opportunities? How will this change how organizations raise money? We’re delighted to bring you the perspective of five of the sector’s most knowledgeable and thoughtful voices who will share their thoughts and advice on these questions. In this first conversation, we hear from with Bruce MacDonald, President & CEO of Imagine Canada.

The attention of organizations over the last weeks and months has been almost exclusively focused on how to adapt, adjust, and frankly survive these unprecedented times.  It’s now time to start to think ahead. But since we will need to navigate volatility and uncertainty for a while yet, the biggest challenge in the next while will be to find the right balance between addressing immediate challenges with starting to plan for the future.  In this episode, we provide some practical tips to guide your planning over the next months to marry a focus on the now with starting to set your organization up for recovery and future success.

Many non-profit organizations struggling to remain relevant and resilient amid an evolving and crowded market place are considering new and innovative ways to remain viable, including collaborating with like organizations. Two such organizations breaking new ground are Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada and Make-A-Wish Foundation, who joined forces in 2019 with the goal of reaching their full mission potential - granting the wish of every eligible child across the country. Jennifer Ritter, Co-CEO of Make-A-Wish Foundation of Canada, the resulting amalgamation, shares the process the two organizations undertook, from assessing the potential for collaboration, to integrating business practices and melding two very different organizational cultures.  Despite challenges, the organizations were able to take similar missions, passion and drive to form one highly competitive organization that is now able to achieve far more, far faster than they were able to accomplish separately.

Throughout our What’s Next Interview Series, Nicole Nakoneshny, KCI’s Lead, Knowledge + Insights conducted in-depth, one-on-one interviews with each member of our Philanthropic Trends Advisory Board who are some of the most thoughtful and successful people involved in fundraising and philanthropy today. Via those conversations, we explored how fundraising is evolving, what it takes to be successful in today’s environment, where the opportunities are to raise money and how to deal with the inevitable challenges that face us…basically, as the title of the Series suggested, to understand “what’s next” when it comes to fundraising in Canada for 2020 and beyond. As the series comes to a close, Nicole shares her What’s Next Interview Series Top 10 - the biggest learnings, insights, takeaways and personal a-has that she took from these conversations.

In this special four-part Summer Series of KCI’s podcast The Ask we share snippets from some of our favourite recent conversations that we weren’t able to include in an episode.  Some quick, easy listening for those long summer days where we might have better things to do than listen to full-length podcasts about fundraising.  Enjoy! In this final episode, we circle back one last time to our conversation about talent and talent management with Tara George, the Lead of KCI’s Search and Talent practice…and tackle the topic “Are you ready for a leadership position?”  In this episode, both Tara and host Nicole Nakoneshny get personal about our own journeys and Tara shares some thoughts and advice about what is required to be ready take on a leadership position.