It Doesn't Hurt to Ask! – Details, episodes & analysis

Tune in as Cathy interviews Paul Taylor, Executive Director of FoodShare Toronto. Paul is a lifelong anti-poverty activist who has used his experience to fuel a career focused on helping others and dismantling the beliefs and systems that lead to poverty and insecurity.

Join Cathy and Laura Manning, Executive Director of the Lyle S. Hallman Foundation as they discuss the foundation's shift from program-based funding to providing General Operating Support (read: unrestricted funding!) to some of their grantees. The Lyle S. Hallman Foundation is a real shift disturber with a board that gets excited about doing things differently. Tune in to hear about their approach to values-based philanthropy.

It Doesn't Hurt to Ask! podcast is back after a little hiatus. In this episode, Cathy sits down with Chris Baylis of The Sponsorship Collective to discuss the "secretive" world of cause sponsorship. Chris is a self-confessed sponsorship geek. After several years as a "sponsor," Chris decided to cross over to the sponsorship sales side where he has personally closed tens of millions of dollars in sponsorship deals. Chris has been on the front lines of multi-million dollar sponsorship agreements.

In this episode,  Simone Joyaux, ACFRE (proclaimed by Cathy as the Grand Dame of Social Change Philanthropy) reviews the do's, don'ts and dilemmas of fundraising for social change. From the professionalism of fundraising to board governance, this wide-ranging conversation will surely leave you thinking about the ethical challenges of philanthropy in new ways. 

Cathy interviews Jennifer Bernard, CEO of Women's College Hospital Foundation in Toronto. Jennifer is passionate about equity, social justice and innovation and through her work at WCHF, Jennifer is bridging traditional philanthropy with social change through the work of increasing access to healthcare for underserved populations. Jennifer speaks about the groundbreaking work of WCH, her career trajectory and mentorship, particularly her opportunity to become a mentor to young leaders.

Dr. Elizabeth Dale is a fundraiser turned academic who studies the giving habits of women and LGBTQ donors as an Assistant Professor at Seattle University's Nonprofit Leadership Management program. Elizabeth's insights are invaluable on both a practical level and in a big-picture way and she's got the research to back it all up! If you've ever wondered about the hows and whys behind philanthropic giving through a gender lens, this is the episode for you!

In this episode, Cathy sits down with Anne Gloger, who has been shift disturbing for 20 years as the founding director of East Scarborough Storefront and the Centre for Connected Communities. Anne speaks candidly about her journey towards seeing funders as true partners in the work of community building and discusses how difficult it can be to make magic visible to donors. What magic, you ask? The magic that happens when you bring together anyone and everyone who want to help the community thrive. For all you reluctant or resistant fundraisers out there, this is the episode for you!

Are we donors, or are we dancers? In this episode of It Doesn't Hurt to Ask! Cathy sits down with Elissa Beckett of Tides Canada, Canada's least known 30 million dollar charity. In this episode, Elissa shares her experience with innovative approaches of collaborative fundraising and shares her insights on how to collaborate effectively (spoiler alert: leave your ego at the door!). In fact, choreographing collaborations and dancing with wallflowers may just be the future of our sector. 

"Why do you give?" It's such a personal question. But what can the answer tell us about how to design philanthropy? How can design-thinking be applied to build a more human and inclusive approach to philanthropy? And how can we use design to create new approaches to philanthropy that can have the greatest impact? 

To answer these big, bold questions, Cathy sits down with Zahra Ebrahim, a human-centered designer, urbanist and philanthropist who has worked in charitable organizations and now applies her learnings from the social sector to the public and private sector. For full shownotes, visit our website www.itdoesnthurttoaskpodcast.com