The Intersection Hub – Details, episodes & analysis

Have you ever thought about what it is like to work for you? How about ways to improve the hiring process and level the playing field? Surabhi Jain has. Her recent posting for a program manager got a lot of attention on linked in and attracted countless qualified candidates.

In today’s challenging climate, when demand for services is has gone up, resources have gone down and over half of our workforce is planning to move one, you might want to learn from this example and consider how you might work to attract great people for your team.

Today Surabhi is here to join us in conversation and we are going to be talking about transparent and open hiring practices.

Surabhi is the Executive Director of the Toronto Workforce Funders Collaborative. She a leader in the social impact sector with nearly 20 years of experience in designing, implementing, and managing employment and skills development programs. She has worked closely with Fortune 500 companies to help them change racially biased hiring practices. At the same time, she has engaged in capacity building for the non-profit sector to change systems.  

Surabhi's lived experiences have afforded her a unique perspective on transformative systems change. She brings experiences from the workplace, from her travels, and from her childhood that have shaped her understanding of community, leadership, and human development. 

If you were on linked in a couple of months ago you may have seen her job posting for a program manager. This job post got a lot of attention because it was extremely transparent, the hiring process was outlined in detail, including salary of course and even a section on what it is like to work with her.

Here is a small taste of Surabhi’s job posting:

“I’d like to think that I am the best supervisor/manager out there but that is not true. You will likely have worked or will work with someone better than me. I am a hands-off manager who likes to connect with their staff at least once a week so we can each share what we are working on. I am a stickler for deadlines and appreciate a heads up when things will be turned in late. I am huge on relationship building and will work to ensure you and I can work together well. I value work-life balance and do not expect you to work past your identified working hours. I am focused on you getting your work done and less on the number of hours you put into your work. Quality of work over quantity of work is very important for me. I want to work with someone who can push back on my ideas, offer critical and diverse perspectives, and values challenging conversations. We can agree to disagree but need to represent a joint front for the organization. I’m happy to provide references of individuals I have worked with in the past so you can get a sense of my style of working. “

Thank you so much Surabhi for joining us in conversation. I could talk to you all day! And folks do get in touch with Surabhi if you would like her to take a look at your job posting. You can email her at sj@workforcecollaborative.ca.

Thank you for making this a priority in your day. Please remember to like, review and share this podcast. Let’s keep inviting more people into the circle. See you next time.

How do you feel about working with corporate funders. Some people love it, some people head for the hills and try to avoid sponsorship.

Suzy Wilcox loves corporate fundraising and the unique partnerships they are engaged in at Evergreen Canada.

Suzy has a mix of non-profit, consulting and corporate experience. She loves how fundraising can help bring big, complex ideas to life.  For over twenty-five years she has worked and volunteered with a range of organizations. A common thread throughout her work is building strong partnerships that make a positive difference in and with communities. 

After graduating from Princeton University, Suzy worked in Marketing and Development at several US arts organizations, including the American Dance Festival and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She earned her MBA at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management before working in research, project management, and client relations at the renowned Toronto sponsorship agency Arts & Communications.

While at Arts & Communications, she analyzed and developed corporate philanthropy and sponsorship programs. She was then recruited by Air Canada to be a Marketing Manager, before moving to Aeroplan in partner relations, primarily with the CIBC Aerogold VISA program. Starting in 2004, Suzy worked for 15 years as a Senior Associate with NetGain Partners. As a NetGain consultant, she had the pleasure of working with a variety of non-profit clients, including MOCA Toronto, Centre of Learning & Development, City of Toronto, and Canada’s National Ballet School, helping them with strategic planning and fundraising. Since 2020 Suzy has led Evergreen’s fundraising team, working to enable cities that are livable, green and prosperous.

When not working, Suzy hangs out with her family, dances, swims, and tends her wild garden. She used to be a mime but decided the rope and the wall could only get her so far.

In this episode Suzy shares how her organization is changing the way they build partnerships with corporations, volunteers, staff and community to advance trust based philanthropy.

Thank you for joining us. I hope you are inspired to rethink how you build relationships with your funders and your volunteers. Please remember to like, share or review this podcast. Let’s keep widening the circle and inviting more people into the conversation.

Have you ever dreaded going into work, suiting up in professional armour? Ever wondered how to change your situation? What would that take?

Today our guest Ashlee Livingstone shares her journey from hospital fundraiser to entrepreneur hypnotherapist and breathwork practitioner.

A combination of energy, creativity and passion, Ashlee is known for her original ideas, executed with a thoughtful logistical approach, helping bring out the best in every undertaking. After working with leaders in the non-profit and corporate sector for many years, Ashlee understands that we are all struggling with similar challenges. Whether inspiring leaders and teams to build a thriving culture of gratitude and value or working with non-profits to create meaningful donor relationships, Ashlee works to build connections - between people, their goals and the broader community.

In this episode we talk about how to get off the hamster wheel of work and the value of taking a pause. We also learn about how Ashlee uses breathwork for herself and to help her clients find clarity, purpose and joy. Let’s get into it.

You can reach Ashlee by email atashlee@ourforte.ca or her website  https://www.ourforte.ca/. 

Thank you so Ashlee for jumping into conversation. And thank you for spending time here today.

Please remember to join the conversation with comments a review or sharing this podcast. Let’s keep building community through candid conversations. See you next time!

Did you know that over 90,000 hours or one third of your life is spent working. What would the world look like if we had a different viewpoint around what work is or should be? 

Our guest today Nkoyo Effiong-Lewis will be the first one to tell you that careers are not linear.

Nkoyo-Ene is a national speaker, advocate, strategist, and systems leader on a mission to revolutionize the world of work…one leader at a time. 

An educator at heart and attorney by training, Nkoyo speaks & consults at the intersection of purpose, power, and professionalism in law, education, and social enterprise. Using her proprietary Audacious LeadershipTM framework, Nkoyo helps individuals and organizations navigate disruption with the courage, clarity, and conviction they need to do the “heart” things that ultimately change the world. 

Through a mix of speaking, coaching, and consulting, Nkoyo equips leaders to design boldly for the future of work. She also curates dynamic solutions that accelerate personal and professional growth, overcome complex challenges, and grow through change with curiosity and confidence.   In this episode, Nkoyo and I have a deep and rich conversation about making sure you are purposeful in everything you do, questioning and disrupting power dynamic s and the need to redefine professionalism. Just like people, organizations need to transition and shift in response to the community around them. Particularly in this post pandemic world. 

We are living in a space where people want more agency over their work, their lives and their time. Yet, many organizations are slow to respond. Nkoyo is here with her audacious leadership framework to change that. Let’s get into it.

Join the Audacious Leadership Circle or connect with Nkoyo on social media with the links below.

And as always, we invite you to join the conversation by subscribing to this podcast, joining intersectionhub.ca mailing list and sharing this conversation with people who you think would get value from it. Thank you for spending time with us today.

https://go.leadaudaciously.com/join   

Connect with Nkoyo on social media!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nkoyoeneeffiong  Instagram: https://instagram.com/nkoyospeaks Twitter: https://twitter.com/nkoyospeaks 

Rickesh Lakhani is one of the most emotionally intelligent and generous thought leaders in the charitable sector he was the very first guest we hosted and he couldn’t be more perfect to celebrate our 51st episode.

Rickesh Lakhani believes that we are all responsible for each other’s success. He is the Founder of Radiance Advisory, supporting social impact organizations and leaders to align their actions with their values and build stronger cultures based on truth and trust.

He has over 15 years of experience in the social impact sector, including serving as the Executive Director at Future Possibilities for Kids, a community-based organization serving children, and as the Director, Campaign at United Way York Region, leading an $8M annual fundraising campaign. Rickesh is a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE), sits on the Global Council for the Community-Centric Fundraising movement, and has volunteered with numerous causes and boards.

He enjoys spending time with his family including his 3 children, camping, bike riding, cooking, and playing drums.

In this thoughtful and intimate conversation Rickesh and I cover a lot of territory. Rickesh openly shares why and how he chose to gracefully transition away from his executive director role at Future Possibilities for Kids. His realization that he was chronically burnt out and how he recovered.

We talk about the need for our sector to treat their staff and volunteers better and how he is now using his voice to elevate important conversations during these times of great change in our sector and in the world.

What I really appreciate Rickesh tackles tough topics with such thoughtfulness and kindness.  Please join me in welcoming my friend Rickesh back into The Hub.

Please remember to share this podcast so that we can invite others into The Hub. Let’s keep building community and connection through candid conversation. See you next time.

Today we pull back the curtain on the personal life of Sam Laprade. Sam’s resilience, grit, strength and the beautiful green eyes of her daughter, have helped her overcome many hurdles to build what is now resonant and abundant life.

As a radio broadcaster and professional fundraiser Sam works closely with her community to give a voice to new ideas, tough topics and philanthropy.

Sam has a massive portfolio of work that spans over three decades, in fundraising, media and municipal politics.

Over a 32-year period Sam has raised money for important charities in her community such as: The Ottawa Hospital Foundation, the Ottawa Humane Society and the Ottawa Mission Foundation.

As a fundraising consultant, Sam helps non-profit and charity organizations engage with donors to maximize the impact of the important work they are doing every day. Through donor data analytics, fundraising and stewardship reports, board training and fundraising audits, Sam helps local, national, and international organizations with their fundraising strategy. Sam also helps small and medium sized organizations recruit for important roles such as development director and fundraising manager.

Sam is the creator and host of “An Hour to Give” on CityNews 101.1, Ottawa and CityNews 95.7, Halifax.  This radio show highlights non-profit organizations and philanthropy.

On July 5, 2021, The Sam Laprade Show was launched on CityNews 101.1 Ottawa. This daily radio show, which airs 12-2PM, is an opportunity to feature the stories that matter to the residents of Ottawa and the Valley. Sam also covers breaking news to ensure listeners are kept up to date with local, national, and global issues.

Sam is living a joyous and abundant life. But it wasn’t always this way. In this episode Sam gets deeply personal about her setbacks and the break-up of her marriage.

If you are caught up in or recovering from a dysfunctional relationship this episode will help inspire you to know that you are not alone AND that you can get through challenging times and become wildly successful. Just like Sam is. 

As Sam said – everybody has their story. Sam thank you for sharing yours.

Thank you for spending time here. Please remember to share this podcast to invite others in. Let’s keep building community and connection through candid conversation. See you next time.

A colleague once described our Chandler as “kindest person to ever challenge you”. I have to say I also think he is my new best friend. If you can put up with the first few minutes of banter we then dive right into a super-rich conversation about how Chandler is working to transform the philanthropic space.

Chandler is the Founder and CEO of Untraditional Philanthropy, a bespoke donor advisory reimagining philanthropic decision making by partnering with 40+ social impact leaders worldwide who serve as one-on-one advisors to donors and clients. More than 80% of these experts identify as people of color, women and/or members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Chandler honed his skills in the impact sector over 25 years as a successful Founder, Executive Director, COO, CEO, and Board Member of a range of local, national and global social enterprises. As the COO of First Book, for example, Chandler led day-to-day operations and fundraising efforts for a global education equity organization which distributed 160 million new books—valued at $1 billion USD—to children in need during his tenure.

Chandler has also developed social impact efforts with some of the country's wealthiest families and leading brands; including Disney, Ford, KPMG, Pizza Hut, Ralph Lauren, Target and others. Chandler's private sector experience also includes working as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and in strategy and marketing with The Coca-Cola Company.

Chandler is a proud social innovation geek. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard with a concentration on social change in American History and Literature and earned his MBA at Stanford. A frequent speaker about innovation and social change, Chander has given guest lectures on social innovation at Yale, Columbia and Georgetown.

Chandler, his husband, and their two young children live in Washington, D.C.

Hopefully like me you are super excited about the collective impact that Chandler’s social enterprise Untraditional Philanthropy can have on our sector. You can get in touch with Chandler and learn more about Untraditional Philanthropy here: https://www.untraditionalphilanthropy.com/

Please remember to like subscribe and share this podcast so that more people can join us in conversation. Let’s keep building community through connection and candid conversation. See you next time.

Brene Brown and her interview with Jake Wesley Rogers here: https://brenebrown.com/podcast/songwriting-storytelling-and-dropping-keys/

This conversation might make you feel a little uncomfortable and it might be the most important podcast you listen to.

I first came to know of Martha Awojobi during an online conference when she got up on a soapbox and blew my mind! One of the first things Martha will tell you is that she does not work in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion space. Martha has their feet firmly planted in the anti-racism space.

 Martha Awojobi, is Founder, Director and fearless leader of JMB Consulting. After spending ten years working in the charity and philanthropic sector, she was disappointed to find that the space that she believed could be truly transformational in bringing about the liberation of oppressed groups also perpetuated horrific racism.

Leaders were slow to innovate, resistant to name structural racism and reluctant to meaningfully include Black and Brown people in decision making. Instead, they were preoccupied with being seen as ‘good people doing good work’ at the expense of confronting and dismantling the very real racism that their organisations perpetuate.

Martha works in coalition with organisations who share her goal of liberation from oppression through her work at JMB and through #BAMEOnline series which supports fundraisers and founders of colour to navigate the philanthropic sector and generate sustainable income.

In this episode talk about the importance of really understanding the harm that systemic racism continues to cause and our respective roles in supporting that system. We talk about how most Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work is performative and that we need to back up the train and really take time to understand what racism is and our respective roles in perpetuating systemic racism in the charitable sector.

If you would like to get in touch with Martha you can reach her through her website here: https://www.jmb-consulting.co.uk/

Please join the conversation with a like, share and a review of this podcast. Let us know what you think. Let’s keep building community and fostering connection through candid conversation.

I’m totally geeking out in this episode because I love talking about systemic change and how to go all the way upstream to create lasting change and culture shifts. No one knows more about this than my friend Veronica LaFemina.

Veronica Founder and CEO of LaFemina & Co., an advisory firm supporting nonprofits and social impact businesses at the intersection of strategy, culture, communications, and change management.

Veronica partners with organizations and their leaders to go beyond what "looks good on paper" to focus on what works well in real life. She is a leader, strategist, facilitator, trusted advisor, and certified change management professional with nearly two decades of experience as a senior executive at national U.S. nonprofit organizations and a high-impact consultant. Her work has been featured by Inc. Magazine, the Today Show, NPR, CNN, Capterra, and in news outlets nationwide. Veronica blogs regularly about nonprofit leadership, strategy, change management and culture at lafemina.co.

In this episode we dive right into how to work with your team to create change that gets people excited about working with you to shift your culture, advance programs and do more good in the world.

If you love change management you are going to LOVE this conversation. We talk about the humility, grace, vulnerability, compassion and patience required to create lasting system change. Get yourself a cup of tea, sit back and create some space to absorb the wisdom that Veronica shares with us today. Please join me in welcoming Veronica into the hub.

Links & Social

Website: lafemina.co

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vlafemina/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vlafemina

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vlafemina/

You can read Veronica’s article where she dives deeper into the seven steps to building yoru nonprofit’s capacity to manage change here: https://blog.capterra.com/change-management-for-nonprofits/

If you liked this episode please do share it with others who might like to join our community. Let’s come together to create community through candid conversation. See you next time.

It’s important to start this episode by saying that my guest Heather Nelson and I are not experts in the complicated situation unfolding with respect to Hockey Canada and the allegations that the institution has a slush fund in place to compensate victims of the rampant culture of sexual assault among its players. You can find some great articles below if you are interested in the details of this scandal.

What we can speak to is that when this situation at Hockey Canada was reported by sports reporter Rick Westhead the organization was asked to make some changes. They to didn’t do it. Consequently, their corporate partners started abandoning ship, falling like cards and as Heather said by their action, they elevated the voices of their customers by withdrawing financial support to the organization.

Every time another fleeing sponsor hit the news cycle, I thought to myself “What would Heather say?”

Founder and President at boutique fundraising consultancy, BridgeRaise, Heather and her team help nonprofits raise more money from companies by prioritizing aligned values. Heather is a 20+ year fundraiser, corporate partnership expert, mentor, teacher, tree person, and a dog and hockey mom! Heather is also a dear friend of mine and trusted advisor to The Intersection.

There is so much that organizations can learn about the Hockey Canada Scandal and that is why I’m very pleased to have someone who is an expert in the sponsorship arena into conversation.

To learn more about the Hockey Canada Scandal:

Hockey Canada Scandal Abuse and Sexual Assault Slush Fund

 https://thehockeywriters.com/hockey-canada-scandal-abuse-sexual-assault-slush-fund/

Corporate Partners discuss permanently ending relationship with Hockey Canada

https://www.tsn.ca/corporate-partners-discuss-permanently-ending-relationship-with-hockey-canada-1.1858288

Hockey Canada Unravelled Before our Eyes

https://thehockeywriters.com/hockey-canada-scandal-abuse-sexual-assault-slush-fund/

If you have questions about your corporate fundraising please don’t hesitate Heather and her team a call. You can learn more about Bridgeraise here: https://www.bridgeraise.com/

Please remember to like subscribe, review and share this podcast so that we can invite more people into conversation. Let’s keep building community and connection through conversation.