Dear AFP colleagues and friends:

As I type this note, I’m smiling.  I am so amazed at how small the world can seem at times.  Humans seem to be able to find connections to others no matter how far they may be from home.  

Recently, I attended ICON in Las Vegas with two of our AFP Nova Scotia Board Members (Shout out to Fiona Valverde and Alison Clements). With almost 3000 delegates, I actually never ended up in the same session with either Alison and Fiona. This meant I was constantly introducing myself to new people at each session I attended. In one session, I was hustling to get a seat before the presentation started and didn’t have time to introduce myself to the woman beside me.  During the session, we were told to introduce ourselves to the person beside us. I turned and told the woman my name. She introduced herself and then asked where I worked, “I work at the oldest school in Canada, King’s-Edgehill School.  The School is located in Windsor….”  She interrupted me before I could go any farther and said, “I went to Edgehill.” How crazy is this!  I travelled from Nova Scotia, she travelled from Calgary. There were so many people at ICON and yet, we sat BESIDE each other. I was so thrilled to meet an alumna of our School working in this magical field of philanthropy. The next morning, I was attending the Canadian Leaders’ Breakfast and who should be one of the presenters, you guessed it, my new Edgehill friend.

I learned so many things while attending ICON and I’ve returned home with a new zest for donor relations (thank-you Lynne Wester, who, FYI, is presenting at MFC next month)! However, the thing that makes me smile the most is knowing that no matter how far you travel, you can always find a piece of home.

This month's newsletter brought to you by:

At Global Philanthropic Canada, we are learning more about the role we play as a leader in the fundraising sector and the importance of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access (IDEA). This month, we held a book club conversation with our Senior Consultants where we shared our experience reading, Collecting Courage: Joy, Pain, Freedom, Love, edited by Nneka Allen, Camila Vital Nunes Pereira and Nicole Salmon. 

Collecting Courage is a powerful and moving collection of personal experiences written by Black fundraisers that chip away at the idea of an inherent overall goodness of the charitable sector. Making time and creating an intentional space to discuss IDEA is an important step to grow. We endeavour to recognize, honour and learn about differences and to amplify all voices, particularly within the fundraising sector. If you wish to hear about our commitment to IDEA, our door is always open. Visit our website to see the resources we’ve collected thus far along our IDEA journey, and we invite you to share your resources with us too. We look forward to connecting with you at the Maritime Fundraising Conference in June.

Global Philanthropic Canada is a full-service national fundraising consultancy of highly experienced practitioners. With offices coast to coast and more than 40 Senior Consultants and Associates across the country, we deliver professional and affordable executive-level fundraising counsel to organisations of all sizes. Together with our clients, we think, build, and lead to create more sustainable organisations.