Successes

Canadian Women’s Foundation
City of Toronto, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration Division
City of Toronto, SHIFT Initiative
John Howard Society of Toronto
Native Women’s Resource Centre
Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association
Pathways to Independence
Raising the Roof
Maytree
Transforming Toronto
United Way Toronto, Leadership Solutions

Canadian Women’s Foundation

Suzanne facilitated a one-day Capacity-Building Forum for the Canadian Women’s Foundation. The forum brought together leaders from women’s organizations across Canada. Suzanne used the results of the forum to develop an on-line Assessment Tool to help any women’s organization determine the best approach to resource development.

“Suzanne Gibson is a gifted trainer with a great ability to connect and involve her audience. She imparts wisdom, inspires those she is working with and helps them to learn from each other. I highly recommend Suzanne as an effective and delightful trainer." Bev Wybrow Executive Director, Canadian Women's Foundation

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City of Toronto, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration Division,
Building Organizational Effectiveness: A Strategic Approach to Fundraising and Resource Development

In 2006 and 2008, Suzanne Gibson undertook two 10-month initiatives designed to help Toronto’s city-funded agencies build their long-term fundraising and income generating capacity. Reaching some 341 participants from 188 different organizations, key goals included:

	providing participants with the skills, knowledge and tools to develop and implement fundraising strategies and plans
	ensuring participants understand key principles related to fundraising and resource development
	providing agencies with a realistic understanding of fundraising options and techniques

Suzanne’s work included the design and delivery of 19 full-day workshops, four evening workshops for Board members and the creation of over 1400 pages of resource materials. Within this initiative, 26 groups received specialized one-on-one coaching and planning clinics that enabled them to develop detailed three-year resource development plans and budgets.

The results speak to an unqualified success as these participant comments attest: "In the 15 years that I have worked in this sector in Canada I’ve never seen a program like this one—hands on, realistic, and with tools and resources for implementation." "Suzanne speaking to our Board has led to one board member donating $25,000 with a determination to leverage it, and we have a strong lead on an additional $100,000." "Has been almost life-changing. I feel not only motivated but more empowered to set reasonable achievable objectives."

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City of Toronto and United Way Toronto,
SHIFT: Sharing Homelessness Innovation for Toronto

From May 2008 to February 2009, United Way Toronto and the City of Toronto sponsored the Homelessness Partnership Initiative: Program Innovation to support 10 Toronto-based organizations in further developing and advancing innovative programming that serves those who are homeless or are at risk of homelessness.

As the learning facilitator, Suzanne Gibson designed, facilitated and supported the delivery of five core sessions and two supplemental learning sessions. Key goals of the program included increasing individuals’ and organizations’ knowledge, skills and capacity to innovate.

A few participant comments highlight the value of the program: "I am thinking about program development differently. The SHIFT workshops gave me a variety of methods (mind mapping, random word, etc.) to approach problems/obstacles. These processes have allowed me to focus on a specific structure while working through the issues, ending up with a variety of solutions and options for moving forward." "Usually an idea germinates somewhere out of a conversation or experience and once it is verbalized, the team goes into action on how to make it come to fruition. But consciously creating the environment where the idea can germinate will keep our programs fresh, innovative and in abundance. The SHIFT program allowed us to analyze our environment. Now that we are conscious of that, we can use it to our advantage by addressing our inhibitors and expanding on our enablers."

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John Howard Society of Toronto

Suzanne Gibson facilitated Board and staff retreats that resulted in a vision and three-year strategic plan for the Society. In addition she worked with senior staff to develop a three-year resource plan that inter-locks with the strategic direction.

"Suzanne was a goldmine. She ensured everyone was involved and excited with the project. She has that rare ability of keeping a large group focused and ensuring that all points of view are heard and discussed. I believe the strategic planning that she led our agency through is both realistic and ambitious. She made the process both challenging and fun. As an agency, we are very pleased with the results.” Greg Rogers Executive Director

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Native Women’s Resource Centre

Suzanne contributed significantly to the Native Women’s Resource Centre by working with the Board to understand governance and clarify the roles of the Board and the Executive Director. She also conducted a visioning retreat with staff and inspired a planning process that bridged the vision to a Board governance strategy and plan to support the vision.

“Our first impression of Suzanne was that she was really, really dynamic—full of enthusiasm. The more she worked with our Board, the more she got them engaged and working as a cohesive group. Her greatest contribution has been to help the members understand their roles and responsibilities to our organization. As a result, she has made my job easier. I think she is a fantastic woman and I would love to work with her anytime.” June Taylor Former Executive Director

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Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA)

For over ten years, Suzanne has been providing a diverse range of consulting services to ONPHA with a particular focus on Board governance. Annually she presents courses and workshops for the Boards and staff of the association’s 700+ non-profit housing member organizations. In addition, she has developed two feasibility studies: one with detailed plans for an e-learning program, and the other to increase revenues through corporate sponsorships. With her expertise in governance, she also developed a comprehensive DVD and Resource Kit for Non-Profit Housing Boards of Directors, Achieving Great Governance. This kit contains a wealth of practical, hands-on tools and exercises intended to strengthen Board and organizational operations.

“Whatever Suzanne has worked on has been really fabulous. She always gives 110% and is delightful, responsive, and enthusiastic. Adhering to her own high standards of conduct and integrity, she always delivers a superb service. She works from the heart, relates personally to what our organizations do and brings tremendous resonance to her work. Inherently lively and engaging, she makes it effortless to work with her and you do better than you ever expected in terms of the end product.” Jo Ferris-Davies Director, Member Development and Education

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Pathways to Independence

For several years, Suzanne has been facilitating annual planning retreats for the Board and senior management. When she first started working with Pathways, the agency was facing a number of challenging issues. With her consultative support, the executive has been able to identify priorities in strategic and operational plans and lead the agency to excel in achieving its mission.

“When we first started working with Suzanne we were a rudderless ship, fighting fires. She facilitated our getting past the day-to-day and coming up with a terrific plan that has been the basis for totally turning the agency around. With her enthusiasm, commitment and goal orientation we have been able to do much more than we expected.” Brian Steele Former Executive Director

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Raising the Roof

Suzanne led a staff and volunteer team to establish Canada’s only national charity for homelessness. Within three years she leveraged $15,000 into $1.4 million in support, with an additional $1.3 million in media gifts-in-kind.

“As founding executive director, Suzanne took Raising the Roof from zero to 100 in no time at all. She brought incredible energy and strategic vision to the work. And she wasn’t shy about using creative, entrepreneurial ideas either. She has a particular talent for knowing when an idea ‘has legs,’ and a sound approach to balancing risks and rewards. Suzanne also has the gift for bringing creative people into the organization and knowing how to use their talents.” Derek Ballantyne Former President, Raising the Roof COO, Build Toronto

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Maytree

For more than 10 years, Suzanne has been providing capacity building expertise to organizations funded by the Maytree Foundation. Her initiatives include facilitating business planning processes, creating resource development strategies and enhancing Board governance and leadership. In 1996 and 1998, Suzanne ran two comprehensive resource development training programs, resulting in more than 40 social justice organizations receiving 10 intensive days of training as well as one-to-one coaching and support to develop three-year revenue generation plans.

"Suzanne delivers exceptional results. She knows non-profits well, having experienced first hand the challenges the sector faces. As a result her services are not only strategic but relevant and timely. Suzanne is an excellent trainer and coach and her capacity to motivate learners and move them from theory to practice is remarkable." Ratna Omidvar President

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Transforming Toronto

With vision, passion and commitment, Suzanne Gibson was the catalyzing volunteer for the formation of Transforming Toronto and became the first Chair of its Board. This citizens’ coalition first mobilized in May of 2007 in response to the proposed construction of a new high-voltage transmission line through east Toronto from Markham to Lake Ontario. With a slogan of “Local power is the answer,” its vision has expanded to focus on energy solutions Toronto-wide by finding and installing new sources of electricity through conservation, efficiency, and clean, green, small-scale generation.

“From the moment Suzanne starts, she adds value. She brings a great blend of contagious enthusiasm, collaboration and down-to-earth pragmatism that makes you want to be part of something really neat. At the same time, she keeps you focused on getting things done. Suzanne has a knack for getting buy-in from a variety of stakeholders, and not only motivates them to move in the same direction, but to go beyond expectations. Before our coalition was even one year old, we were finalists for the Green Toronto Awards, to a great extent, due to her efforts as founding chair.” David MacLeod President of the Board

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United Way Toronto, Leadership Solutions

In 2008, Suzanne Gibson and Associates undertook a ground breaking, comprehensive feasibility study of nonprofit leadership in Canada, Leadership Solutions: Building Leadership in Toronto’s Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector. The report assessed and recommended promising, appropriate practices and responses to strategically strengthen leadership in Toronto’s nonprofit sector, with a view to programming that is scalable and replicable in other communities in Canada.

What emerged was a model of shared leadership that is capable of galvanizing many diverse individuals and organizations to a vision, and as well is participatory, cooperative, open to change and alert to a culturally-changing world perspective. It requires continuous learning and personal development as well as a commitment to a truly collaborative approach and has as its ultimate goal to strengthen neighbourhoods and communities.

“There is no question about the use of superlatives for Suzanne. Due to her intelligence, thoughtfulness and excellent interpersonal skills, she is ideal for the most complex and challenging work in front of us. Suzanne invests her energy, expertise and time to the fullest extent. In particular, she is highly skilled at engaging divergent stakeholders to create a sense of collective wisdom. Not many have the repertoire of skills that she does—ranging from the strategic to the tactical and including operations, training and support on a one-to-one basis. Suzanne is authentic and develops genuine relationships; everyone feels great and has fun around her.” Amanuel Melles Director, Capacity Building Unit

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