IFC Online 2021 Speakers

Melody Qian Song (Germany)

Cofounder, dogoodhere.org

Biography:

Based in Berlin, Germany, Melody Qian Song, MA CFRE has extensive experience in major giving fundraising, donor management, corporate partnership, international fundraising, government relations, and crypto philanthropy. As a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE), her fundraising career spans over seventeen years. A leader and community builder in the social sector to facilitate change through advocacy, innovation, and social entrepreneurship, Melody also serves on the International Development and Diversity Inclusion committee for the Association for Fundraising Professionals (AFP Global) to advocate for diversity and innovative practices in the social sector around the world. Melody is a former speaker at AFP, APRA, IFC, EU Consult, and Pyrotalk UK.

Fiona (Fi) McPhee (New Zealand)

Director, Fiona McPhee Ltd

Biography:

Fi (Fiona) McPhee loves fundraising. She’s been at it for 20 years and is still smiling. Fi is a coach, consultant & trainer to fundraisers and not-for-profit leaders. She works with fundraisers to help them drive sustainable fundraising programs and with bosses and boards to seek the right insight to best manage and govern fundraising within their organisations. Fi brings to the party her love of data. Having lead Australia & New Zealand’s largest fundraising benchmarking and analytics program for over a decade, Fi’s insight into fundraising performance and how donors behave is unparalleled. As a speaker and trainer Fi draws on best practice methodologies as well as her experience and insights from her time working with hundreds of charities from across New Zealand, Australia, South East Asia and North America. In addition to her day job, Fi is a Mum, average skier, amateur hiker, serves on two not-for-profit boards and is the Resource Alliance Australia & New Zealand ambassador.

Click here to find out more about Fiona’s session: “Five key learnings from fundraising through a crisis”

Seema Nair (France)

Head of Product Development, SG Support

Biography:

Since joining SG Support in 2015, Seema Nair has been working with charities to optimise donor journeys and experiences to improve donor base retention. As Head of Product Development at SG Support, Seema leads strategic priorities for the organisation, focused on developing data-driven fundraising solutions to drive regular-give campaigns. With more than 16 years of experience in leading and stewarding regional partnerships, she has helped non-profits accelerate fundraising actions, including deploying cloud-based acquisition tools, digital fundraising, and payment gateway integration. She has worked with organisations in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America, forming a deep understanding of global strategies for responding to different market requirements.

Currently based in France, Seema enjoys reading and traveling and is passionate about education and gender issues.

Kelvin Glen (South Africa)

Executive at Stakeholder Relations, Afrika Tikkun, and director at KhulumaSA

Biography:

With 28 years’ experience in the civil society sector, working across a spectrum of causes and fundraising locally, nationally, and internationally, Kelvin Glen brings both personal and professional perspectives to his sessions. As well as managing programmes and projects in an executive leadership role, Kelvin has extensive management experience in the corporate social investment sector and works as a consultant for clients across the the nonprofit, corporate social investment, and foundations and philanthropy sectors. Kelvin is also fomer Vice Chairperson of the Charities Aid Foundation of Southern Africa.

Matt Smith (UK)

Head of Development & Innovation, THINK Consulting Solutions

Biography:

Matt is an innovation and fundraising leader with specialist skills in digital fundraising, new product development, and facilitation. He is proficient in setting up innovation functions, strategy development, and managing large, cross-organisational change projects.

Mariléy Liebenberg (South Africa)

Development director, Cornerstone Woman

Biography:

Mariléy Liebenberg is growth strategist with over ten years’ experience as a funding expert and strategic analyst. At present, she works as development director with Cornerstone Woman, a nonprofit organisation established to help women overcome the effects of abuse and to establish a route to recovery for the family unit.

Mark Todd (UK)

Digital Marketing Manager, Fauna & Flora International

Biography:

As Digital Marketing Manager at Fauna & Flora International, Mark has transformed the online fundraising of the world’s oldest global conservation organisation.

Mark joined the organisation four years ago, when its digital fundraising was very limited, contributing just £10k per annum to its overall fundraised income. The digital fundraising programme has had particular success with younger audiences, bringing in regular givers at a net zero cost and doubling Fauna & Flora International’s 118-year-old supporter base over the last 12 months. The programme has grown to become one of the largest sources of both unrestricted income and regular donors, raising £1m raw in 2020 and on track to hit £2m in 2021.

Ligia Peña (Canada)

International Legacy Consultant, GlobetrottingFundraiser

Biography:

Ligia Peña, CFRE, is an internationally-recognised expert in legacies and gifts in wills. With GlobetrottingFundraiser, she specialises in helping nonprofits develop strategic, data-driven gifts in wills programmes.

Prior to consulting, Ligia was the Global Legacy Manager at Greenpeace International, where she oversaw the organisation’s global legacy strategy in 14 countries. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Kent where she’s researching national legacy marketing campaigns as a tool to change society’s behaviour towards gifts in wills.

As an AFP Master Trainer, she’s trained countless fundraisers around the globe. She’s a sought-after and seasoned international presenter who enjoys sharing her knowledge and empowering nonprofit professionals to think about gifts in wills differently by daring to be creative and innovative.

Rhiannan Sullivan (UK)

VP, Strategy & Partnerships, Europe, Care2.com

Biography:

Rhiannan Sullivan is the Vice President of strategy and partnerships of social action network, Care2.com. Over the past 10+ years, she has worked with hundreds of UK and EU charities helping them grow and develop their digital fundraising programmes. Prior to working for Care2, Rhiannan worked at then political campaigning agency Blue State Digital, a global leading digital strategy agency who has helped many organisations build and engage online communities, clients included political and advocacy campaigns, non-­‐profit organisations, cultural institutions and global consumer brands.

Andrew Taylor Dawson (UK)

Development Manager, Liberty

Biography:

Mike Bailey (Israel)

Consultant - Fundraising and Impact Investing, The Practical Fundraiser

Biography:

Anne Clark (UK)

Senior Strategist, Forward Action

Biography:

Anne has been working in the digital charity space for the past 8 years, starting out in in-house digital roles within charities such as PETA where she helped integrate new ways of digital organising to win campaigns against fur and angora.

Since joining Forward Action, she’s worked with organisations such as Amnesty, Refuge and Dignity in Dying to help them reach new audiences, grow their email list, and mobilise their supporters to take meaningful actions and make donations.

She’s passionate about using digital tools to create real-world change, and helping charities take a bolder and more innovative approach to how they communicate online. She’s also a bit of a data obsessive who loves nothing better than diving into results to pinpoint why a particular campaign was successful, or to figure out how to optimise a user journey.

Louise Barton (UK)

Digital Marketing Manager, Manifesto

Biography:

Lou is a digital marketing manager at Manifesto with a background in digital buying and planning in a media environment. Lou takes a supporter-led approach to uncover valuable insights on attitudes, values, and motivation, using them to form innovative strategies for live digital marketing programmes. Her day-to-day monitoring of what’s working well feeds back valuable insight into the planning function, keeping audits and recommendations up-to-date with the most cutting-edge trends.

Kait Sheridan (Hong Kong)

Director, digital strategy, Giving Tuesday

Biography:

Kait Sheridan manages the community of Global Leaders and digital communications for #GivingTuesday. Kait first joined 92nd Street Y’s Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact team in 2013, where she worked on #GivingTuesday, the Social Good Summit, 92Y Fellowship programs, and other strategic initiatives. In 2016, Kait’s personal life took her to the UK and then Asia, where she continues to work on #GivingTuesday with a focus on expanding the Global Leader community. She has worked on a number of award-winning social media campaigns, leadership programs, and strategic initiatives with NGOs around the globe, and advises a number of startups and companies on their corporate CSR and fundraising programs. Kait currently lives in Hong Kong.

Nick Burne (UK)

Managing Partner, Nick Burne Consulting

Biography:

Nick is Managing Partner at Nick Burne Consulting where he works as a global digital fundraising specialist for organisations like International Rescue Committee and UNICEF International. In 2017 he founded RAISETHRU, a 12-week Facebook Ads accelerator programme for nonprofits that has helped clients like WFP, Greenpeace, and Compassion in World Farming build scalable digital acquisition programmes. He is also the Founder/CEO of GivePanel, a new online platform that helps nonprofits get contact details for their Facebook fundraisers.

Learn more about Nick’s #FRO2020 session:

How to get people fundraising for you on Facebook (even while they stay home!)

Mohammed Zaid (Libya)

Founder & CEO, LYBOTICS

Biography:

As the founder and CEO of LYBOTICS, Mohammed Zaid is responsible for all of the initiative’s nationwide operations, including outreach activities, programme development, human resources management, and financial management. He is passionate about building and shaping communities through innovation and technology, and channels that passion by managing domestic and international initiatives in technology and innovation, education, employment, and peacebuilding reform.

As a social impact leader, Mohammed has supported over 1,000 young people with access to high-quality STEM education and leadership opportunities. He also serves as the goodwill ambassador of the European Union in Libya, sharing opportunities to empower youth and reflecting the positive intentions of the EU in Libya.

Xiomara Acevedo (Colombia)

Founder and CEO, Fundación Barranquilla+20

Biography:

Xiomara founded Barranquilla+20 in 2012 to inspire citizens to work towards making their communities more sustainable. Since 2012, the organisation has engaged more than 7000 children and young people in Barranquilla. Xiomara works with the local government to promote sustainable living and she hopes to affect policy change at the national level by helping to construct the first climate change public policy in Colombia. Xiomara also co-founded the project El Orinoco se adapta in order to promote a network of organisations and communities working to minimise and adapt to climate change in the Orinoquia region using a gender-based approach.

Marcelo Iniarra (Argentina)

CEO, marceloiniarra.com & Club de Fundraising

Biography:

Marcelo Iniarra is a senior public mobiliser, pioneer innovator, and fundraising professional with over 30 years of experience acting in the nonprofit sector. He is now leading his international consultancy, marceloiniarra.com, providing advice and inspiration to organisations all over the world. Engaging, sparking, and speaking about creativity, innovation, and people power, Marcelo and his team have supported over one hundred organisations to develop successful and creative strategies that have helped to engage millions of people and reach ambitious financial goals. Marcelo is an environmental activist with a long commitment to the field, serving as a board member for Greenpeace International.

Corine Aartman (Netherlands)

Programme Manager, Wilde Ganzen Foundation

Biography:

Corine Aartman has been working with social change organisations for over three decades. An innovator with a proven track record in marketing for social profit, fundraising, and communications, Corine is engaged and goal-driven, with a talent to inspire people. Flexible, multilingual, and with an eye for human relations, she operates in small and large organisations with boards, multi-disciplinary teams, and across cultures.

From 2004-2014, Corine worked as an independent social entrepreneur with civil society organisations to harness their resource mobilisation strength through strategy development, coaching, and training. In 2014, she joined Wilde Ganzen Foundation to develop Change the Game Academy, an innovative training programme for community philanthropy and advocacy.

Nana Asantewa Afadzinu (Ghana)

Executive Director, West Africa Civil Society Institute

Biography:

Nana Asantewa Afadzinu, Executive Director of the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), has worked with and within the civil society sector for the past 19 years and is a passionate advocate for an effective, efficient, influential and sustainable civil society in West Africa.

She is a lawyer by profession and has worked extensively on governance, human rights, philanthropy and capacity building with national, international, continental and regional organisations. Nana obtained an LLB and BL, from the University of Ghana and the Ghana School of Law in 1994 and 1996 respectively.

After practicing with a Commercial Law Firm, Hesse and Larsey, Nana worked as Legal Officer with the Secretariat of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Banjul, the Gambia; and the African Society of International and Comparative Law in Accra. Nana spearheaded the establishment of a legal division for the Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment (WISE) and volunteered as WISE legal counsel.

She was the Coordinator of the National Coalition on Domestic Violence Legislation in Ghana and is a member of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA). Nana, previously a visiting scholar at Columbia University’s Human Rights Advocate Training Programme, completed her Masters in Law at New York University and has worked with Media Foundation for West Africa and the Center for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University, in establishing a West and Central Africa Human Rights Institute.

She joined the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) as Governance Program Officer in 2005 and was OSIWA’s Country Coordinator in Nigeria from 2006 to 2008.

From September 2008 to 2009, Nana was the Regional Policy Advisor for IBIS West Africa before joining the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) in 2010 as the Executive Director. She has served and continues to serve on several public service and non-profit boards, including the Resource Alliance.

Dr Dhananjayan (Danny) Sriskandarajah (UK)

CEO, Oxfam GB

Biography:

Dr Dhananjayan (Danny) Sriskandarajah has been Chief Executive Officer of Oxfam Great Britain since January 2019. Prior to that he spent six years as Secretary General of CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance. He has previously been Director General of the Royal Commonwealth Society, Interim Director of the Commonwealth Foundation and held various posts at the Institute for Public Policy Research. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Global Public Goods in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. From 2018 to 2019 he was a member of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, co-chaired by Jack Ma and Melinda Gates, and from 2015 to 2016 a member of the High Level Panel on Humanitarian Finance. He has been a Trustee of the Baring Foundation, Comic Relief, and International Alert, and a member of the Lead Group of Scaling Up Nutrition.

Evans Okinyi (Kenya)

Founder & President, FUNDECISE; leader of UnDiaParaDarCO

Biography:

Evans Okinyi is the CEO of the East Africa Philanthropy Network (EAPN), a regional network of over 50 organisations developing and nurturing philanthropy in East Africa. He is a seasoned nonprofit executive with over nine years’ progressive experience in networks management, policy formulation and implementation, and stakeholders and partnerships management. He is passionate about collaboration and partnerships towards social transformation through thought leadership and membership development. He oversees the network’s mission of fostering a local giving and resource mobilisation culture through effective grantmaking, advocacy, and networking.

Evans has worked to advance progressive growth in the philanthropy sector, specifically the capacity, credibility, and practices of various development actors towards supporting local giving and effective grantmaking in advancing systems change and transformation. He holds a MA in economic policy management from the University of Nairobi and a BSc in agri-economics from Egerton University.

Diana Miller (Colombia)

Founder & President, FUNDECISE; leader of UnDiaParaDarCO

Biography:

Diana Miller is the founder and president of the Fundación para el Desarrollo de las Ciencias la Sociedad y el Estado (Fundecise), an organisation based in Colombia and Costa Rica that works to bring innovation on different forms and clean technologies to developing communities to promote a better distribution of resources and the safeguarding of the environment. Diana has more than eight years’ experience in fundraising, public relations, and strategic communication in the development area where she has supported more than 85 foundations, non-profit organisations, UN multilateral agencies, and companies to bring development and new opportunities in Colombia, Costa Rica, and the United States.

Currently, Diana is the national leader of Giving Tuesday Colombia and part of the coalition of organisation that is promoting the giving circles and community foundation in Colombia. She holds a master’s degree in project management with an emphasis on development cooperation, and a bachelor’s degree in international relations.

Sarah Olivieri (USA)

Nonprofit business strategist, PivotGround

Biography:

Sarah Olivieri is a nonprofit business strategist, international best-selling author, and former executive director. She frequently presents at conferences and online training sessions and has been a featured expert on more than 50 podcasts. Sarah is the creator of the Impact Method™, a framework that helps nonprofits simplify their operations, build aligned teams, and make a bigger impact without their staff becoming overwhelmed or burning out.

Sarah received her BA from the University of Chicago, where her studies focused on globalisation and its effect on marginalised cultures, and holds a master’s degree in Humanistic and Multicultural Education from SUNY New Paltz. She was the co-founder of the Open Center for Autism, Executive Director of the Helping of War Foundation, and co-author of Lesson Plan a la Carte: Integrated Planning for Students with Special Needs.

With over 17 years of nonprofit leadership experience, and as the founder of and heart behind PivotGround, Sarah helps nonprofits make a big impact with relative ease.

Franck Bocquet (France)

PSP Regional Officer, APAC, UNHCR

Biography:

Passionate about the world, Franck Bocquet specialises in global fundraising and in connecting civil societies with humanitarian situations and populations in need. Franck has over 20 years of experience working for humanitarian organisations, specialising in individual giving strategies and the long term magics of monthly giving.

Prior to joining the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, Franck’s journey included Médecins Sans Frontières in Japan, and as national admin in Cambodia and Uganda overseeing the good use of funds. Currently based in Japan, Franck supports the implementation of UNHCR’s private sector fundraising strategies in the APAC region with a focus on Japan, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Dr Martin Russell (Ireland)

Advisor at The Networking Institute

Biography:

Diego Da Ros (Italy)

Project manager, myDonor Società Benefit SRL

Biography:

A computer engineering graduate, online fundraising expert, and two-time speaker at Festival del Fundraising, Diego has been involved with Giving Tuesday since 2017. He has spent the past number of years collaborating with givingtuesday.org and its leaders globally, and now holds responsibility for the event within Italy.

Houssam Chahine (UAE)

Chief of Private Sector Partnerships for the MENA region, UNHCR

Biography:

Khaled Khalifa (Saudi Arabia)

Senior Advisor & Representative to the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries, UNHCR

Biography:

Khaled Khalifa has served as the Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to the States of the Gulf Cooperation Council since 2016 and serves as a senior advisor to the High Commissioner for Refugees on Islamic philanthropy. He is a professional international expert with 20 years of experience in relief and development and has led humanitarian operations in various settings of natural disasters, complex emergencies and armed conflicts. Khaled has held several senior managerial positions with major international organizations including United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Danish International Development Agency, United States Agency

for International Development, and Islamic Relief Worldwide, in a number of countries including Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Indonesia, Malaysia, Libya, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, and KSA. Khaled holds an MSc in Sustainable Development from the University of London, an MA degree in English Literature & Humanities from Egypt, and a Project Management Diploma from Aalborg Technical School, Denmark. He is a well-known international trainer in disaster management, and a member of the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination team (UNDAC).

Alexis Gaiptman (Canada)

Executive Director, Humanity & Inclusion

Biography:

Alexis Gaiptman is the Executive Director of Humanity & Inclusion Canada and has over 15 years of fundraising experience, specialising in both legacy and major gifts. Her background is in political science, women’s studies, and community economic development. She is driven by her passion for growth, ability to embrace new challenges, and desire to better vulnerable communities around the world. Alexis is on the AFP Quebec Board and has recently completed her executive MBA.

Gib Bulloch (Switzerland)

Founder, Craigberoch

Biography:

Gib Bulloch is an award winning social intrapreneur who consults, writes, and speaks on a range of topics relating to the role of business in society.

His first book: “The Intrapreneur: Confessions of a Corporate Insurgent” (2018) is a personal story of his 15-year journey to create and scale Accenture’s global “not-for-loss” consulting business, Accenture Development Partnerships. This innovative venture attracted significant media attention, won Accenture international awards for Corporate Social Responsibility and Gib himself was voted the UK’s Management Consultant of the year in 2008.

Gib’s career epiphany came from a year as a business volunteer with the charity Voluntary Service Overseas in the Balkans in 2000. Since then, he has believed passionately in the power of business to change the world and in the power of the individual to change the world of business. Gib continues to explore new ways of supporting purpose driven insurgencies within the corporate world. He is now focused on creating Scotland’s first Business Decelerator on the Isle of Bute, to “create a space where people and their ideas can flourish.”

Gib has a degree in engineering and an MBA from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and spent his early career in BP and Mars. He is a visiting fellow on  ntrapreneurship at Cranfield University and serves on the Board of The League of Intrapreneurs.

Maggie De Pree (USA)

Cofounder, The League of Intrapreneurs

Biography:

Maggie De Pree is one of the cofounders of The League of Intrapreneurs, a global learning community for influential corporates, governments, NGOs, and social ‘intrapreneurs’ – people working for a better world from inside our incumbent institutions. She has spent over a decade harnessing the innovation potential of business to address issues ranging from climate change to healthcare, working with companies such as GSK, BMW, Nike, Barclays, Shell, BP, and SC Johnson. She regularly speaks and writes on the topics of sustainable innovation and intrapreneurship, and is the coauthor of The Intrapreneur’s Guide to Pathfinding and The Social Intrapreneur: A Field Guide for Corporate Changemakers. In 2018, she received Face of a Vibrant Economy Award from Grant Thornton.

Maggie is a native Oregonian who spent the past 13 years in the UK developing an appreciation for milky tea, cricket, and cold-water swimming. She is a passionate advocate for girls’ sport and is a trained soccer (AKA football) and cricket coach.

Kimberley Blease (Canada)

EVP, Client Relationships, Blakely

Biography:

When it comes to building high-value donor relationships, Kimberley’s energy, enthusiasm and original thinking are unparalleled. With over 30 years of experience in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors, she is a sought-after speaker on the topics of high-value giving and the sector. Kimberley believes we all have a responsibility to engage and inspire donors throughout their journey with our organisations. Leading a team of high-performing individuals at Blakely, she instills both the importance of superior customer service and the foundations of using the donor journey as a framework. She ensures that Blakely puts clients and their donors at the centre of everything it does. Her passion for high-value donor development, coupled with her entrepreneurial spirit, has led to the development of UPLIFT, Blakely’s partnership in mid-level giving with Mark Phillips; and VISION, a marketing programme for legacy giving.

Laurie Buske (Canada)

Director of Resource Development, Cuso International

Biography:

Laurie Buske is the Director of Resource Development with Cuso International. Passionate about the power of philanthropy, she considers it a privilege to guide donors on their giving journey. Laurie seeks to get beyond the numbers and the actions to share with donors the true impact of their gifts. She has experience in major gift fundraising, capital campaigns, direct marketing, and legacy and annual giving. She is adept at managing relationships and campaigns, making sure that an organisation’s fundraising efforts are invested in for the long term. She has worked for organisations such as the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, The Ottawa Hospital Foundation, and United Way Ottawa.

Eileen Melnick-McCarthy (Canada)

Director of Communications and Marketing, Cuso International

Biography:

Eileen is a senior-level communicator and strategist with a solid track record of developing solutions, gaining stakeholder support, and achieving results. She’s spent the bulk of her career in the nonprofit sector, where she has led communications and marketing for national organisations in the transportation, healthcare, and broadcast industries. She loves working for causes that matter, and that’s what drew her to Cuso.

Jeanette Uddoh (Nigeria)

Founder, Africa Rising - Women in Innovation

Biography:

Herbert Witschnig (Austria)

Managing Partner, proNPO

Biography:

Herbert started his journey in fundraising and nonprofits in 1983 with the establishment and executive management of Greenpeace Austria. 21 years of senior employment at the fundraising agency SAZ followed. Areas of focus included design, implementation, and evaluation of fundraising activities for NPOs. Since 2010, Herbert has been Managing Partner of the fundraising agency proNPO. He holds a degree in economy from the University of Vienna, and is a certified advertising consultant and agent as well as graduate of Hernstein General Management Training.

Martin Georgi (Germany)

Chair, German FR association & Board Member EUConsult

Biography:

Martin Georgi is a consultant in the non-profit sector with many years of experience in managing small and large national and international organisations, with particular attention to fundraising. He is Chair of the German Fundraising Association, IFC ambassador for Germany, and board member or EUConsult.

Learn more about Martin’s #FRO2021 session:

Ruth Wagner (Switzerland)

CEO bei One Marketing

Biography:

Tari Caliskan (Germany)

Project Officer, German Fundraising Association

Biography:

Simon Varley (UK)

Head of Growth, GivePanel

Biography:

Simon is the Head of Growth at GivePanel, an online platform that helps nonprofits raise more money from Facebook and beyond. He has been involved in the sharp rise of social fundraising and regularly speaks about Facebook fundraising, group challenges, and social platform fundraising across the world. Prior to this, Simon ran the charity events company Choose a Challenge from Brooklyn, New York.

Clare Sweeney (UK)

Founding Fundraising Consultant, Keepace Consultancy

Biography:

Clare has been actively generating income for not-for-profit causes for over a decade; her consultancy has been providing support for organisations for over twenty years. Keepace Consultancy specialises in innovation, whether that is with fundraising, implementing effective processes, or team management. Clare is a regular speaker on a variety of platforms and is proud at how Keepace Consultancy has grown over the years and the reach it has been able to have. Clare’s mission at Keepace Consultancy is to provide the best resources for not-for-profits, to allow people to have the opportunity to give, and to empower people to invest in causes for generations to come.

Erica Waasdorp (USA)

President, A Direct Solution

Biography:

Erica Waasdorp is President of A Direct Solution, a consultancy located on Cape Cod in Massachusetts that works with nonprofit clients nationally and internationally on appeals and monthly giving.

Erica has authored two books: Monthly Giving – The Sleeping Giant and Monthly Giving Made Easy. She created the Monthly Donor Road Map and several e-books covering the topics of top questions on monthly giving, the monthly donor retention playbook, and more.

Erica is a Master Trainer for the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the former International Fundraising Congress US Ambassador. She regularly presents in person and virtually on appeals, direct mail and monthly giving.

Patrick Marucha (Kenya)

CEO, Centre for Counties Research and Development Agency (CECORADA)

Biography:

Patrick Omasiemo Marucha is the CEO of the Centre for Counties Research and Development Agency (CECORADA) and has been coordinator of the Sony Sugar AIDS Control Unit for the last 15 years. Holder of a BA in project planning and management from the University of Nairobi, Patrick is currently pursuing a master’s degree in the same field at his alma mater.

Patrick has participated at international conferences including the ICASA international conference in Ethiopia; NOPE’s Biennial Conference on Peer Education, Sexuality, HIV and AIDS in Kenya; and the National AIDS Control Council’s Maisha conference.

Jill Ritchie (UK)

Director, Papillon Press & Consultancy

Biography:

Jill Ritchie has been in fundraising for over three decades and has raised more than two billion ZAR for southern African charities and universities, primarily from UK sources. She has written 28 books, including 20 on fundraising, and consults to nonprofits and universities internationally on fundraising from UK donors. Jill set up and chairs the SA-UK Trust Network and also chairs the UK Fund for Charities. While she believes in “doing and not just teaching”, Jill’s first love is training and sharing the knowledge that she has built up in over thirty years of hands-on fundraising.

Laura Champion (Canada)

Senior Manager, Donor Response Marketing, Diabetes Canada and Board Member, Do Good Donuts

Biography:

Laura is an experienced fundraiser with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry. Skilled in philanthropy, stewardship, volunteer management, and annual giving, she is a strong community and social services professional with a graduate certificate in fundraising and volunteer management from Humber College. She spends her days as the Senior Manager, Donor Response Marketing at Diabetes Canada and her evenings and weekends pouring herself into Do Good Donuts.

Melanie Côté (Canada)

Founder, Do Good Donuts

Biography:

Founder of Do Good Donuts Melanie Côté is a communications professional, storyteller, and advocate who works tirelessly for individuals with intellectual disabilities and their inclusion. In her role on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Association for Williams Syndrome, Melanie has raised funds, run five walks nationally, planned and executed conferences, created a new national website and online fundraising platform, and has been involved with Special Olympics for four years. As a parent, Melanie has spoken at the home office of Tim Horton’s and addressed attendees at the Special Olympics gala as well as many other audiences, sharing the importance of inclusion and of the limitless potential of young people like her daughter. She believes, above all else, that inclusion matters.