It Doesn't Hurt to Ask!

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...

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? Th...

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, choreo...

"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-cen...

Want to know how to become faster, higher, stronger & get your organization to digital-first place? In this episode we chat with Jason Shim, Director of Digital Strategy at Pathways to Education Canada . Beyond departmental tactics, for an organization to truly become digital-first, digital should be woven into the overall fabric of your organization. From cryptocurrency to digital councils to int...

Change is coming for the philanthropic sector. And it doesn't care what you think about it. In this episode of It Doesn't Hurt to Ask! we chat with Marina Glogovac, CEO of CanadaHelps.org  about the shifts we're facing as a sector.  How are charities going to evolve? What does the sector need to do to make sure we adapt? This episode is all about the disruptive forces coming for the charitable sec...

In this episode of It Doesn't Hurt to Ask! Cathy has an open and honest conversation with Lisa Watson of Openly  about how our money values and personal relationship with money - ie our 'money mindset' can manifest in the ways we work in the charitable sector. Lisa and Cathy talk about the work they're doing as a team to challenge charitable sector leaders to have courageous conversations about mo...

It's hard to introduce Dr. Krishan Mehta because he does so many things! His day job is AVP Engagement, University Advancement at Ryerson University. He self-identifies as a nerd, but to us and many others, Krishan is an innovative fundraiser, a  shift-disturbing thought leader, and a dedicated researcher. In this  episode, we chat with Krishan about the subject of his PhD research: how high net w...

In our inaugural episode of It Doesn't Hurt to Ask! Cathy interviews Sharon Avery, CEO Toronto Foundation and finds out just how much shift Sharon is bringing to the charitable sector. Not only is Sharon not afraid to ask for money (spoiler alert - she loves it!) she believes in shaking up long-held traditions within philanthropy by promoting social change philanthropy on a large scale. In this ep...

Introducing Cathy Mann, your host of It Doesn't Hurt to Ask! Welcome to Season One.  After spending over 25 years as a professional fundraiser working in philanthropy, Cathy knows a thing or two about the charitable sector. We're a sector that is... what shall we say...  comfortable with tradition.  But the world is changing and it's time for us to change too. We're facing competition from industr...