Successes

Suzanne has helped many organizations reach their goals. Here are some of her achievements.

Raising the Roof
African Canadian Social Development Council
Canadian Women’s Foundation
Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association
Ministry of Children’s and Youth Services
Kids Help Phone
Operation Springboard
Planned Parenthood of Toronto

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.

“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
CEO, Toronto Community Housing Corp.

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African Canadian Social Development Council

Suzanne worked with the Board and staff of this fledgling organization for more than a year. She helped the Board establish a strong governance structure, set a strategic path for itself, and hire the first Executive Director.

“My image of working with Suzanne is a bird flying with such facility, grace and ease -- and yet we flew so fast! It was such an intensive year, and we did so much, but it was still fun. Suzanne knows that non-profit organizations are about human beings. She knew when to push us, and when to stand back. Every Board member enjoyed working with her. I personally learned a lot from her. She helped us lay the foundation for our entire future. Because of her work we now have a strong governance structure and strengthened funder relationships.

Working with one consultant for a whole year could have been very boring. Because of Suzanne’s personal character, it was anything but. I think she is very great.”
Amanuel Melles
President, African Canadian Social Development Council

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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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Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association

Suzanne developed two plans for this association: a feasibility study with detailed plans for an e-learning program, and a plan to increase revenues through corporate sponsorships. She has also presented over ten courses and workshops for the boards and staff of the association’s 700+ non-profit housing member organizations.

“I call Suzanne a smart researcher. She listened hard, got to know us, and then sifted through the huge array of options that are in the marketplace. She steered us away from the sinkholes and gave us pragmatic, do-able recommendations that fitted our style.

Suzanne always gives 110%. She’s delightful, responsive, enthusiastic – and ethical. If a job is not her niche, she tells us right away and recommends someone else for the job.”
Jo Ferris-Davies,
Director, Member Development and Education

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Ministry of Children and Youth Services

Suzanne led ten full-day workshops across Ontario for over 700 senior staff from non-profit organizations serving children and youth. The workshops showed participants how to develop and strengthen partnerships with the corporate sector.

“Suzanne is a delight. Her level of knowledge about both the corporate and non-profit sectors is superb. She brings countless practical examples from her own experience. She generates enormous excitement – people left feeling “Yes, It’s possible. We can do it.” And with Suzanne, there’s no competitiveness – she shares everything. That sets the tone right there.

We’ve had some of the best feedback we’ve ever had from Suzanne’s workshops.”
David Vickers
Senior Program Advisor

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Kids Help Phone

Suzanne has led a number of training opportunities for this organization. For example, she ran a full-day workshop on project management for regional staff, and developed a planning template that shaped the way Kids Help Phone plans, manages and evaluates projects.

“From the first minute, Suzanne inspired confidence. She is intelligent and insightful. She has a deep appreciation for the needs of both volunteers and staff, who often work at a distance from each other. She makes friends with the whole team, and readily establishes trust. She really listens to the needs of the group, and feeds their experiences back to make the information highly practical. She’s spontaneous, always ready to respond to changes as they unfold. She’s also very funny, and able to make a dry topic such as project management fun.

Suzanne really does bring energy into the room. She’s a breath of fresh air. And her work has had a lasting impact on our staff’s ability to think strategically.”
Mary Proulx,
Vice President, Regional Marketing and Fund Development

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Operation Springboard

Suzanne helped this established organization hone its strategic plan. She interviewed over 30 external stakeholders, facilitated Board and Advisory member planning session and developed a series of planning reports to the Board. She has supported staff translate the organization’s strategic vision into an operational plan. 

“We first heard Suzanne speak at an Ontario Promise workshop, and liked her so much that we hired her as a keynote speaker at our own conference. She was fantastic. Since then we’ve hired her to facilitate a retreat, lead our strategic planning discussions, and to facilitate our community partnerships sessions.

We’ve been extremely impressed with Suzanne’s work. She is a critical thinker -- very high energy, very goal-focused, and very focused on customer satisfaction. She has a remarkable gift for engaging people in focused discussions, bringing out the best in people, and channeling discussions to meet the group’s objectives.

And when she makes a commitment, she delivers. She checks in to make sure she is “in synch” with our expectations, but doesn’t waste our time with unnecessary questions, and then works tirelessly to deliver excellent work on deadline.

I would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a group facilitator, speaker or strategic planner.”
Marg Stanowski
Executive Director

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Planned Parenthood of Toronto

For this organization Suzanne led six training workshops on all aspects of fundraising, from special event to corporate giving to capital campaigns. She then helped staff teams develop three-year resource development plans.

“Suzanne brought incredible energy and enthusiasm to her work with Planned Parenthood of Toronto. “Cookie-cutter” solutions were never an option. Instead, she worked diligently with our staff and management for more than a year to help us identify our resource development needs and create a strategy that would enable us to reach our goals.

With her guidance we were able to secure a major gift this past year that will have a tremendous impact on our client services. Working with Suzanne has helped our agency to understand the diverse components of resource development, to overcome our challenges and to have the capacity and knowledge to reach our fundraising potential.“
Hazelle Palmer
Executive Director

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