In this session, Zabeen Hirji, former Chief HR Officer at RBC and now in her Purposeful Third Act, explored how AI is reshaping the nature of work. As AI changes the relationship between employers and workers, why should people choose to work for your organization? How can organizations help their people thrive in this new era? Her five good ideas: 1. Help every employee understand their purpose 2. Start small, learn together, and stay curious 3. Build AI fluency, not technical mastery 4. Focus on change management 5. Invest in human skills For Zabeen's full bio and resources, vist the session page.

In this session, non-profit consultant Claire Forster discussed how to make meaningful and sustainable change in your organization. How do you integrate a new function or program into your current structure? How do you communicate with your teams to ensure that the change is not disruptive or disengaging? What implications are there for the existing teams and culture and how do you manage that? What issues do you need to anticipate and account for? Her five good ideas: Start with the end in mind Communicate what it isn’t Understand that employees and stakeholders have the answers Be opportunistic and leverage change to reinforce culture It’s not over when you think it is For Claire's full bio and resources, visit the session page.

Liv Mendelsohn and Christa Haanstra joined Five Good Ideas to discuss how to build a culture that recognizes and values caregiving. Their conversation with Elizabeth McIsaac highlighted that creating a caregiver-friendly workplace is compassionate and strategic. Organizations that recognize this gain a competitive edge through improved retention, productivity, and workplace culture. Liv and Christa's Five Good Ideas: Understand your workforce Provide equitable support Prioritize flexible work arrangements Recognize the value of caregiving skills inthe workplace Build a caregiver-supportive culture For Liv and Christa's full bios and resources, visit the session page.

Mohammed Hashim, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, joined Five Good Ideas to share practical strategies to bridge divides and foster positive change in challenging times. His conversation with Elizabeth McIsaac highlights the power of genuine dialogue, community resilience, and grassroots action in creating a more connected future. Mohammed's Five Good Ideas: Embrace difficult conversations Get offline and re-ignite in-person connection Online life is a reality: Trust humans, fact-check content Replenish your dopamine (and your feed) with people who build for better If you don’t like it, join the work to fix it For Mohammed's full bio and resources, visit the session page.

Sharif Mahdy and Kwaku Agyemang, from the Students Commission of Canada, joined Five Good Ideas to share how organizations can engage youth to participate in systems change. “The deficit that we’re trying to address is this,” explained Sharif. “First, young people don’t get engaged and involved on these issues. Second, the process for engaging in our democracy is eroding. And the process for being able to engage in healthy discourse is being challenged for all sorts of reasons. What we’re offering here through these five good ideas is an approach that we’ve tried over time that could be scaled and could help address some of the deficits we’re currently experiencing.” Sharif and Kwaku’s five good ideas:  Youth engagement is both a process and an outcome Respect, listen, understand, and communicate Mutuality is a key to navigating increasing complexity of intergenerational partnerships  Work with youth to bridge the democratic deficit Youth are catalysts for systems change For Sharif and Kwaku's full bios and resources, visit the session page.

Sarada Peri, founder of Peri Communications and former Senior Speechwriter to President Barack Obama, joined Five Good Ideas to share how to create messages that are sharp, compelling, and persuasive.   “What are some questions that I can ask myself to get to the one thing, the one thing I want to say?  ‘What is my purpose?’” asked Sarada. “In everything you do, you should start with ‘What is my purpose?’”  Sarada’s five good ideas:   1. Say one thing   2. Know your audience  3. Speak from their values, not yours  4. Tell a story  5. Write and speak like a human   Subscribe to the Five Good Ideas newsletter.

Ingrid Palmer the Principal IDEAL Advocate at Realize, joined Five Good Ideas to discuss the benefits of applying IDEAL (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Leading to belonging) principles in the workplace. "Belonging is a necessary component of our humanity and no one should be denied that fact," said Ingrid.  Ingrid's five good ideas: 1. Level up from IDEA to IDEAL.  2. Expand your understanding of disability to include episodic disability. 3. Be aware of the nuances of intersectional barriers to employment.  4. Accommodations benefit both the employer and the employee.  5. There is no end to IDEAL work.  You can download the session handout, view Ingrid's bio, and read the transcript here.  Subscribe to our newsletter. 

Bob Goulais, founder of Nbissing Consulting Inc., joined Five Good Ideas to discuss some wise practices to be more inclusive of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit. “Most of all,” said Bob, “consider integrating Indigenous values and ways of being.” Bob’s five good ideas: Be values-based in everything you do Involve First Nations, Métis, and Inuit in co-development, collaboration, and partnerships Consider developing a Reconciliation Action Plan Take cultural competency or cultural safety training Consider personal, sustained action as an ally to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit You can download the session handout, view Bob's bio, and read the transcript here.  

Farzana Doctor is an activist, community organizer, social worker, and author. In this session, Elizabeth McIsaac talks to Farzana about about how you can practice self-care and community-care around your work. You can find Farzana's good ideas, resources, and full bio here. 

Diana Chan McNally is a frontline worker and advocate for homeless people.  In this session, Elizabeth McIsaac talks to Diana about what she's learned in combining both roles.  You can find Diana's good ideas, resources, and full bio here. 

Ombudsman Toronto is an independent and internal office that holds the City accountable to its residents. It makes recommendations to the City to improve its service and ensure they're fair.  In this session, Elizabeth McIsaac talks to Toronto Ombudsman Kwame Addo about how individuals and residents can get the most out of working with his office for positive change.  You can read the transcript and Kwame's full bio here: Five Good Ideas on working with Ombudsman Toronto for positive change - Maytree

In this session, Sree Nallamothu and Fran Odette joined Elizabeth McIsaac to discuss how to create an accessible workplace. They explain how to be proactive, to move beyond niceties, the power of language, embracing intersectionality, and putting accessibility in the budget.  You can find the transcript, and Sree and Fran's full bios here: Five Good Ideas for disrupting ableism in the workplace - Maytree

In this session, Joan Garry, founder of the Nonprofit Leadership Lab, emphasizes the need for proactive and ongoing succession planning, reframing it as part of organizational readiness, and the critical role of the board in driving this process forward. She highlights the risks of inadequate succession planning, such as difficulties in recruiting a competent replacement, staff dissatisfaction, and donor anxiety. For Joan's full bio, resources, and the session transcript, visit the Five Good Ideas website.

This session provides a guide to participating in nonprofit boards, drawing on the expert knowledge of Rick Powers, a governance and board leadership specialist at Rotman School of Management. Topics include the importance of understanding fiduciary duty and duty of care, addressing the "information chasm" between board members and management, the significance of financial literacy, CEO succession planning, board memberships and recruiting, and dealing with conflicts of interest. Rick places emphasis on the necessity for passion about the cause, as well as clarity of role expectations for effective board membership. For Rick's full bio, resources, and the session transcript, visit the Five Good Ideas website.

Your non-profit organization does good work and has an important story to tell. Media coverage can be a great way to establish credibility, build cachet, and reach a larger audience. But journalists are not necessarily short on stories or sources. So what are the Five Good Ideas for getting a journalist to call you back? Denise Balkissoon, Ontario bureau chief of The Narwhal, joins Maytree president Elizabeth McIsaac to explain how she identifies stories and sources. For Denise's ideas, resources, and full bio, visit the Five Good Ideas session page.

It can be hard sustaining a collaboration because tackling community issues together creates challenges to partnership and momentum. But you can set up a collaboration for success. Focus on four areas—people, resources, process, and impact—and the factors that determine their quality, like leadership, funding, community engagement, and the ability to influence policy and systems that lead to collective change. When things do get hard (and they will), the collaboration’s resilience will be proven by its overall health and well-being, as well as its ability to adapt, shift, and change.    In this session, recorded live on May 8, 2023, Liz Weaver and Mike Des Jardins of the Tamarack Institute share stories and provide helpful ideas about how to make a collaboration more sustainable, resilient, and impactful. They discuss how collaborations can develop a sustainable approach during the early phases of their work. They also pose the question: What really needs to be sustained and how might this work?    [5:50] 1. Define what is a sustainable collaboration  [11:32 2. Focus on people, process, resources, and impact [16:42] 3. Centre equity in the design of sustainability [20:03] 4. Adapt to changing communities / collaboration [24:05] 5. Include funders in the process [27:05] Q & A    Download the session handout. Follow along with the transcript.    Presenter bios:     Liz Weaver is co-CEO at the Tamarack Institute.  Liz leads the Tamarack Learning Centre providing strategic direction for the design and development of learning activities. The focus of the Tamarack Learning Centre is to work with community leaders to co-generate knowledge and become a collective force for social change. Liz is one of Tamarack’s popular trainers and has developed and delivered curriculum on a variety of workshop topics including collaborative governance, leadership, collective impact, community innovation, influencing policy change and social media for impact and engagement.    Previous to this, Liz led the Vibrant Communities Canada team and provided coaching, leadership, and support to community partners across Canada. In her career, she was the Director for the Hamilton Roundtable on Poverty Reduction (a collective impact initiative), which was recognized with the Canadian Urban Institute’s Leadership Award in 2009. She has also held leadership positions with YWCA Hamilton, Volunteer Hamilton and Volunteer Canada. Liz has a Masters of Management through McGill University. Liz was awarded a Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 2002 for her leadership in the voluntary sector and has received awards and recognition from the City of Hamilton, Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, Parks and Recreation Ontario, and Volunteer Canada.    Mike Des Jardins is the Manager of Sustainability & Development for Communities Building Youth Futures (CBYF), Tamarack Institute.  In this role, Mike is responsible for sustainability planning, researching, and sharing best practices related to the sustainability and resilience of youth collective impact work, coaching CBYF communities on developing and implementing sustainability strategies, and telling the story of impact. Mike is a ce...

Silence around questions of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in the workplace has started to sound more like complicity. Now people can’t talk enough about EDI. But how do you put all you’ve read and learned into action? In this session, recorded live on March 31, 2023, Dr. Tanya (Toni) De Mello, Vice-President, Equity and Community Inclusion, Toronto Metropolitan University, shared the ways in which feeling like you belong, knowing you’ll be included, and seeing your work community as “your” community matters. She provided some advice on how you can achieve this sense of community and belonging at your organization and shed some light on what you may be doing to hinder it. 1. Reflect on who’s in your group [6:05] 2. Belonging is more than salary and job location [12:33] 3. Representation is a major part of systemic change [19:22]  4. You need to do the performative and substantive work [22:51] 5. If this work is done meaningfully, then it’s messy [28:14] Q & A [35:21 ] Download the session handout. Follow along with the transcript. Presenter bio: Toni is Vice-President, Equity and Community Inclusion, Toronto Metropolitan University. With a background comprising finance, management consulting, and law, Tanya (who we call “Toni”) De Mello has spent much of her career focusing on, and researching, equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). She is a human rights lawyer and a certified coach and mediator. She has taught at University of Toronto and University, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and several Colleges. She worked at TMU as the Director of Human Rights and then Lincoln Alexander School of Law, which is Canada’s newest law school the in 2019. She is currently the Vice President, Equity and Community Inclusion. She has worked with over 100 organizations in training, consulting, and supporting them in the EDI journey. In addition to founding two NGOs, Toni has served in the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and the World Food Programme in Geneva (Switzerland), Senegal (West Africa), and Columbia (South America). Toni holds a dual Bachelor of Economics and Political Science from the University of Waterloo; a double Master in Public Policy and Urban and Regional Planning from Princeton University; and a dual law degree from McGill University and a Master of Counselling and Psychotherapy from the University of Toronto. She also completed her doctors at the University of Toronto, where she was looking at bias in hiring in Canada.

“We couldn’t do it without you!” “Without strong partners, this couldn’t be done.” We use these phrases because they are at the heart of how we work for social change. Social change does not happen in a vacuum.  In this session, recorded live on February 23, Agapi Gessesse, Executive Director, CEE Centre for Black Young Professionals, shared her five good ideas on how community organizations, governments, and corporations can create ecosystems where everyone benefits from each other’s work, and advances the social change that we all want to see. [3:58] 1. Build relationships (strategically) [10:39] 2. Make sure everyone is benefitting mutually through the relationships[15:01] 3. Directions must have an ESG plan (ESG stands for “environmental, social, and (corporate) governance”) [20:05] 4. Non-profit organizations should have a government relations plan [31:35] 5. Determine from the onset what success could look like and how long it will take[36:07 ] Q & A  Download the session handout. Follow along with the transcript.  Presenter bio: Agapi is Executive Director of CEE Centre for Young Black Professionals, an organization dedicated to addressing economic issues affecting Black youth. She is passionate about CEE’s mission-driven and evidence-based work.  Agapi also served as Executive Director of POV 3rd Street, an organization that helps marginalized youth break into the media industry through training, mentorship, job placement, and professional development opportunities. Through prior work as a fundraising professional, social enterprise manager, and coordinator of youth leadership programs, Agapi has established a record of accomplishment in operations management, program implementation and evaluation, financial stewardship, partner development, and community engagement. Her experience includes positions with United Way of Greater Toronto and the Toronto Community Housing Corporation.

How can you advance your non-profit’s values through the use of technology?   In this session, recorded live on January 23, Amy Sample Ward, CEO of NTEN and author of The Tech That Comes Next¸ and Katie Gibson, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Nonprofit Digital Resilience, presented their answers to this question.   [5:38] 1. Never put technology ahead of people. [10:23] 2. Create diverse tech committees to support decisions, testing, and feedback. [15:01] 3. Only collect data you can protect. And give it back to its owner. [19:52] 4. Make your values the foundation for technology adoption and investment. [27:41] 5. Make your voice heard in the technology policy-making process. [34:13 ] Q & A   Download the session handout. Follow along with the transcript.   Presenter bios:   Amy Sample Ward believes that technology should be accessible and accountable to everyone, especially communities historically and systemically excluded from the digital world. They are the CEO of NTEN, a non-profit creating a world where missions and movements are more successful through the skillful and equitable use of technology. Amy’s second book, Social Change Anytime Everywhere, was a Terry McAdam Book Award finalist. Their most recent book is The Tech That Comes Next, with Afua Bruce.   Katie Gibson is a lawyer by training and an activist at heart. She is passionate about using entrepreneurial tools for social impact. Katie led strategy and partnerships at the CIO (Chief Information Officer) Strategy Council, a nonprofit focused on Canada’s digital transformation. In this role, she cofounded the Canadian Centre for Nonprofit Digital Resilience, where she is now Executive Director. She also leads work on sustainable IT and responsible AI (Artificial Intelligence). You may also have crossed paths with Katie in her previous roles as general counsel in a national youth charity, as director of Social Enterprise for the Ontario government, or in her work at the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing.

When searching for a new office space, it’s all about the lease. In this session, recorded live on November 25, George Georghiades, Principal and CEO of Lexington Park Real Estate Incorporated, presents his advice on who to hire for help, what to look out for, and how to minimize risk in what is often an organization’s second largest expense. These are his five suggested steps for a non-profit’s leasing process. [6:03] 1. Define your space needs [11:56] 2. Align your internal team [15:51] 3. Hire the right external specialists [21:04] 4. Be mindful as you negotiate your lease and prepare for occupancy [26:56] 5. Use your rent-free period wisely [32:58 ] Q & A Download George’s leasing process checklist, the handout, and session slides. Follow along with the transcript. Presenter bio: George leads and oversees Lexington Park’s team of investment, asset management, and development professionals. Prior to co-founding Lexington Park, George held progressively senior roles at McKinsey & Company, serving both its Private Equity and Institutional Investor Practice and providing guidance on a wide range of issues related to alternative asset class investing, specifically real estate and private equity. A Loran Scholar from the Class of 1995, George was the first alumnus to serve on the board of the Loran Scholars Foundation. He has also served as Board Treasurer for the Design Exchange, Canada’s Design Museum. He holds a BA in Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, an MSc. in Real Estate Economics and Finance at the London School of Economics, and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University.