S04E03 -Centering Community

Today we are spotlighting an anti-poverty charity in Toronto, Ontario called The Stop and their concrete examples of implementing community centred fundraising principles.

Canadian Thanksgiving is the perfect time for this episode. The Stop improves access to healthy food in a way that maintains dignity, builds health and community and challenges inequality. The Community Food Centre is just that. A community centre that brings people together and addresses poverty in a more holistic way.

I met Marie – France Roche and Maria Rio when they were presenting at Toronto AFP Congress in 2022.

Marie-France has worked for anti-poverty organizations for the past seven years. She is currently one of the lead fundraisers at The Stop Community Food Centre, where she provides strategic oversight of all fundraising, policy and communications. Marie-France has been featured in the Toronto Star, OMNI News, and spoke at AFP 2022 Congress. She would love to connect with you on LinkedIn.

Maria Rio (she/her) is a fundraising consultant with Further Together with 10+ years of non-profit experience. She is regularly asked to speak on issues related to fundraising and her op-eds have been featured in national publications. She was a finalist for the national 2022 Charity Village Best Individual Fundraiser Award and has a deep passion for non-profit work. Maria also sits on the Board of Living Wage Canada. You can connect with Maria through Further Together or through LinkedIn.

In this conversation Maria and Marie – France share concrete actions they took in their organization to implement community centred fundraising principles. This includes:

- Challenging the status quo

- Overhauling how they approach special events

- Reinventing corporate fundraising relationships

- Developing a new approach to major donor stewardship

- Rethinking how they collaborate with other organizations and donors to meet the community’s needs in meaningful ways with dignity for everyone.

I can’t thank Maria and Marie-France enough for their generous contributions to this podcast. Their approach to this conversation was so thoughtful, gracious and incredibly patient. Personally, I’ve learned so much about how I approach this work and I hope you have too.

Remember to check out The Stop’s blog posts and Op Eds in the links below and remember to share this episode with your staff and forward the conversation with your team. Make time to talk about what kind of small or big changes you can make to centre your community in your operations.

Let’s move forward in deep gratitude for each other and the abundance that is all around us while being mindful that not everyone walks through this world with the same priviledges you you do. Let’s keep building community together. See you next time.

NOTE: Marie- France and Maria were extremely generous and we spent almost an hour and half together. Since I know even a one hour podcast is a stretch I’ve asked my sound engineer Rob to tighten up this episode a bit. You may hear some transitions.

 

For more:

Community Centric Fundraising Principles: https://communitycentricfundraising.org/ccf-principles/

The Stop Blog: https://www.thestop.org/blog/

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/07/08/philanthropy-is-broken-how-the-stop-community-food-centre-is-moving-away-from-donor-centric-fundraising-to-prioritize-community.html

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/09/15/how-will-candidates-for-city-council-address-poverty-in-toronto.html

https://www.thestop.org/blog/community-centric-fundraising-rethinking-the-way-philanthropy-works/

https://www.dailybread.ca/research-and-advocacy/research/food-bank-policy-drivers/

Public policy engagement: https://www.thestop.org/blog/charities-are-discourage-from-getting-political/

We will be publishing another great episode next week so please be sure to subscribe to the email list at intersectionhub.ca or follow The Intersection Hub podcast wherever you get your podcasts.