“The state of the health of the non-profit community in Montreal is a loaded question. If you look at statistics across Canada, they’ll tell you that the industry is facing giant hurdles and barriers to success in the future. If you look at the statistics again, you have the older generation which is the backbone to philanthropy, specifically here in Montreal but also across Canada. And the younger generation isn’t giving in the same capacity as the older generation.

So if you look at the trends in giving histories, you’ll see that Montreal specifically gives on average less dollars per donation compared to some of the other provinces. So if you’re a pessimist or you look at it from a glass is half empty perspective, you’ll say okay, we’re in trouble. I’m much more positive. I like to see that as there might not be the same quantity or major gifts that are being given from a Montreal perspective, but we can get more.

So from a fundraising perspective, if you need to raise $1,000, you could make a phone call to one person and get $1,000 or you can make 10 phone calls to 10 different people and get $100 in order to get that same results. I’m of the belief that making those calls to those 10 people is worth the effort. You get more engagements. You get more people on the bus. From a business perspective, it also gives you way more security. If you’re running a business and you only have one customer, your livelihood is tied to that one customer. But if you have 10 customers, 10 clients, and you lose one, it’s much less of a burden to replace that one as opposed to that major one.”