Philanthropy, fundraising, social enterprise…. whatever you choose to call it, raising money for a worthy cause is a complex task. This morning, we were invited to make a presentation to the leadership group of The Princess Margaret. Leading doctors, surgeons, research scientists and other leaders were sitting around the boardroom table. Sherri, Christine, Lynn, Asha and I met up around 7:30 a.m. and prepared this group to “peel the onion” of philanthropy.
We basically explained the complex world of fundraising with emphasis on four key words. Sherri spoke about RELATIONSHIPS, Christine spoke about PARTICIPATION, Lynn spoke about COMMUNICATION, and Asha spoke about IMPACT. Oh yeah, we passed around large onions and chopping board and peeling knives to help make our point to the dozen or so esteemed docs sitting around the table. As each speaker talked about their specific point we invited the doctors to “peel a layer of the onion”. We had some laughs and I think we made our point.
Every day I find I learn something new about the world of social enterprise. We have enormous support from the staff at Princess Margaret and every day we build on our community of supporters. Every day we peel the onion and every day we focus on our vision and ambition To Conquer Cancer In Our Lifetime. Relationships, participation, communication, and impact are all part of how we support one of the world’s top 5 cancer research centres.
We are always looking for help to “peel the onion”.