Vice President – Avon MacFarlane
Senior Associate – Robin Fowler
Associate – Prabha Mattappally
Research – Innovative Research Group
PRINCIPAL – NICHOLAS OFFORD
Nicholas Offord is Principal of The Offord Group and provides comprehensive counsel to our clients in all areas.
Nicholas is one of Canada's most experienced and respected leaders in institutional development. Following a five-year career (1984-1989) as a Ketchum Canada Inc. Campaign Director, Nicholas served as Executive Director of Development at McGill University. In 1994, he received the 1994 gold medal for "Best Development Program" from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education, in recognition of his work in support of McGill's hugely successful $200 million campaign. In 1995, he became the President of Mount Sinai Hospital Foundation and Vice-President, Resource and Development of Mount Sinai Hospital. Here, Nicholas led the breakthrough $250 million "The Best Medicine" campaign.
Nicholas is a well-known speaker across Canada on fundraising and community development. In 1999, the Toronto Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals awarded him "Outstanding Executive of the Year". In 2000, he was selected as one of "Canada's Top 40 Leaders Under 40" by the Report on Business magazine. Nicholas has a special interest in government relations and public policy and has served (2001-02) as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Minister of Health for Ontario, with a focus on health care reform policy for Ontario.
Nicholas has worked with such clients as: University of Alberta, Canadian Olympic Association, Consumers Association of Canada, Acadia University, York University, Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Saint Vincent University, Canadian Cancer Society, Credit Valley Hospital, The Ottawa Hospital, Concordia University, Hamilton YWCA, Foster Parents Plan, Hamilton Health Sciences Foundation, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
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VICE PRESIDENT – AVON MacFARLANE
Avon MacFarlane is a distinguished fundraising professional with more than 20 years experience in the non-profit sector, specializing in the advancement field. Prior to The Offord Group, Avon was Interim Assistant Vice President, University Advancement for the University of Toronto, where she dedicated the past 12 years to the University’s successful $1 billion campaign. In this role, her portfolio included many aspects of fundraising and advancement, including Major Gifts, and Planned and Annual Giving, as well as working closely with all Faculties and Divisions of the University to help secure funding partners for the University’s highest academic priorities.
Prior to the University of Toronto, Avon worked for several years in fundraising and sponsorship at Harbourfront Centre, seeking private and public funds for theatre festivals, children’s programming, dance series, films and music festivals. She also worked for several years with the Programming Division. Prior to Harbourfront, Avon held a number of positions in event management, public relations and publishing.
Avon has been involved as a volunteer with many organizations including several arts organizations and other not-for-profit organizations. Currently, she sits on the Minister’s Advisory Council for Arts and Culture for the Ministry of Culture.
Avon joins The Offord Group as Vice-President, working as a lead consultant for clients across all charitable sectors.
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SENIOR ASSOCIATE – ROBIN FOWLER
Robin is a recognized and respected fundraising professional with 15 years of experience in the non-profit sector. She began her career in the Advancement office at McGill University, where she also completed two degrees (BA Honours Russian and MEd, Educational Psychology). Robin spent five years fundraising for McGill in various capacities including direct mail and phonathons, major gifts and donor relations.
From 1997-1999, Robin acted as Campaign Manager for Mount Sinai Hospital's $100 million "Best Medicine" campaign. She handled prospect management, proposal writing, campaign cabinet meetings, as well as all internal and external campaign communications, including the launch strategy and advertising campaign. She also coordinated the donor relations and stewardship program.
In 2000, Robin became the Director of Advancement at Havergal College, where her outstanding dedication and skillful achievements have been recognized with several awards from CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education).
Robin is an active volunteer in the field -- many organizations have had the benefit of her experience, including the AFP Greater Toronto Chapter, McGill's Toronto Alumni Association, CAISAP (Canadian Association of Independent Schools Advancement Professionals), RECLAIM, Terry Fox Run, Jacob's Ladder, Playoff Hockey Challenge for the Children's Wish Foundation.
Robin is a highly-regarded speaker and has presented at several industry (CASE, AFP, CCAE) conferences. Her background as a member of the Canadian National Rhythmic Gymnastics Team also provided her with the experience to become a FAME (Female Athletes Motivating Excellence) speaker from 1985-2003. Robin has inspired thousands of people over the years at conferences and schools, speaking about the values of dedication, determination, perseverance, goal-setting and motivation.
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ASSOCIATE – PRABHA MATTAPPALLY
Prabha Mattappally works closely with Nicholas Offord in providing support in philanthropic counsel and in the coordination of special projects and studies on behalf of clients.
Prabha also plays an integral role in the marketing, sales and overall development and operations of the company. Prior to joining The Offord Group, Prabha was a Senior Development Associate with the Mount Sinai Hospital Foundation, responsible for research and proposal writing for the Hospital's top philanthropic prospects.
Prabha has a Bachelor of Business Administration (Honours) degree, with a minor in psychology, from Wilfrid Laurier University.
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RESEARCH – INNOVATIVE RESEARCH GROUP
www.innovativeresearch.ca
Innovative Research Group Inc. (Innovative) provides quantitative and qualitative research analysis to our clients.
Innovative is a Toronto-based strategy firm. They provide critical information needed to assess a public policy or communications problem, identify and evaluate potential solutions, and monitor their success.
Innovative provides clients with a wide array of research tools ranging from policy analysis to media content studies to focus groups and national telephone surveys.
Greg Lyle
Greg is the founder and Managing Director of Innovative Research Group Inc. (Innovative). With over 20 years of communications and opinion research experience, Greg uses the full range of research tools to provide strategic counsel to a variety of private and public sector clients.
Greg has directed a wide array of qualitative and quantitative research projects, focusing primarily on strategy development, communications research and issue management. He has conducted studies in such diverse areas as health care, insurance, utilities, financial services, education, labour relations and public policy research.
Greg completed his bachelor's degree in Political Science at UBC where he also completed the master's degree course work. He continues to advance his knowledge of research method's through the Essex Summer School in Applied Social Statistics as well other institutes, association and supplier workshops. Greg also maintains an ongoing involvement in the academic world, presenting research papers at the Canadian Political Science Association, the American Association of Public Opinion Research and the American Political Science Association. His media polls have appeared on Global TV, various Canwest Newspapers, the Globe and Mail and Time magazine. He has also been a regular commentator on Report on Business TV's Squeeze Play.
Jason Lockhart
Jason's role encompasses all aspects of project research, including both quantitative and qualitative analysis. His quantitative experience covers a wide array of analytical techniques from multivariate and time-series analysis to financial modelling and event study design. On the qualitative side, Jason has experience interviewing executives and business leaders, analyzing focus group discussions and coding open-ended questions. He has undertaken projects for clients in a broad range of sectors, including media, natural resources, healthcare and the not-for-profit sector.
Prior to joining Innovative, Jason held research analyst positions at BearingPoint (formerly KPMG Consulting) and at a business policy think tank. He has a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree and a Master of Science degree in Political Economy, both from Queen's University.
For more information on Innovative Research Group, please visit them at www.innovativeresearch.ca.
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