Important Dates
Next Program
FALL 2025
Online Version: starts September 2025
Duration
Location
Register to the waitlist
Program Overview
Your Community, your career, your move!
Developed in collaboration with West Island Community Shares for non-profit professionals, current and aspiring leaders and anyone interested in working in this rewarding community sector.
Led by a dynamic and experienced team of professionals, participants will learn the fundamentals of leading in the non-profit sector, deepening their knowledge and skills and learning from a range of resources and perspectives.
Program lets you:
- Develop skills to be a successful non-profit leader
- Learn about effective management practices
- Apply learning through case studies and practical examples
- Make connections with current non-profit leaders and participants
TOPICS include:
- The Non-profit Ecosystem in Quebec and Canada
- Governance Models
- Board-Executive Director Relationship
- Diversity and Governance
- Strategic Planning
- Strategy Implementation and Impact Measurement
- Winning HR Policies and Procedures
- Staff and Volunteer Recruitment and Management
- Financial Management
- Government Financing
- The Donor Landscape
- Principles of Fundraising
- The Do’s and Don’ts of Fundraising
- Types of Fundraising: Annual Campaigns, Capital Campaigns, Legacy Giving, Events, Direct Mail
- Communications and Stakeholder Management
The Instructors
Karen Mitchell, CFRE: Philanthropy Consultant, CONSEILS Karen Mitchell Consulting
Karen is an internationally accredited professional fundraiser with more than thirty years of experience working in the nonprofit sector. She works with organizations and professionals on all aspects of fundraising, communications, and strategic planning. She is passionate about philanthropy and has a career-long focus on mentoring the next generation of fundraising professionals. Prior to establishing her own consulting business, Karen worked at increasing levels of responsibility for many of Montreal’s top fundraising organizations, including The Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation, The Montreal Neurological Institute – Hospital (McGill University) and The Teresa Dellar Palliative Care Residence. In addition to being a philanthropy strategist and a fundraising specialist, she is also a writer, copy editor and proofreader (specializing in documents translated from French to English). A native Montrealer, Karen obtained her B.A. in Psychology from McGill in the late 80s and then pursued a love of cooking and went to culinary school, where she was trained in classic French cuisine. She has enjoyed preparing meals for friends and family ever since.
Yves Picard: General Manager, Carrefour jeunesse emploi Ouest de l’Ile and CJE Marquette
With a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sexology, Yves Picard has worked with young people and adults since 1986, first at a youth center and then at a youth consultation office. In 1998, he became General Manager of Carrefour Jeunesse-emploi (CJE) Marquette; in 2001, he also accepted the general management of CJE Ouest-de-Île.
Since then, Yves has managed both effectively and led to exceptional results while implementing mechanisms and internal policies. He is one of the initial promoters and now president of the Regroupement Lachine Social Economy Project that has enabled the conversion of a former IGA into offices for community groups.
Yves currently sits on the board of directors of CDEC LaSalle-Lachine, Réseau réussite Montréal, Concertation Montréal and PME MTL West-Island.
Marlo Turner-Ritchie: Founder and Principal Consultant at Social Impact Consulting / Conseil Impact Social
Marlo Turner Ritchie is the Founder and Principal Consultant at Social Impact Consulting / Conseil Impact Social. For the past twenty five years she has dedicated herself to grassroots organizing, non-profit management and governance. As a former Executive Director, she understands first hand the challenges that leaders in the field face. Marlo and her team are deeply committed to social justice, anti-oppression and de-colonization work and have consulted with over eighty non-profits, coops and foundations of varying sizes and missions over the past six years. She is a founding member of the NDG Art Hive and President of the Unitarian Church of Montreal. She identifies as a queer woman and white settler and lives with her partner and eight year-old in NDG.
Adrienn( Adri) Lukács: Consultante Principale / Principal Consultant at Social Impact Consulting / Conseil Impact Social
Adri joined Social Impact Consulting in 2020 after over 15 years in the domestic and international nonprofit sectors promoting human rights, arts, culture, and women’s rights. As the Interim Director of Women Aware, during the pandemic Adri re-built the organization by recruiting a vast network of new volunteers, stabilizing its finances through a new fundraising strategy, and coaching volunteers and staff. Before that, as the Co-Director of NDG Arts Week, Adri coordinated the 2018 edition of the NDG Arts Week Festival, which drew over 10,000 attendees, and launched the Imagine Monkland Festival, which welcomed 180,000 people during its first edition.
At Social Impact Consulting, Adri helps clients strengthen their governance structures, refine their strategic plans and fundraising strategies, and introduce bylaws and policies tailored to their institutional cultures.
Outside of work, Adri enjoys camping, body moving, and activities with friends and family, and her dog Jazz.
Madeleine Aldana Cohen: Principal at Madeleine Aldana Cohen Consulting & Facilitation
Madeleine Aldana Cohen (she/they) is a facilitator and consultant. She helps community organizations to thrive by supporting them to develop HR policies and practices that provide the foundation for cultures of care, communication, and generative feedback. They draw from 15 years in Montreal’s community sector, and weave together perspectives gained through their experiences in frontline, leadership, and consulting roles. Madeleine identifies as a white settler with mixed Guatemalan Jewish ancestry, and has an approach grounded in anti-racism, feminism, and queerness.