Five Good Ideas Podcast

Sarada Peri, founder of Peri Communications and former Senior Speechwriter to President Barack Obama, joined Five Good Ideas to share how to create messages that are sharp, compelling, and persuasive. “What are some questions that I can ask myself to get to the one thing, the one thing I want to say? ‘What is my purpose?’” asked Sarada. “In everything you do, you should start with ‘What is my purpose?’” Sarada’s five good ideas: 1. Say one thing 2. Know your audience 3. Speak from their values, not yours 4. Tell a story 5. Write and speak like a human Subscribe to the Five Good Ideas newsletter.

Bob Goulais, founder of Nbissing Consulting Inc., joined Five Good Ideas to discuss some wise practices to be more inclusive of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit. “Most of all,” said Bob, “consider integrating Indigenous values and ways of being.” Bob’s five good ideas: Be values-based in everything you do Involve First Nations, Métis, and Inuit in co-development, collaboration, and partnerships Consider developing a Reconciliation Action Plan Take cultural competency or cultural safety training Consider personal, sustained action as an ally to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit You can download the session handout, view Bob's bio, and read the transcript here.

Diana Chan McNally is a frontline worker and advocate for homeless people. In this session, Elizabeth McIsaac talks to Diana about what she's learned in combining both roles. You can find Diana's good ideas, resources, and full bio here.

In this session, Sree Nallamothu and Fran Odette joined Elizabeth McIsaac to discuss how to create an accessible workplace. They explain how to be proactive, to move beyond niceties, the power of language, embracing intersectionality, and putting accessibility in the budget. You can find the transcript, and Sree and Fran's full bios here: Five Good Ideas for disrupting ableism in the workplace - Maytree

This session provides a guide to participating in nonprofit boards, drawing on the expert knowledge of Rick Powers, a governance and board leadership specialist at Rotman School of Management. Topics include the importance of understanding fiduciary duty and duty of care, addressing the "information chasm" between board members and management, the significance of financial literacy, CEO succession planning, board memberships and recruiting, and dealing with conflicts of interest. Rick places emphasis on the necessity for passion about the cause, as well as clarity of role expectations for effective board membership. For Rick's full bio, resources, and the session transcript, visit the Five Good Ideas website.

It can be hard sustaining a collaboration because tackling community issues together creates challenges to partnership and momentum. But you can set up a collaboration for success. Focus on four areas—people, resources, process, and impact—and the factors that determine their quality, like leadership, funding, community engagement, and the ability to influence policy and systems that lead to collective change. When things do get hard (and they will), the collaboration’s resilience will be proven by its overall health and well-being, as well as its ability to adapt, shift, and change. In this session, recorded live on May 8, 2023, Liz Weaver and Mike Des Jardins of the Tamarack Institute share stories and provide helpful ideas about how to make a collaboration more sustainable, resilient, and impactful. They discuss how collaborations can develop a sustainable approach during the early phases of their work. They also pose the question: What really needs to be sustained and how might this work? [5:50] 1. Define what is a sustainable collaboration [11:32 2. Focus on people, process, resources, and impact [16:42] 3. Centre equity in the design of sustainability [20:03] 4. Adapt to changing communities / collaboration [24:05] 5. Include funders in the process [27:05] Q & A Download the session handout. Follow along with the transcript. Presenter bios: Liz Weaver is co-CEO at the Tamarack Institute. Liz leads the Tamarack Learning Centre providing strategic direction for the design and development of learning activities. The focus of the Tamarack Learning Centre is to work with community leaders to co-generate knowledge and become a collective force for social change. Liz is one of Tamarack’s popular trainers and has developed and delivered curriculum on a variety of workshop topics including collaborative governance, leadership, collective impact, community innovation, influencing policy change and social media for impact and engagement. Previous to this, Liz led the Vibrant Communities Canada team and provided coaching, leadership, and support to community partners across Canada. In her career, she was the Director for the Hamilton Roundtable on Poverty Reduction (a collective impact initiative), which was recognized with the Canadian Urban Institute’s Leadership Award in 2009. She has also held leadership positions with YWCA Hamilton, Volunteer Hamilton and Volunteer Canada. Liz has a Masters of Management through McGill University. Liz was awarded a Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 2002 for her leadership in the voluntary sector and has received awards and recognition from the City of Hamilton, Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, Parks and Recreation Ontario, and Volunteer Canada. Mike Des Jardins is the Manager of Sustainability & Development for Communities Building Youth Futures (CBYF), Tamarack Institute. In this role, Mike is responsible for sustainability planning, researching, and sharing best practices related to the sustainability and resilience of youth collective impact work, coaching CBYF communities on developing and implementing sustainability strategies, and telling the story of impact. Mike is a ce...

“We couldn’t do it without you!” “Without strong partners, this couldn’t be done.” We use these phrases because they are at the heart of how we work for social change. Social change does not happen in a vacuum. In this session, recorded live on February 23, Agapi Gessesse, Executive Director, CEE Centre for Black Young Professionals, shared her five good ideas on how community organizations, governments, and corporations can create ecosystems where everyone benefits from each other’s work, and advances the social change that we all want to see. [3:58] 1. Build relationships (strategically) [10:39] 2. Make sure everyone is benefitting mutually through the relationships[15:01] 3. Directions must have an ESG plan (ESG stands for “environmental, social, and (corporate) governance”) [20:05] 4. Non-profit organizations should have a government relations plan [31:35] 5. Determine from the onset what success could look like and how long it will take[36:07 ] Q & A Download the session handout. Follow along with the transcript. Presenter bio: Agapi is Executive Director of CEE Centre for Young Black Professionals, an organization dedicated to addressing economic issues affecting Black youth. She is passionate about CEE’s mission-driven and evidence-based work. Agapi also served as Executive Director of POV 3rd Street, an organization that helps marginalized youth break into the media industry through training, mentorship, job placement, and professional development opportunities. Through prior work as a fundraising professional, social enterprise manager, and coordinator of youth leadership programs, Agapi has established a record of accomplishment in operations management, program implementation and evaluation, financial stewardship, partner development, and community engagement. Her experience includes positions with United Way of Greater Toronto and the Toronto Community Housing Corporation.