Lakehead Purchasing Consortium

Lakehead Purchasing Consortium

“The Lakehead Purchasing Consortium (LPC) identified sustainable procurement as a priority given the breadth of environmental and social issues we are facing. The City of Thunder Bay who is a member of the LPC and had led some innovative work to integrate sustainability into food purchasing, recognized an opportunity to build LPC knowledge & capacity. 

After hearing Shift & Build speak at a national conference, they were engaged to design and deliver three tailored sustainable procurement training sessions for the LPC. The sessions worked to connect procurement to existing organizational goals and clarified a roadmap for advancing sustainable procurement.

Shift & Build developed and delivered training that was relevant, thoughtful and will help guide procurement professionals in applying their new knowledge in advancing sustainable and social outcomes.”

~Dan Munshaw, CSCMP, CPSM, C.P.P
Manager, Supply Management
City of Thunder Bay

It was a genuine pleasure to work with the LPC team. Their interest and passion for impact is inspiring!

Aura Freedom International

“Monica has an incredible way of zoning in on an organization's strengths and building from "where you are". As a smaller grassroots group, Monica's expertise has been invaluable to us. We are grateful for her insight, her efficiency, and her brilliant way of approaching Aura Freedom's strategic planning. But most of all, as an organization addressing violence against women, I'm so very grateful for her heart. I cannot recommend Shift and Build's services more.”

Marissa Kokkoros
Founder and Executive Director, Aura Freedom International

Overview of work
Aura Freedom is a small but mighty grass roots non-profit working to end gender-based violence through advocacy and education. With a team of 4, an award winning program to help prevent human traficking and recent funding to address gender based violence in the media, Aura Freedom was seeking support for a strategic plan.

Shift & Build was initially brought on to help Aura Freedom envision and plan for impact at scale enabled by integrated strategies for financial resilience. This work involved a landscape analysis, interviews with team members and a series of facilitated sessions that provided an opportunity to consider and assess possible pathways for impact and resilience.

Following this, Shift & Build was asked to support Aura Freedom in developing a sex trafficking education strategic plan for the Toronto District School Board. Shift & Build designed a needs assessment, led 5 focus groups with TDSB employee and student groups, synthesized findings and provided key recommendations to inform the education plan.

It has been heartening and rewarding to work with Marissa and the Aura Freedom team. I know this work will help Aura Freedom and all of us in the journey to eradicate gender-based violence.

Blueprint

“Monica combines creativity and clarity of thought with an obvious passion for making the world a better place. She is also incredibly organized, responsive and open to questions and dialogue. I very much enjoyed the experience of working with Monica and the ideas and insights she shared with us will have a lasting impact”

Kelly Pasolli,
Senior Advisor, Innovation & Insights, Blueprint

As a leader in using evidence to help drive change, Blueprint recognizes that increased generation and usage of evidence can increase the ability of not-for-profit organizations to meet their goals. Shift & Build was brought on to help Blueprint better understand the characteristics and size of this opportunity. This work involved a landscape analysis, a series of interviews with not-for-profit organizations, the identification of potential service opportunities and internal workshops to discuss the findings and prioritize opportunities.

It has been inspiring and rewarding to work with Blueprint.   I know this work can help increase the generation and usage of evidence in the not-for-profit sector and overall outcomes. 

WomanACT

“Working with Monica has been a real pleasure, I particularly appreciated her strategic thinking, expertise and appreciation of our work as it enabled a smooth alignment between impact and revenue.”

Harmy  Mendoza,
Executive Director, WomanACT

WomanACT has been working to end violence against women through system change. Shift & Build began working with WomanACT in 2020. The first initiative was a feasibility study to provide an understanding of the market for education products focused on violence against women. Leveraging this study, Shift & Build developed a revenue generation strategy for WomanACT's education and capacity building services.

Additional important pieces of work included sector strategies for partnership development, stakeholder engagement and the development of a member strategy. Shift & Build enjoyed helping WomanACT advance new areas of work and advance efforts to eradicate violence against women.

Oasis Centre des Femmes

“Thank you, Monica. I truly appreciate how succinctly but strategically you have described the breadth and value of the work francophone women have done as part of the Oasis community.

Your analysis has provided inspiration to me and everyone who will continue to pursue this important cause for the next 25 years.”

Dada Gasirabo,
Executive Director, Oasis Centre des Femmes

Overview of work
Oasis Centre des Femmes is a francophone, multiservice charity working to support French speaking victims of violence in the GTA. It provides a breadth of critically important services ranging from counselling, court, settlement and housing support to employment, action research and capacity building. After 23 years working at Oasis, Dada Gasirabo, Oasis' Executive Director was planning to transition towards retirement. Dada was looking for a way to ensure that the organization continued to build on the strong foundation. 

Shift & Build was brought on to help with this, conceptualizing an impact report that documented the current context, the evolution of Oasis, its impact, strengths, challenges and recommendations for moving forward. This work involved a landscape analysis, a series of interviews with key stakeholders as well as the facilitation of strategic discussions in order to clarify recommendations for increased impact. 

It has been moving and heartwarming to work with Oasis. I know this work will help grow and accelerate the impact of Oasis.