Collective Results is passionate about helping not-for-profit organizations, charities, and public sector organizations do good work better.
From health and human services organizations to education and environmental organizations, if you have a mission to do good, we want to work with you.
Collective Results takes on the foundational work that organizations don’t have time to do so that they can spend time doing what they do best, making the world a better place.
Some of our core services include strategic planning, systems planning, program development, program monitoring & evaluation, project management, facilitation, and grant and proposal writing.
Tell us about yourself?
I founded Collective Results in November of 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the pandemic hit, I was working a great job at a local Public Health Unit. I was the Manager of a Health Promotion team, and my team was in a serious flow. We were engaging with the community, working in partnership, developing innovative strategies, publishing articles, and winning national awards. I was well-supported by my organization to pursue good work and professional development that kept me learning and growing. Things were going well.
In March of 2020, everything changed. The entire Public Health system shifted to respond to COVID-19. My job changed. Everyone’s job changed. We were all COVID-19 all the time. I am so grateful to all of my former Public Health colleagues that put their work and their lives on hold to stop the spread and get everyone vaccinated. They have been true and often under-recognized heroes in the fight against COVID-19.
When the pandemic hit, I had some time to reflect on how things were going, and my reflection taught me two things:
- The most important things to me in my work are: making a difference, being helpful, and working in a team.
- When these three elements are present in my work, I love work, and I work relentlessly in the pursuit of doing good.
I was happiest in my former roles when I was mobilizing communities and individuals to solve complex social problems. I realized that I wanted to spend more of my time doing that, and I wanted to support as many different organizations and communities in that endeavour as possible.
The skills that I gained through my education and while working in health promotion and management – research, planning, strategy, project management, evaluation, group facilitation, and communications are skills that not-for-profit agencies and public sector organizations don’t always fully have in-house. I wanted to help fill this gap.
My decision to leave Public Health during the pandemic was an incredibly difficult one. I knew that there was an incredible amount of work to do to stop the spread of COVID-19 and get everyone vaccinated, but I also recognized that there continued to be an immense need in the community for work that focuses on other aspects of individual and community wellbeing. For example, community needs around child and youth mental health, family support, and resilience have only increased due to the pandemic. In my heart, I knew I needed to find a way to continue supporting that type of work.
These were the major drivers for me in deciding to start Collective Results. Collective Results is focused on helping organizations do good work better. I hope you see my values reflected in our mission. And I am so grateful to have pulled together a dream team of talented former public service professionals to support this mission.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
For me personally, the past year has allowed me to have a substantial mindset shift about this business. Early on, and even a year ago, I was very reserved when I talked about the business. When people would ask me how things were going, I would respond by saying things like, “It’s great, but who knows what the future will hold.” I was tentative to admit to myself or others how well things were going. What if this was a terrible idea? What if it suddenly failed? What if I wasn’t cut out to run a business? I had some serious self-doubt going on. And, in fairness, there is actually nothing wrong with not overrating your abilities. If you have doubt, research shows that you are more likely to work harder, work smarter, and learn more. What I am realizing, though, is that my doubts were placing limits on my expectations and dreams for this business. The past year has taught me to shift my mindset to one of growth. Under this growth mindset, I can allow myself to be confident that, by learning and working together, we can figure anything out.
Now, when someone asks me how things are going, I respond with, “Things are great.” and when they ask me a question I don’t know the answer to, I respond with, “I’m not sure, but I know we’ll be able to figure it out.” Running a new and growing business requires a lot of adaptability and figuring things out as you go. Now I’m realizing that I don’t need to limit my dreams for this company. If we can dream it, we can do it. And we have some big dreams.
What problem does your business solve?
Collective Results takes on the foundational work that organizations don’t have time to do so that they can spend time doing what they do best, making the world a better place.
Collective Results works in partnership with organizations and communities to help them define and achieve their goals and know that they’re making a difference. We can help them build strategies for meaningful change and show that change to their communities and funders.
Collective Results understands the increasing complexity of problems faced within the systems that organizations operate in. We are committed to working with them to find innovative upstream solutions to address these issues.
Collective Results can work on individual projects or can be fully integrated into an organization to support a number of connected strategic initiatives.
What is your magic sauce?
The team at Collective Results understands the challenges of working in an organization that is committed to doing good. We’ve worked in those organizations ourselves. We understand the budgetary and political pressures that organizations face every day. We understand how difficult it is to find the time to build the foundations organizations need to do the best work they can do. We know that individuals working in not-for-profit, charities, and public sector organizations want to make positive change, and we want to help them build bridges between great intentions and great outcomes.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
Collective Results intends to continue to grow to do more good work. This means serving more organizations and communities to help them achieve their goals. We are working hard to develop innovative products and ways of working to deliver value to not-for-profit organizations, charities, and public sector organizations across Ontario and across Canada.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Our biggest challenge so far has been keeping up with the demand for work in these sectors. We’ve been growing our team with talented and effective team members to meet the demand. Figuring out how much to grow while ensuring we have the corporate structure and infrastructure to support and sustain our team has been a challenge. We have been working together as a team and taking advantage of opportunities (like the Federal CDAP grant) to ensure that we are well set up to achieve our long-term goals and serve our clients well.
How can people get involved?
Visit www.collectiveresults.ca for more information about what we do and to get in touch with us. You can also follow us on LinkedIn to stay current on what we’re up to www.ca.linkedin.com/company/collective-results.