#SenecaProud

Joy Gooding  00:00 

What I love is really matching people with their passions and giving them an opportunity to support the things that are important to them. 

 

Pat Perdue  00:08 

Hey, I'm Pat Perdue, and I'd like to welcome you to Season Two of the Seneca Proud podcast. This is a co-production between my company Ycastr and Seneca College in Toronto. Seneca College is a really great school. And what we uncovered in season one of Seneca Proud is that there's a Seneca spirit. And that comes from the really great people that Seneca attracts. This season we'll be featuring some of those students, staff as well as faculty to not only learn what they do here, but also a little bit about who they are. So, join me on this journey of discovery, as we meet some of the people who make Seneca College, such a special place to teach, work and study. 

Welcome to Seneca Proud Season Two, where I get to introduce you to some of Seneca College's amazing family of staff, faculty and students. So, if you haven't already, subscribe, and download and let's go meet some of the super inspiring folks here at Seneca. I'm Pat Perdue, and I'm glad you're here today.  

And welcome back to Season Two of the Seneca Proud podcast. This is Season Two, Episode Seven and I am Pat Perdue. Welcome back. Season Two of the Seneca Proud podcast is about bringing forward stories not only of the faculty but of students and staff and highlighting their achievements both while at Seneca and outside of Seneca. 

One of the true honors of getting to do this podcast is meeting all of the great people who make Seneca College function. Maybe we don't get to see them every day. But without their help, this would not be the great place that it is. Today's guest is truly one such person. Our guest today is Joy Gooding and her job title is Senior Development Officer. And what that means is that she and her colleagues spend their days focused on ensuring that the programs and students receive the funding they need to thrive. In a sense, Joy kind of keeps the lights on and one of the areas she focuses her energy on is what is known as the King Giving Circle. It's a really special group. And while we talk about it in more detail in our conversation, what I can tell you is that it is entirely representative of the special relationship all of Seneca College has with the communities it serves. And in this specific instance, the King Giving Circle speaks to the special relationship Seneca College has with historic King Township. 

Okay, so let me tell you about Joy. As I mentioned, Joy is responsible for securing major gifts for programming capital initiatives, sponsorships, and financial aid for Seneca. She has held senior fundraising positions at Toronto International Film Festival and Jazz FM 91. Her experience includes annual and major gifts, fundraising, donor relations, project management, event planning and volunteer management. Throughout her career Joy has overseen a variety of annual programs including direct mail, telemarketing and on-air campaigns. In short, Joy knows fundraising and Joy is also a graduate of Seneca College. She graduated with honors from Radio and Television Broadcasting here and also graduated with honors from the Fundraising and Volunteer Management program at George Brown College. Joy sees her role as a facilitator, helping organizations achieve their marketing and social responsibility goals, and inspiring individuals to realize their philanthropic priorities. 

Our conversation today begins with a day in the life of Joy Gooding, and then we spend more time talking about the King Giving Circle and the amazing work that that group does. What's really cool is that Joy shares a little bit of her career trajectory. So, if you're a student and you're looking to map out your career path, you'll find Joy’s comments, a great inspiration. And we talked about a lot of great initiatives at Seneca. If you would like to donate to Seneca College after hearing this episode, I'll be sure to mention Joy's contact information at the end of the show. Stay tuned for that. I'll also put her contact information in the show notes. 

We kick off our conversation with Joy sharing some of the areas that benefit from the funding she and her colleagues raise for Seneca College. And now I present to you Seneca College’s Senior Development Officer Joy Gooding. 

 

Joy Gooding  04:17 

I'm located at Markham campus. And my day is all about fundraising. And it's everything from trying to find people and organizations who are interested in supporting Seneca to taking care of the donors that we already have. And making sure that they know that they are appreciated for the support that they give to Seneca 

 

Pat Perdue  04:37 

And taking care of donors, is that individual people, is that organizations? What kind of donors are you working with?

 

Joy Gooding  04:43 

Both individuals and corporations and its foundations which are normally family foundations that have been formed by people who have a certain amount of wealth. They decide they want to be philanthropic, and they form a foundation to do so. 

 

Pat Perdue  05:00 

Got it. Got it and, and where does that money go? 

 

Joy Gooding  05:03 

Money goes to a number of different projects here at Seneca, sometimes the funding goes towards our capital projects, our new site building, and recently Magna Hall at King campus. Some of the money goes to initiatives within the program areas. And some of it goes to a very important area, financial aid for students. And financial aid is one that's really important because I think sometimes people don't realize that some students have a very tough time managing a full program at school, as well as taking care of all those expenses. We all have rent, transportation, food, and sometimes the support that they may get from the government or from their families is just not enough to help them achieve their goals. 

 

Pat Perdue  05:56 

So, tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey that brought you into fundraising? 

 

Joy Gooding  06:02 

Well, I kind of fell into it. And you'll hear that from a lot of fundraisers that they sort of fell into it. You work for an organization; the first one I worked for was a not for profit, Jazz, FM 91. And they do a lot of fundraising. They survived through fundraising. And we were involved with their fundraising campaigns, and outreach to people who just love the station and who wanted to support it. I just kind of fell into that position and learned about fundraising there and went on from there. 

 

Pat Perdue  06:31 

Wow, good for you. And you discovered you were good at it. 

 

Joy Gooding  06:35 

Yeah, I really enjoy it.  What I love is really matching people with their passions and giving them an opportunity to support the things that are important to them. 

 

Pat Perdue  06:46 

So, is that the kind of conversation you would have with a potential donor, to ask them what they're interested in, or how they uniquely want to give back to the community, and you can connect an opportunity with their particular desire?

 

Joy Gooding  07:00 

Absolutely. That's exactly how it works. It really is all about a relationship. And when you meet a new donor, or a new organization that you want to engage with Seneca, you really look for areas of their interest, and really listen to what they're telling you about what's of interest to them. In our case, our college, so that we can find those things that might be of interest to them. 

 

Pat Perdue  07:27 

That's so interesting. And is there a top three or are there top five areas of interest that you hear from new donors, in terms of where they want their contributions to go? 

 

Joy Gooding  07:39 

There's a few that stand out. They want to support the financial aid, as I mentioned before, they understand the struggle that students have to keep themselves in school and manage their financial responsibilities. Another area that is a lot of interest to people are areas in health and wellness. And that could be anything from nursing to mental health, to police, foundations, anything around the area of health and wellness. And some of the other areas are very specific to the sectors that they work in. For example, the insurance companies have a specific interest in those programs here that deal with insurance. 

 

Pat Perdue  08:21 

Interesting. And on the other side of the coin, if there's a new program coming forward, and you know that you have a donor that has an interest in that particular subject area, is that a conversation that you would proactively have with that donor? 

 

Joy Gooding  08:34 

Yes, yes, we do. It's really important to keep our department informed of the new programs that are coming on stream, because then we can start to look for people who would be interested in those specific programs. 

 

Pat Perdue  08:46 

If somebody listening right now wants to get involved and wants to contribute either to a new program or an existing program. What would they do? 

 

Joy Gooding  08:54 

Oh, well, first of all, reach out to the advancement department and speak to one of us, whether it be a major gift or a gift at a lower level doesn't really matter. And express what it is you're interested in. Or if you don't have a specific idea, we'll be happy to sit down and talk to you about what's available. And we will try to match you with a program that you're interested in. And then there are numerous ways that you can give to the College whether it's you know, everything from stocks and bonds through insurance through a cash payment over a period of time, we can pretty much accommodate any kind of giving program that you would like to do. 

 

Pat Perdue  09:37 

Awesome. And do donors get a tax receipt? 

 

Joy Gooding  09:41 

They do.  For anybody who gives to Seneca College, tax receipts are available and that's part of the discussion we will have to ensure that we can take care of that for you. 

 

Pat Perdue  09:53 

Got it. And are people surprised at the level of flexibility that their contribution can be applied to? Maybe they think, oh, I'm just giving it to the school, versus targeting it to a specific program that's tailored toward their interest. Right?

 

Joy Gooding  10:10 

Yes, I don't think they're surprised by that. But I think what they really appreciate is when you do have a gift that's targeted to a specific program, that really gives us an opportunity to show you the impact of your gift. Once you get to know the program, we will invite you back on campus, we'll get you to meet students and faculty, and you really get to see the impact of your giving. 

 

Pat Perdue  10:35 

How exciting! So those are the things you do from a high level, I'm really curious what your day looks like, is it placing calls? Is it sending emails? What would a day in the life of Joy Gooding look like? 

 

Joy Gooding  10:47 

A little bit of the day can be connecting with donors or what we call prospects, people who may be interested in giving either through personal visits, telephone conversations or by email. It’s also spending some time going around the College, talking to faculty and connecting with them to make sure you're up to date with what's going on with the various schools that are here and also attending some of the events because we're always looking for opportunities that we can bring people to the College to see what goes on here. We do go to a lot of the events and activities that are happening around the College as well. And then really just doing research on finding prospects and donors and companies who are philanthropic and who may have an interest in giving to Seneca. And that's everything from, LinkedIn searches which will tell you who is hiring Seneca students and are looking to increase their pipeline of students that they can draw for when they're doing their talent searches. So that's another really key driver for a lot of people, especially for corporations. They're looking for their future employees. 

 

Pat Perdue  12:04 

Got it. Got it. And we've talked a little bit about some of the programs that you're involved with. And one program in particular, I know is especially close to your heart. And it's the sort of the catalyst that brought us together, it's the King Giving Circle. Tell us a little bit about that. 

 

Joy Gooding  12:19 

Yes. First of all, it's known as the King's Township Women of Influence Giving Circle, a very long and unwieldy name, which is usually shortened to King Giving Circle. But it started, I guess, back in Fall of 2016.  A colleague of mine who was not with the College anymore but had this great idea to start up something at the King campus and for the King community. We were at that time raising money for the campus expansion. And we were looking to engage the community. And she felt like doing some research and found out there are a lot of engaged people in the King community, many of them women, and many of the women own and operate their own companies or organizations. It just really seemed like a good opportunity to bring a group of people together, who would be engaged and be interested in Seneca. So that's how it started. And it started with one person who really got behind the idea. And then we grew from there. And we just sort of put together a framework of how we're going to keep these people engaged and how they can support Seneca and our giving circle is simply a group of people who come together and decide that they're going to pool their giving, their philanthropy, so they can have more impact. So rather than one person giving $1,000, you could then have 10 people giving $10,000, which then has a bigger impact on the organization that they're giving.

 

Pat Perdue  14:03 

How rewarding to be part of something like that. And for those listening who might want to get involved, is there a minimum level of contribution or how does that work? 

 

Joy Gooding  14:12 

It is $1,000. Each of the people who are involved in the giving circle gives $1,000 a year. And what their three main benefits that they get well, I call it four actually. It's very social. It's a lot of fun. There are a lot of networking opportunities, and it's what I like to call empowered philanthropy, and how it works with the giving circle that we have each member gives $1,000 a year that entitles them to a vote. And when all the money is pooled together, in our case, we have an opportunity for them to hear pitches on what they would like to fund. It’s like Dragon's Den. We have three or four teams who come and pitch to the group at what we call our voting meeting. They hear these pitches from Seneca, and then they vote on which one they want to give the money to. 

 

Pat Perdue  15:20 

And are these students that are making the presentations? Or are they faculty, or are they administrators, 

 

Joy Gooding  15:25 

It’s a combination of all of that. Generally, it's driven by a faculty member who maybe has a project that they want to do, and they don't have the budget for it, and they're looking for a way to fund it. And this is an opportunity for them to come together. Sometimes they have students who are part of the project, sometimes it's staff members, and not faculty who have a project that they want to bring forward. And in this case, it is specific to King campus. You know, King campus has our health and wellness campus, most of the programs up there are all related to health and wellness. And this resonates really well, with the King Giving Circle. The women of this group really are concerned about what's happening in the community. And it just all seems to gel very well. 

 

Pat Perdue  16:15 

It sounds so interesting. You know, we talked a little bit about this on the phone, the relationship that King campus has with the King community. And you know, it's not just your typical college, college town relationship, there's a lot more integration. Can you talk a little bit about that? 

 

Joy Gooding  16:35 

Yeah, well, you know, King campus is a very special campus, it's out there on the Oak Ridges Moraine in the protective environment. And it's very important to the people of King Township. Everybody has fond memories, you talk to anybody in the community, and they're going to tell you, they went to a wedding at Eton Hall, or they cross country ski on the property, or maybe their kids went to the day camp there. And everyone has very fond memories of those historic buildings that we have at King campus. And it's part of the community. And they see Seneca as part of the community. There's always a lot of outreach. I know the people at King do a lot of outreach to the organizations, whether they be not for profit or social service agencies within your region. And they're very involved. 

 

Pat Perdue  17:29 

Yeah, and I guess hence the creation of the King Giving Circle to enhance that relationship. Yeah, what are some projects that the King Giving Circle might have contributed to over the past couple of years that you might want to talk about? 

 

Joy Gooding  17:42 

First of all, I'd like to say a shout out to the faculty, staff and students at King campus. Because it's really them I have the relationship with, to reach out to, to hear about the projects that they're doing. I get to hear about those deep desires in their heart that they want to do for the benefit of their students. So, throughout the whole year, we have ongoing conversations about ideas that could be pitched to the giving circle. By the time we come around to September, we have about three or four that we're going to go ahead with. 

 

Pat Perdue  18:16 

If I could just ask you a little bit about that process. So, the year starts, and you start with, I guess, a larger number of proposals, let's say 10. And then as the year continues, you would whittle those proposals down to a smaller number, say, four or so. How would that work? 

 

Joy Gooding  18:33 

Yeah, you should try to have four. And sometimes somebody may have to drop out for any number of reasons. I try to have four. And they really come forward with their ideas. They put a lot of work into preparing a pitch. I've tried to provide as much support as I can. I give them templates, I give them a briefing as to how the event will go and some guidelines and some historical knowledge, so they'll know what to expect. And they put together a pitch and that is what the women of the giving circle will see. 

Some of the things the winning projects that have been put forward; the first one was for the veterinary technician group, and they pitched the idea of having equine IV models for their program and what that really is, and we'd make the joke, it's horse heads. It really is a horse head, but it has all of the veins and all of the musculature so that the students can practice doing IVs, drawing blood, administering medicine without having to do it on a live animal. So that was the first one that was pitched and that was the first one in 2017.

 

Pat Perdue  20:01 

Has the Horsehead arrived? 

 

Joy Gooding  20:06 

Oh yes! The project has to take place within the year after they get the funding. Because the other part of it that makes it very empowered philanthropy is that within a year, they have to show impact to this group. So that means all the Giving Circle members come back on campus, and that group will make a presentation saying, here's what we did with your money. And here's the impact that it is having on students.

 

Pat Perdue  20:31 

And is that part of their pitch? You know, I love the idea of empowered philanthropy. So, if they're not able to say, here's the impact, or here's the measurable impact of this project, that might not be something that would go forward. 

 

Joy Gooding  20:45 

That is exactly right. As part of their pitch presentation in the deck that I give to them to prepare it has all of that and why is this important? What is the impact going to be? How many students are going to be impacted by your thing? How exactly how are you going to spend the money? How long, if you're buying a piece of equipment, how long is that piece of equipment going to last and other maintenance costs that are going to happen? We get very, very detailed into what they have to present to the group.

 

Pat Perdue  21:19 

And regardless of whether they win or not, what a great experience in having to put together a document like that, because, once they graduate, and they're out in the so called the real world, they might be on the hook to do something similar. 

 

Joy Gooding  21:31 

True. That's true, the students do have to do that. Sometimes when you hear about a project, you don't really fully understand what the impact of that project is going to be longer term. In our second year, we had a pitch from the nursing group. And they pitched the idea of purchasing virtual reality equipment that they will use in their labs, and as part of their orientation and plus part of their training. And they would have the opportunity, for example, orientation around the nursing lab, we've got phenomenal labs that on campus. But it takes some time to orient the students to that space. So, one of the ideas is we can do this, virtually, students can use the headset and be able to do this orientation in their own time in their own space. But then they can always go back and use virtual reality to do it. It was the nursing group who brought forward this idea. But the whole idea of using virtual reality has just spread like wildfire across that campus in particular. And there are many other programs, Police Foundations program, for example, Veterinary Technician program, who are using the equipment or have found a use or plan to use that equipment. It has really spread much further than the Nursing group. 

 

Pat Perdue  23:06 

What a great story. And was that a surprise benefit in bringing on the virtual reality equipment that so many other departments would be able to benefit from it? 

 

Joy Gooding  23:15 

Yes, absolutely. This year, in November, we had our third voting meeting. And this time, it was a group from Career Development, which wanted to have a program at Newnham campus, which is improving presentation skills using VR, they wanted to expand that to King campus. And they were looking for funding to be able to do that. And so, they pitched the idea. And they won for this year. 

And so up there at King campus, there's going to be an opportunity for students to use this equipment to not only practice their presentation skills and feel comfortable with doing that, but also interview skills, and just public speaking in general. And what this is, again, it's the virtual reality headset and system. And you put the equipment on, and you actually see an audience in front of you. And however you speak, the audience reacts. So, if you're doing a lot of ums and ahhs or if you're sort of not looking or connecting with the audience, the virtual audience will actually start to look away start to pull out a phone, start to you know, wander around the room. So, you get a real sense of how you are interacting with the audience. And it's a great tool for people. They can set up scenarios where they are being a part of an interview, job interview. You get to go through it before doing it live and to really get that experience in a safe environment. 

 

Pat Perdue  25:00 

What a great opportunity, as you said to practice and not be terrified. Because oftentimes, it's just a matter of being thrown into the water for a lot of people's first public speaking experience. Wow.  What's on the horizon for the King Giving Circle? Or is that secret? 

 

Joy Gooding  25:18 

Oh, no, it's not secret. We have a very diverse group of people in the Giving Circle. We have everything from entrepreneurs, bankers, real estate people, local politicians, we've got retired people, we've got Seneca, we even have a farmer, who is part of that group. So, they have a lot of different interests. And as I mentioned to you, it's very social, this group loves to come together. Whenever we have an event, we have usually about three to four events a year, they come together, they really love to be social and interact with each other and hear what's going on within their various areas of interest. And I think one of the things that I want to bring to the group is to provide them with even more connection to Seneca. They are interested in health and wellness. So why not bring somebody from Seneca who can speak to the group about some of those things? A few years back, we had a session that was called “Self-care during the holiday season”. You know how crazy the holiday season can be, and we don't take care of ourselves. We had somebody come and talk to them about how to do that. And it was received very well. And I'd like to do a lot more with that group, so they know what's happening at Seneca. And that helps not only letting the community know what's happening at Seneca, but also discovering more of their interests, and connecting them even further to the College. 

 

Pat Perdue  26:53 

If somebody listening right now wants to be part of the King Giving Circle, what should they do? Does it cap at a number of participants? Or how do you manage all that? 

 

Joy Gooding  27:01 

No, it's not capped at all. And one of the goals for the future is to grow the giving circle, we're now at about 19 members. And we'd love for that to grow. If anybody is interested, they can contact me, I'll send a membership form out.  I'll be happy to come and sit with you and discuss what it's all about and find out what your interests are, and how this group could be of benefit to you. And we go from there. 

 

Pat Perdue  27:27 

That's great Joy. This has been a wonderful and delightful conversation. Thank you so much for spending some time with us today on this Seneca Proud podcast. 

 

Joy Gooding  27:34 

You're welcome. And I just want to say to the faculty who may be listening in, if you have a project, and if it's at all related to King or can be done at King campus, I'd love to hear from you. 

 

Pat Perdue  27:47 

Awesome. Well, Joy, thank you again for joining us. It has been a pleasure. Bye bye. 

And that was my conversation with Joy Gooding. What I loved about that was her enthusiasm for what she does. And also, she didn't set out to get into fundraising. But once she found herself doing it, she discovered a true passion. Super inspiring. And I'll put her contact information in the show notes. But if you don't get a chance to check that out, but you do want to reach out to Joy. You can contact her at Seneca College, just dial 1.416.491.5050 and hit extension 77945 Thanks again to my guest Joy Gooding for all the great work that you do here for Seneca College. And thanks to you for listening. This has been the Seneca Proud podcast I'm Pat Perdue. Stay proud Seneca.