Lizzie Howells, Cphr Email & Phone Number

Vancouver, Bc, Ca

Vancouver, Canada Area

MakeWay (formerly Tides Canada) is a national charity and public foundation with a goal to enable nature and communities to thrive together. We do this by building partnerships, providing solutions, grants, and services for the charitable sector across the country.The Shared Platform was launched in 2000 and is now home to over 60 unique and aligned projects working on community-led solutions that further our mission. This means that more time and money goes towards achieving greater impact as our projects benefit from sharing important administrative resources and expertise. As the Director, Shared Platform, I am responsible for working with multiple departments to coordinate resources across teams to provide timely, accurate, and comprehensive supports for MakeWay’s Shared Platform Projects.

Vancouver, Canada Area

POP was hired by ARC Foundation in 2015 to solve the important issue of LGBTQ youth feeling unsafe at school. We quickly worked with education and community partners, including the BC Ministry of Education to create and launch SOGI 1 2 3, an initiative that helps educators make schools inclusive and safe for students of all sexual orientations and gender identities (SOGI) through provincial alignment, educator networks and accessible resources.• Operational leader for the creation of the SOGI 1 2 3 program, from initial design to pilot to growth across Western Canada• Developed an innovative peer-to-peer model with 2000+ volunteer educators that has been adopted by all 60 school boards in BC with a pilot in Alberta and a national vision• Launched SOGIeducation.org, the go-to platform for SOGI-inclusive education, through project leadership during tight timelines• Led 20+ projects involving strategic stakeholder engagement, process analysis, resource allocation and full-cycle change management• Worked with Board of Directors and Executive Director to grow ARC Foundation from a volunteer-led trust to a registered charity, creating all infrastructure and ensuring CRA compliance• Hired and lead a diverse team of paid staff, contractors and volunteers

Vancouver, Bc

At POP, we have a unique and proven way of helping values-driven groups make big things happen. We’re disrupting the social sector by integrating Human Resources and Volunteer Engagement functions to bring greater energy to one team. At a time when not-for-profits are being called on to provide more programs and services than ever, POP helps organizations to reconnect and reconfigure their people engagement and operations so they can achieve more of what matters. POP (short for People Operations) is a boutique consulting agency based in Vancouver, BC that was founded by Brad Beattie. • Consult with values-driven clients including Canadian Cancer Society, Canada Snowboard, Vancouver Botanical Gardens, Freestyle Canada and ARC Foundation to understand workforce and operations needs, recommend solutions and implement improvements based on business goals• Advise senior leaders, including Boards of Directors, on strategic and operational aspects of people and culture including workforce planning and budgeting, recruitment and termination of staff, leadership training, performance development and internal communications• Analyze and evaluate organizational processes to determine efficiency gaps, create solutions and develop metrics to monitor performance

Vancouver, Canada Area

I joined the Reconciliation Canada team as a freelance contractor three months before the Walk for Reconciliation in September 2013 and was responsible for getting the volunteer engagement program up and running to recruit 1,000 volunteers. It was an intense, rewarding and fun role and I was pleased to continue as Director of People Operations following the event.• Designed, developed and provided direction for the execution of best-practice strategies for People Engagement including recruitment, training and competency development, performance evaluation, on boarding and workforce retention • Partnered with Leadership Team and Functional Leads to identify workforce skills/competencies gaps and make recommendations for training and support solutions• Advised operations teams on workforce strategies throughout the planning process, including regular coaching to support the transition from functional role to event-day people leader• Developed and implemented policies and processes for recruiting, screening, selecting, training, motivating, recognizing and evaluating operational and event-day volunteers to service Reconciliation Week events with an estimated 70,000 participants• Project managed and facilitated Reconciliation Canada’s first five community Dialogue Workshops outside of British Columbia in Edmonton, Alberta• Designed a volunteer data management solution to meet the recruitment, scheduling and tracking needs of over 1,000 volunteers

Vancouver, Bc

I provided on-going freelance support to the Canadian Diabetes Association Volunteer Engagement team on a project basis for almost a year, both nationally and in British Columbia.My biggest project was establishing, hiring, training and implementing a new Volunteer Engagement Services Team, based on a virtual model, serving all of B.C. & Yukon. The model quickly created capacity through new efficiencies and was rolled out across the country. I also engaged with all Mission Funding and Programs staff to determine volunteer needs and set up role & recruitment plans.

Vancouver, Canada Area

I joined the Canadian Cancer Society during a time of change in the Greater Vancouver Region, and enjoyed working with the Regional Director and staff team to introduce innovative volunteer engagement practices. Working with so many varied programs and campaigns (health promotion to revenue development) was a fast track lesson in non-profit operations. This role was also my first position in Canada, having arrived from the UK a few weeks earlier.• Piloted a unique and sustainable Volunteer Engagement workforce model to provide essential administrative support which was rolled out across five other regions• Acted as an internal volunteer engagement consultant to equip a workforce of 20 staff across Greater Vancouver with knowledge and skills to effectively engage volunteers through professional development, regular coaching and a consistent communication plan• Assessed the volunteer needs of the region and worked with the Regional Director to develop an annual workforce plan for over 4,000 volunteers across more than 15 fundraising and mission delivery initiatives. • Developed appropriate strategies to engage over 80 community leaders per year through targeted networking and recruitment, successfully introducing a focus on the corporate sector• Enhanced the volunteer experience through the planning and delivery of a new annual training and recognition program including Volunteer Orientation, Job Specific Training, Workforce Leadership Program, Leadership Summit and Regional and Divisional Awards• Led the annual volunteer debrief process including conducting volunteer satisfaction surveys to collect feedback on the volunteer experience, monitor progress and share results with Functional Areas to influence campaign and initiative priorities

In addition to a focus on Community Volunteering, my role included developing a strategy to generate revenue with the ultimate goal of becoming self-sustaining. It was an interesting introduction to fundraising, grant applications and social enterprise development.• Strategically directed Community Volunteering, devising new working practices and policies based on regional needs and repositioning the service for maximum sustainability• Developed volunteering programmes in the local community, working on an inter-agency basis with a range of internal and external stakeholders and organisations• Researched, produced and delivered an Income Generation strategy for the service including grant applications, a donations strategy and the development of social enterprises

This was my first role after graduation, and I regularly think how lucky I am that this was the start of my career. It was a complex position and I jumped right into managing people, programs and budgets while learning the first of many valuable lessons along the way. I also had a unique opportunity to lead a redesign of the Community Volunteering program to make it more impactful from both an organizational and a student perspective.• Responsible for administration, finance and staff of the Volunteering, Societies and Fundraising departments.• Project managed events, training conferences and award ceremonies for students, staff and community partners with attendance figures up to 10,000, including the annual Excellence in Volunteering Awards.• Directed volunteer recruitment campaigns involving the design and editing of publications, carrying out presentations and managing all social networking activity.