Raymond S. - 14373 Fundraising Campaign Manager from Calgary

To whom it may concern, Hello, my name is Raymond Soussa, and I believe I am qualified for this position. I believe I have the management, non-profit, technology, project management, fundraising, prospect research, grant writing and donor relations experience and skills required to excel in this role. I currently work as Director of Development for the Islamic Family and Social Services Association, part-time. IFSSA serves ethnocultural minorities in Edmonton with a wide range of social services - including food services, domestic violence support, refugee sponsorship, financial literacy classes and youth programming. I also work as Director of Development for Volunteer Markham on a part-time and contractual basis. I work on grant research, grant writing, and fundraising strategizing in order to raise money for this impactful volunteer center that supports volunteer seekers and other great charities in York Region looking for volunteers. I have also worked as a Fundraising Consultant at a social enterprise called Ajah that serves the non-profit sector with technology tools and consulting services. My position entailed selling prospect research services to Canadian non-profits, allowing them to identify the foundations, corporations and government agencies that would most likely support them. This has allowed me to acquire prospect research expertise, which allows me to quickly identify, qualify and establish a robust pipeline of funders, consisting of public and private foundations, corporations, government agencies and individuals, across Canada, and for all sectors. I also worked as a Fundraising Manager with Freedom Tree, a non-profit based in Calgary that works on maternal services (establishing birthing clinics in particular) in Sierra Leone and supports youth in Calgary with skill-building programs. Having also worked as a face-to-face fundraiser for two years, most of that time as team-lead, I also possess the communication and presentation skills required to convince people to donate and have great donor relations skills. I have fundraised for multiple NGOs such as the Canadian Red Cross, Doctors of the World, SUCO, OXFAM and the Leger Foundation. I have also attended two AFP ( Association of Fundraising Professionals) conferences in Toronto. I have extensive knowledge of CRMs and Donor Management Software such as Salesforce, Pipedrive, and Bloomerang and am familiar with all of the prospect research tools on the Canadian market. I am especially skilled at cold-call and cold-email strategies. I am Lebanese and speak four languages fluently (English, French, Arabic and Spanish) which allows me to communicate comfortably with most people I speak to and would allow me to attract more donors, depending on their background. I understand all the responsibilities of this position and believe that my consulting firm Eternal Sparks Consulting will be able to help your organization achieve its goals. I love the nonprofit sector and chose this career path rather than sticking to a traditional Industrial Engineering job, which is what I majored in at Concordia University. The project management skills that I acquired during my undergrad do come in handy though, I completed my final year project on developing a Project Management Office for the Six Sigma projects division of Pratt & Whitney Canada. Thank you immensely for your consideration, Raymond