“Avon brings her incredible passion for fundraising into every conversation. Our work together involved re-focussing our major gift pipeline and refining our donor and prospect reporting processes. She shared best practices and ensured that every strategy developed was meaningful both for the donors and prospects as well as the organization. Her experience meant that the relevant tools and recommendations were at her fingertips and she brought a new and fresh perspective to help strengthen our daily tasks as well as what we needed for future planning. This was foundational work for us and Avon's support and encouragement of the entire team helped build their confidence as we made significant changes to our processes. We continue on her recommended path today.”

— Dawn Marie Schlegel, Vice President, Major Gifts and Donor Relations

“Avon is an incredible thought partner for our campaign team at the AGO. We reached out initially to engage her in a feasibility study, and since then she’s helped us shape strategy in every aspect of campaign planning and development. Her deep experience both as a fundraising practitioner and consultant translate into valuable insights that have helped us sharpen our focus and make sound decisions around key campaign issues.”

— Kate Halpenny, Chief Development Officer

“I have known and worked with Avon for 25 years. Her approach hasn’t changed. She is smart, always highly strategic, incisive and insightful. She coaches leaders and teams to focus on what is most important - reaching our fundraising goals - and she has a deep understanding of the charitable sector. Quite simply, there is no one better than Avon!”

— Rivi Frankle, Associate Vice President, Advancement

“Avon is the most knowledgeable person I know anywhere about the art and science of fundraising strategy, hands down. Her experience enables her to get to the heart of things quickly – be it on strategy execution or technical or operational questions. What really differentiates Avon is her innate ability to share her expertise in a really straightforward and accessible way. She can demystify seemingly complex questions and issues like no other person I have ever worked with. The guidance she provided to me and each of my team members around major gift fundraising was invaluable in helping us all up our game – and our results. She really does know how to help you move the needle and have fun doing it!”

— Marisa Clarke, Senior Director, Development

“Working with Avon was just what our team and our organization needed. She asks the right questions and makes our team think. She distills complex information into great insights and into clear, simple, actionable recommendations that are right for us. She really made us change the way we think about major gift fundraising at our organization – truly a game changer.”

— Christine Sadler, Director of Development

“Avon can be counted on to bring both a broad industry perspective and client-specific recommendations to any organizational challenge, large or small. Avon has a unique ability to hone in on what makes a given organization or project unique, and helps arrange the pieces of strategy and tactics to best fit the opportunity and goals. Avon is knowledgeable, strategic and efficient!”

— Brendan Dellandrea, Vice Principal, Advancement

“Avon provided our team with significant support and strategic advice while in the midst of our Capital Campaign when it was definitely plateauing. She provided important insight and guidance around how best to refresh our case, the structure of our team and the engagement of our volunteers. Her ability to assess our situation and bring forward solutions and options were instrumental in securing the seven figure gifts we required to be successful and create momentum. It has been my experience that when retaining a consultant it is critical to have buy-in from your team. Avon immediately established her credibility as she shared her knowledge, experience, skills, coupled with a no nonsense approach and good dose of empathy and humour!”

— Wendy McDowall, Chief Development Officer

“Making the choice to work with Avon was a pivotal decision for YPT and our Room for Imagination capital expansion project. We have benefitted immensely from Avon’s depth of fundraising knowledge and sage advice. Despite the fact that YPT’s capital project shifted in scope mid-2020, Avon stuck with us through the whirlwind. She guided our new capital fundraising strategy, made suggestions for our new communication plan, and encouraged Development team members and volunteers to be confident capital fundraisers. We have managed to raise 80% of our capital goal over the past 14 months and much of that success was bolstered by Avon’s steadfast and strategic guidance. As we swiftly move toward the opening of our new spaces, we will continue to soak up Avon’s strategy and wisdom through the completion of our campaign.“

— Nancy Webster, Executive Director + Liz Sheffield, Director of Development

“There is no one in Canada who can inform strategy and inspire advancement professionals better than Avon MacFarlane. She has helped to inform critical strategies for campaigns and fundraising platforms either with me directly as CEO or with members of advancement teams for more than 15 years. I cannot imagine launching any type of campaign of any size without Avon’s wisdom, clarity and, yes at times, “devil’s advocate view” in the mix! And knowing how many organizations Avon has touched across Canada, I know that Avon has also had a direct impact of positively influencing the social fabric in the country – quite a ripple effect! I would highly recommend Avon MacFarlane and her team!“

— Katherine Hay, ICD.D, President + CEO