Neil Hannam, CEO
Neil Hannam has over 25 years’ experience in the not-for-profit sector. Before Neil started V Formation, he spent the previous 12 years in healthcare fundraising and was the Executive Director of the Campbellford Memorial Hospital Foundation. He then moved to the Ontario Shores Foundation for Mental Health. Neil also served on the senior management team of both hospitals.
The V Formation team has been leading many recent capital campaign feasibility studies including St. Joseph’s at Fleming, Public Energy – The Power of Performance, Brant County SPCA, Quinte Humane Society, and the Ontario SPCA Cornwall Branch. V Formation has been leading the following campaigns including Ontario SPCA/Peterborough Humane Society’s capital campaign, Quinte Humane Society campaign, and Brant County SPCA.
V Formation has also worked on annual programs and annual fundraising with Humane Society of Durham Region, Warming Room Community Ministries, St. John’s One Roof program, Quinte Humane Society, Maryam Monsef election campaign, Kawartha Lakes Food Source, YES Shelter for Youth and Families, Grace Inn Shelter, Belleville General Hospital, West Haldimand Hospital and Health Care Foundation, and Public Energy.
Neil completed a Master’s degree in 2013. His thesis focused on organization transformation.
Neil has been a Rotarian for 18 years and is the founding chair of the new Rotary Club of Otonabee Satellite Club. Neil served on the board of the Kawartha Gymnastics Club for the four years and finished his term as Board Chair in 2019. Neil was the founding board president of the Peterborough Regional Farmers Network and the treasurer for the board of COSA Canada, a restorative justice organization.
Karen Ormerod,
Principal Consultant
Karen Ormerod has been working in the not-for-profit and charitable sector for over 30 years. Described as a visionary leader and organizational change agent, she earned a Master’s of Management Degree for National Voluntary Sector Leaders from McGill University in 2003 and her Certified Fund Raising Exectutive (CFRE) designation in 2015.
Karen is currently a Principal Consultant with V Formation assisting clients with various projects including strategic planning, planning for fund development diversification, capital campaigns, and interim executive management roles. Former positions held include: Executive Director, Humane Society of Durham Region; Chief Operating Officer, Lakeridge Health Foundation; Executive Director, Durham Hospice; CEO, Institute for Global Ethics; President & CEO, Osteoporosis Canada; Executive Director, ALS Ontario; District Manager of the CNIB, York Region; and the National Manager of Chapter Operations for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
In these positions, Karen has led fundraising efforts that raised millions of dollars in revenue and is considered an expert in raising funds through direct mail, events, major gifts, planned giving, and annual programs.
In 2013, Karen consulted with the Ontario Tech University’s Management Development Centre to develop their highly successful Not-for-Profit Leadership Certificate Program. An energetic and popular instructor, Karen continues to teach the Strategy & Leadership module twice yearly, with particular emphasis on best practices for developing, implementing, and reporting on multi-year strategic and operational plans, risk management issues, critical and ethical decision making, consensus building, and storytelling.
In addition to her work experience, Karen remains committed to the sector in her role as a volunteer. She currently volunteers with Golf Fore Good, raising funds through women’s golf and has held volunteer roles with the Durham Community Foundation, Girl Guides of Canada, Scouts Canada, Pickering Village Soccer Club, and the Migraine Association of Canada.
Tara Harper,
Principal Consultant
Tara Harper is a freelance writer and fundraising consultant serving the non-profit sector exclusively. Tara has over 18 years’ experience in fundraising, development, and communications. A lifelong vegetarian, Tara is passionate about animal welfare and has a proven track record helping animal welfare organizations create inspiring capital campaigns, build lasting donor relationships and maximize revenue for their life-saving programs.
Tara writes direct mail packages, case statements, newsletters, digital copy, annual reports, and stewardship materials designed to connect people to an organization’s mission and inspire donor loyalty. She also consults with clients on annual fundraising plans, capital campaigns, strategic planning, and communication audits.
Most recently, Tara has served as case writer and direct mail copywriter for Ontario SPCA, Peterborough Humane Society, Humane Society of Durham Region, Brant County SPCA,,, and Quinte Humane Society. She has written the Ontario SPCA’s donor newsletter, Between Friends, from 2014 to 2018 including all regional inserts.
Before going freelance, Tara managed some of the most successful direct response programs in Canada. As Direct Response Manager at The Toronto Humane Society, Tara managed the largest monthly giving program in Canada (at the time) and was responsible for all direct mail, telemarketing, DRTV, and online giving.
As Director of Development at Canadian Feed the Children, Tara raised millions of dollars each year through multi-channel integration of direct mail, telemarketing, DRTV, child sponsorship, direct dialogue, door-to-door canvass, online, and monthly giving. She also led the organization’s leadership giving, planned giving, and donor relations efforts.
Tara has also managed direct response fundraising for Oxfam Canada and led the communications and marketing team at Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief (CPAR). Tara got her start in the non-profit sector at Telecare Distress Centre where she was responsible for communications and volunteer recruitment.
Tara has been a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) since 1999 and holds a B.A. degree in Communication Studies from the University of Windsor where she also taught video production and scriptwriting.
Charles Hain,
Principal Consultant
Charles Hain is an engaging presenter and an experienced not-for-profit manager and senior volunteer. His experience as a board chair for more than 20 years in both the arts and health care sectors including a term as a fund granting team chair for the Trillium Foundation makes him well positioned to undertake governance and accountability reviews and to help organizations prepare stakeholders to better engage with policy makers and funders.
Charles was the Director of Government Relations for a national patient organization and ran advocacy and government relations campaigns that involved developing messages, training staff and volunteers and leading “Hill Days” - in which teams of volunteers and subject matter experts met with elected officials and staff - across the country and in Ottawa.
In addition to GR work, Charles also consulted and led strategy planning sessions throughout Ontario working with management teams in hospitals, LHINs and CCACs as they prepared their organizations for Accreditation.
Charles has an undergrad degree in political science and economics from Queens University and a Master of Laws, with a specialty in health law from Osgoode.
Currently, Charles works as a wedding officiant, board consultant and occasional professional cook while actively involved with an independent long term care home in Toronto.
Sarah McNeilly,
Consultant
Sarah McNeilly is a writer, an artist, an academic, and an arts administrator.
As a theatre artist, her practice has recently focused on theatre creation through creative writing (scripts, prose, and poetry) and comedy (both sketch and stand-up). She is a writer and performer for Peterborough sketch comedy troupe, LLAADS, and has also written and performed a full-length stand-up comedy show to critical acclaim.
Sarah has created original work for Artsweek, Erring, and Emergency, among other festivals and venues. She is co-founder and co-writer of Haikusday, a weekly two-hour-long live radio show spoken only in Haiku, on Trent Radio.
Sarah is an M.A. candidate in Theory, Culture and Politics at Trent University, and has twice been the recipient of the Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement, Principal and Fellows of Peter Gzowski College – Trent University. She was also the 2019 recipient of the prestigious Award for Excellence in Teaching Assistance.
She currently serves on the boards of The Theatre on King, Theatre Trent, and the Arts Culture Heritage Advisory Committee for The City of Peterborough. Sarah is also the former President and Chair of the Board of Directors for Mysterious Entity Theatre Company. As such, she has considerable fundraising experience.
Since the pandemic began, Sarah has become the Arts & Culture writer for online newspaper kawarthaNOW.com.
David Byrne,
Consultant
David Byrne has more than 20 years of experience in the not-for-profit sector in the front line, leadership, and volunteer positions working primarily with homeless populations and those who are in conflict with the law.
Beginning as a placement student with Peterborough Community Chaplaincy (now part of One City Peterborough), David was consistently promoted, eventually serving as the organization’s Executive Director from 2015-2018. In that role, David led several successful fundraising campaigns, including securing the necessary grants, donations, and contracts to build Canada’s first-ever community residential facility for ill or palliative offenders.
In addition to his work at Peterborough Community Chaplaincy, David was the inaugural Chair of the Board of Directors for CoSA Canada, an organization whose mandate is to keep communities safe by supporting sex offenders and holding them accountable for their actions. With CoSA Canada, David led a team to secure a 5-year, $7.5 million grant from Public Safety Canada to fund and study the work of Circles of Support and Accountability nationwide.
Currently, David holds the position of Professor
in the Community and Justice Services program at Centennial College. He combines his experience in the justice sector with his ability as a researcher to offer a range of courses, including those geared towards training students
on how to build partnerships between agencies
to identify shared needs.
David holds an honours bachelor of arts in
Religious Studies from the University of Waterloo and a Masters in Divinity from the University of St. Michael’s College (USMC). He is preparing to submit his thesis for his Ph.D. programme at USMC.
Melissa Johnston,
Research Consultant
Melissa began her career in photography, working for 10 years in studio administration, production management, and digital editing and retouching. She then shifted her focus to holistic nutrition, sustainable agriculture and food systems, and community-based research. Her diverse experience and interests serve her well in her current role as research consultant.
Melissa received her MA from Trent University in Sustainability Studies in 2017. Her thesis focused on governance and management best practices at farmers’ markets across Ontario. More recently, she has worked on projects pertaining to local food advocacy, rural transportation alternatives, rural arts networking and expansion, poverty reduction, and socioeconomic impacts of food insecurity. Her work has involved quantitative and qualitative research, administrative support, and project coordination in laboratory, classroom, non-profit, and commercial settings. Melissa’s portfolio of written work includes project evaluation and needs assessment reports, grant proposals, a farmers’ market improvement guide, a rural food system action plan, a local food resource toolkit, and a 2-acre market garden design. She has also served on the planning committees for a number of stakeholder engagement conferences to discuss local food sustainability and economic development.
Melissa was a founding Board member of the Peterborough Regional Farmers Network, and volunteered at U-Links Centre for Community-Based Research as a research associate. She volunteered with the Kawartha World Issues Centre and Trent Oxfam, spearheaded the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems student group at Trent, and co-hosted a weekly hour-long radio show on Trent Radio entitled Food Fight.
Melissa currently volunteers with two local food committees, Harvest Haliburton in Haliburton County, and the Future of Food and Farming Working Group in Peterborough.
Katie Kelly,
Designer
Katie’s formal studies in design began at the Faculty of Fine Arts at York University where she studied the principles of visual design, painting, and art history while completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts Studies. Katie continues to study and refine her design talents with a broad range of charitable sector and business clients.
Katie’s talents translate beautifully within integrated direct response (digital and print) and donor-focused cases for support.
Katie learned the print trade from her father and can work cost effectively in that medium.
Katie’s clients appreciate her professional and collaborative approach.
Carol Conrad,
BA, CIH
Carol Conrad has over 30 years of experience in the social and affordable housing and non-profit sectors.
Carol managed housing operations at the Nipissing District Housing Corporation including a mixture of seniors, families, and singles in 856 units. This experience involved all aspects of the operations including governance, administration, finance and accounting, capital management, maintenance, human resources, development, emergency management, projects in difficulty management, etc. Her extensive experience with strategic planning and operations reviews round out her holistic approach to business and organizational management.
Carol also has extensive policy and legislation development experience at several levels including experience at the provincial government level. Carol has spent in excess of 20 years working on many boards including the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA), Housing Services Corporation, SoHo Insurance, Nipissing District Housing Registry, and various associated committees. She holds the CIH Canada designation and is a charter and founding member in Canada. The Chartered Institute of Housing is an international designation for housing professionals.
In recognition of her many years of service and accomplishments, Carol was awarded the 2018 ONPHA Sybil Frenette Outstanding Leadership Award. This award recognizes individuals who have created a lasting legacy through significant contributions to their organizations, communities and Ontario’s non-profit housing sector, and have demonstrated vision, collaboration and commitment in their efforts to serve the needs of low-income individuals.
Christy Caudill,
Research Consultant
Christy earned her PhD in Space and Earth Sciences and has over 10 years of experience in space science focusing on Mars exploration, including spacecraft and rover operations at NASA facilities, and developing and implementing operational field trials for NASA and ESA Mars rovers. Christy was a Canadian Vanier Scholar and recipient of outstanding achievement awards from NASA and CSA.
This training also gave Christy a specialty in remote-sensing, satellite-based spectroscopy, and Geographical Information Systems (GIS): in short, this is taking data from satellites orbiting a planetary body – like Mars or Earth – and using it as a powerful tool to understand natural systems and their change over time. Christy also spent 3 years at the Arizona Geological Survey, where GIS mapping is a keystone product of research and science communication to the public, lawmakers, and industrial oversight organizations.
Christy has pivoted from Mars science and exploration to a sharp focus on Earth, in this moment of collective awakening to Earth’s need and our responsibility to each other. She now works toward an innovative framework for GIS-based humanitarian efforts, including social, environmental, and cognitive justice, and justice for Earth’s more-than-humans. She seeks to build from the proven strategies of GIS in climate change adaptation and mitigation and adapt them for effective and efficient methods to respond to humanitarian crises and support on-the-ground justice efforts.