Michael Braithwaite
You have achieved a tremendous amount in your career thus far MIchael Please share the achievements that you cherish the most.
Working with so many incredible leaders, ones that I have reported into and ones I have had the honour of leading. Having the good fortune to work with so many talented, value driven and hard working people over the years is a huge highlight. Being able to have some impact in youth homelessness, 2SLGBTQ+ youth homelessness, and being a part of the team to create some really innovative and deeply affordable housing has also been the honour of a lifetime!
You have trailblazed a new path for affordable housing and ending homelessness. Tell us about your vision and how you actualized it in the past few years.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. Innovation does not mean that something has to be entirely new, but new to you or your community. I’ve often looked to duplicate cool and innovative work happening around the globe. It really is just about having the courage to reach out to people to ask them to borrow their ideas for greater scale. Most of the time they say yes! Dare to be different and don’t be afraid to take big risks.
You are in some ways returning to your roots at Jack.org-recalling your time at 360 Kids. What are your aspirations for ensuring vulnerable youth have access to mental health supports?
The further upstream we go the better. Instead of waiting for a crisis, lets work on early intervention and prevention so that youth are not going into mental health crisis and as well in an effort to reduce the number of young lives lost by suicide each year. If we empower youth and give them the tools through Jack.org programming to support one another, and as well people that support youth like teachers, librarians, employers, police officers, and coaches, we create a huge ecosystem of mental health support that will save and change lives and be really cost effective.
The Nonprofit Sector is facing major resource issues-be it donations from individuals/attracting and retaining talent/volunteers. How do the leaders of the Sector need to change their thinking/efforts to thrive in the next 20-30 years? Are mergers and acquisitions a key component of the survival of the Sector?
With challenging times ahead financially for us in the non profit and charitable sector, we need to do a few things differently. First, we need to work closer together in the sector so donors and government are hearing and can digest fewer messages, and so we can deliver larger impacts. As well, we have to put egos aside and look at what’s best for our clients. What I mean by this is that there are so many wonderful and impactful organizations, but to keep the work strong and alive, we’ll need to look at possible mergers and acquisitions to reduce overhead and increase impact. Lastly, we have to be a little more entrepreneurial in the sector. We need to look for ways we can generate earned revenue while delivering our programs, and not be so reliant on government and fundraising.
The Nonprofit Sector has struggled to be recognized by Canadians as an economic as well as a social force contributing to their well being. Many of us have endeavoured to motivate print and digital media to spotlight the vast Sector and its achievements-with limited success. How do we motivate varied media to profile our Sector and the stories of our heroic frontliners?
The news cycle is 24/7 and the media is always on the look out for good news stories. You have to be constantly providing these stories to the media and then hope to become the Subject matter expert so they start coming back to you for stories on your area in the sector. Don’t be afraid to pitch new ideas to media and don’t be offended if they don’t always respond!
In closing what are your thoughts on increasing awareness by key constituencies in society about the value proposition of our Sector-8.3% of the GDP. How do we change the narrative of the Sector?
We are great at telling our story, but often we are not great at talking about the ROI of what we do. In the sector take the time to demonstrate both the social good and the dollars that this social good with create or save.
