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About

Altruvest

Altruvest BoardMatch™ recruits volunteers, trains them on their roles and responsibilities as a board member and matches them with a charity looking for someone with their skills and interests.

Vision

We envision a world where the board of every charity is strengthened with the best trained and talented volunteers, giving them greater capacity to achieve their missions.

Mission

We seek to be the trusted partner for charitable board leaders, leveraging our technology to recruit, train, and then deploy and support volunteers. We achieve this through best-in-class board matching and training services, provision of educational resources, and facilitating community connections.

Mission

Our

Story

In 1995, our Founder discovered that a large donation he had made to the local chapter of a prominent charity was not directed to the purpose he had been told. He brought together a group of volunteer consultants who successfully worked with the charity to resolve the problem.

Learning from this experience, Altruvest was then established to assist more charities - initially providing corporate consulting services to help them improve their effectiveness.

However, the team was quickly overwhelmed with consulting work for individual charities and we could not meet the demand. It was apparent that our model was effective but difficult to operate at scale.

One charity "client" had asked us to assist them in recruiting new members to their board and to train them in the roles and responsibilities of a board member, including education about the charitable sector. We were highly successful in the assignment.

At a strategic review in 1999, Altruvest's Board of Directors reviewed that case and concluded we could have a greater impact on the broader charitable sector by focusing exclusively on governance. We had found a way to scale.

We Created BoardMatch™

We developed two streams of training: a "light-touch" online version, and a more intense one-day session delivered in person to groups of up to 15 prospective board members. Since then, we have successfully placed more than 5000 volunteers on 1000-plus charitable boards.

About 800 of those volunteers were employees of corporate partners who sponsored them through the training and matching process. For our corporate partners, our process is seen as a way to gain board experience for high potential employees. For charities, it is a way to gain access to a diverse pool of corporate talent with a wide range of skill sets.

To date, most of our placements have been in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). An independent sister organization in Dublin (BoardMatch Ireland) was established 15 years ago with our encouragement and support.

In 2021, in the midst of the pandemic with charities struggling, it became apparent there was a broader need for BoardMatch to be delivered remotely across North America.

The Board adopted a new Strategic Plan to expand our services in selected cities across Canada and the US. We are making a significant investment in our software, our people and our training services to support greater scale.

Now we are seeking champions involved in the charitable sector in individual cities to lead local expansion.

Our

Strategy

We strive for excellence in three areas of focus.

Focus Areas
03

Community Focus

We support small- and mid-sized community-based charities.

Board Service

We offer a comprehensive range of services focused on improving governance for charities, including recruitment, training and matching of volunteers for board and committee positions, as well as support for continuous improvement.

Geographic Reach and Exponential Scale

We employ technology to leverage our content in multiple cities, enabling us to assemble localized databases of individuals wanting to contribute time, treasure, and/or talent.

Short Term Target

In the next five years we will expand across Canada and the US into 20 cities, growing partnerships with charities, regional advisors, corporations, candidates and donors.

Short Term Target

Long Term Target

By 2035 we will achieve global reach, serving more than 50,000 charities. We will develop 500 corporate partnerships and relationships with 500,000 individuals as candidates.

Board Of Directors

Rob Follows

Rob Follows

Founder And Chair

Chairman and CEO, STS Capital Partners

Brad Kelly

Brad Kelly

Vice Chair

Partner, Global Governance Advisors

Akif Siddiqui

Akif Siddiqui

Treasurer

Partner, Pricewaterhouse Coopers

Cindy McNichol

Cindy McNichol

Director

Founding Partner, Lighthouse Nine Group

Bill Brown

Bill Brown

Director

Managing Director, BCW Ventures

Shamil Hargovan

Shamil Hargovan

Ex Officio Director

Director, Altruvest Charitable Services

Piccinin_Mario 1

Mario Piccinin

Director

Retired, Former Senior Assurance Partner, EY

Global Ambassadors

These impact–driven luminaries have an exemplary history of charitable sector capacity building and community leadership; we thank them for endorsing our global vision and their continued support toward our cause.

Jennifer Follows

Jenny Follows (Chair)

President, Fortitude Financial

Whistler, Canada

Chelsea Flaming

Chelsea Flaming (Vice Chair)

Founder, Oui Will

Durango, USA

Ammar Charani

Ammar Charani

Author, Purposehood; Founder & Chairman, In/Pact

Monaco

Bill young

Bill Young

Chairman, Social Capital Partners

Toronto, Canada

Elaine MacDonald

Elaine MacDonald

CEO, Knowledge Impact Network

Palo Alto, USA

Elizabeth Funk

Elizabeth Funk

Founder & Chair, Dignity Moves

San Francisco, USA

Fleur Heyns

Fleur Heyns

Founder & CEO, Proof

Cape Town, South Africa

Mark Hamill

Mark Hamill

Founder & Chairman, Virtual Advisory Board

London, UK

Mark Sadovnick

Mark Sadovnick

Managing Partner, 5th Element Group PBC

Los Angeles, USA

Praveen and Anuja Varshney

Praveen & Anuja Varshney

Board Member, Vancouver Foundation; Partner, Social Venture Partners

Vancouver, Canada

Stephen Ibraraki

Stephen Ibraraki

Chairman REDDS Capital; Technology Advisor to Microsoft and the United Nations

Vancouver, Canada

By donating to Altruvest, you are supporting many charities.

At Altruvest, we believe that by supporting stronger governance in the charitable sector, we help improve its overall effectiveness. Donor dollars go farther, enabling charities to improve the delivery of their programs, and give more.
— Community Updates

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Welcome! Let's create impact together.

With your help, We have been strengthening charitable boards For more than 25 years.

Welcome! Let's create impact together.

With your help, We have been strengthening charitable boards

For more than 25 years.

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