News & Updates
MARTS & LUNDY and OFFORD COLLABORATE IN CANADA
Marts & Lundy is expanding its business in Canada and continuing to add an international flavor to its clientele. The partnership also provides new growth opportunities for The Offord Group, whose research-based approach is in synch with Marts & Lundy's long history of applying analytics to philanthropy—Blending the Art and Science of Philanthropy
When Nicholas Offord and Michael Sinkus met at a health care conference three years ago, they sensed an opportunity for cross-border cooperation.
"Nicholas was a pioneer," says Sinkus, senior consultant at Marts & Lundy. "We very quickly learned we were on the same wavelength."
And so a strategic partnership of Marts & Lundy and The Offord Group of Toronto was born. Along with Sinkus, nine other Marts & Lundy consultants are working with The Offord Group in a strategic alliance that offers reciprocal access to each other's clients in Canada and the U.S.
Marts & Lundy plans to expand its presence in Canada, which adds to an already vibrant international business, which includes clients in Australia, India, and the Middle East. The enhanced Canadian connection provides new growth opportunities for Offord, whose research-based approach is in synch with Marts & Lundy's long history of applying statistical analysis to philanthropy.
Offord, 45, founded The Offord Group after a successful career leading major giving campaigns for universities and hospitals. www.theoffordgroup.com The Canadian consultant recalled how easy it was to establish a rapport with Sinkus, and later, the entire Marts & Lundy organization.
"I'd seen Marts & Lundy as the kind of company I wanted to build here," Offord says. "I realized we had very common values around client servicing, and what a strategic counsel company could do for charity.
"What I like about Marts & Lundy," Offord explains, "is an approach to practice which is dependent on the most experienced people you can possibly recruit. In many respects, there is no substitute for experience."
Comments Sinkus: "Marts & Lundy is strongly committed to this, and it's part of our plans for the future. We hope that by working with our Canadian partners, it will make us stronger in Canada, and the U.S., and everywhere else."
He added, "What's interesting is that Canada now has a large segment of its philanthropic capacity that's ready for maturity." This includes education, health care, and the arts and culture. "That's where the experience of Marts & Lundy makes the most difference. Nicholas figured this out in Canada because all of the other competitors, instead of being in a consulting format, are in a management format."
Offord has a rich background in Canadian government, health care, academia and business. A British native who immigrated to Canada, he graduated from the University of Toronto in the early 80's and worked in politics as part of the team that brought the government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to power in 1984.
His early experiences in politics, government, and media gave Offord expertise in how to use research to track personal decision making -- techniques that he still uses in his consulting work. After, he served as a Campaign Director for Ketchum Canada Inc. where he received an on-the-job education in the world of Canadian philanthropy. Unlike the traditional American way of giving, which typically steers clear of government participation, Canada's nonprofit sector historically has worked in partnership with government for guidance and funding.
"You have to understand the country never had a revolution," Offord explains. "We were a country established by two countries—Britain and France. We never had a tradition that governments were meant to be distrusted. This persists to this day. Canadians have an abiding sense that government matters and is important."
How does this affect capital campaigns? "When we do a building project or capital project, donors want to see the government at the table," Offord says. "They want to see the stamp of approval that it was a legitimate project."
In the States, by contrast, universities sometimes pride themselves on building projects without government funding.
A second difference between the two countries is the prevailing attitude about money. While wealth often is celebrated and talked about in the U.S., Offord said, "Canadians are especially reluctant to talk about money. This is challenging for major fundraisers" since "a lot of money is quiet. It's almost gauche to be too rich."
Thirdly, many Americans define themselves by their charitable work. "Canadians are much less like that," Offord says. Alumni giving to schools, colleges, and universities is not as high in Canada as in the U.S.
Marts & Lundy hopes to build on such insights. "Americans very often are not as well equipped to understand the culture," Sinkus said. "Nicholas' understanding and appreciation of Canada can help put them together with us in a way that we think is very powerful."
Marts & Lundy and Offord share a passion for research that creates another tool for strategic growth. "We complement each other very well," Sinkus said. "We both operate with a series of analytics and metrics, and what's interesting is they don't duplicate each other. Nick has a very good capacity for polling, for example. We have a very good capacity for Internet surveys … We're also able to take historical information and project it out for capacity."
Offord said he has two underlying principles. "One: we would value building the capacity of organizations—teach people how to fish rather than fishing for them. The second principle was that we would value market research as a way of providing objective information to inform strategy."
Until The Offord Group entered the Canadian marketplace, he says, "The typical trend analysis would be what a consultant had done by interviewing a few dozen people. While canvassing opinion leaders is important, we do want to look at a more statistically valid picture of the entire donor community."
Offord partners with the Innovative Research Group, a public opinion research firm, to conduct a variety of studies, such as peer-to-peer benchmarking and donor attitude surveys. In January, Offord issued a report that found that while Canadian giving grew between 2001 and 2005, "the number of new charities being formed has slowed considerably and the majority of gifts are given to the largest organizations that have trusted brands among the communities in which they work."
The study examined tax revenue reports from about three-quarters of the 80,000 charitable organizations registered with the Canadian Revenue Agency. Offord observes: "We're small and agile and prepared to experiment with research and other tools that add value for clients."