Interview with Sara Dunkley, Founder , Beautiful World Canada Foundation, Canada

INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:

• Gain insight on how to start a foundation
• What is required to uplift girls in Africa out of poverty?
• Discover how local and international collaboration can make a vision a reality
• A leadership strategy that gives you the bandwidth to manage two businesses, a charity and family
• The increased challenges of starting a foundation and alternatives to contribute

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Interview with Sara Dunkley, Founder , Beautiful World Canada Foundation; Canada

Sara Dunkley is the Founder of Beautiful World Canada (BWC), as well as the President of Stellar Outdoor Advertising and Santa’s Village. She founded BWC in 2011 as a Canadian non-profit organization with a mission to help passionate and dedicated students excel in their high school and University or College education, enabling them to create a bright future for themselves, their communities, and their countries. Sara holds an MBA from York University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University. Sara runs the foundation while also being the president of 2 businesses – Stellar Outdoor Advertising and Santa’s Village. Stellar’s mission is to help local businesses reach new customers with memorable ads. Stellar has over 1000 billboards in Ontario. Santa’s Village’s mission is to bring families together for a happy and memorable vacation filled with smiles and Christmas magic. The park has 2 campgrounds.

United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal(s) addressed:
#1. No Poverty, #4. Quality Education, #5. Gender Equality, #8. Decent Work and Economic Growth, #10. Reduced Inequalities, #17. Partnerships for the Goals

Social impact:
The ultimate outcome of this Beautiful World Canada is to improve access to education for marginalized girls and women in Africa. This goal will be achieved by providing scholarships to marginalized girls and women, enhancing social support to female students, increasing knowledge and skills of marginalized girls and women in financial management, improving knowledge and skills in health and nutrition, increasing the capacity of marginalized girls and women in local community initiatives, and increasing the capacity of marginalized girls and women for seeking employment and creating businesses. We have helped just under 850 students since 2011. Our programs are gender-targeted initiatives that will address the root cause of ongoing systemic poverty among marginalized women and girls in Africa. We will empower marginalized girls and women to enter and complete post-secondary education, giving them greater access and control over financial resources needed to secure ongoing economic equality and, ultimately, to overcome poverty for themselves and their families. In line with the ODA Accountability Act and Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP), our programs will contribute to poverty reduction using a gender transformative design.

Website: http://Beautifulworldcanada.org

Interview with Sara Dunkley, Founder, Beautiful World Canada

Note: This interview is transcribed using AI software, which means, the transcription is not perfect. Watch the video or listen to the podcast to hear our guest’s wisdom in her own words. If you want to see more interviews like this, please comment below!

[00:00:00] Suzanne F. Stevens: Welcome to you, me, we amplified podcast. I’m Suzanne F. Stevens, your host, and welcome to those joining live or watching the recording. This episode is sponsored by you, me, we community women, leading social impact. If you have a social impact and want to grow it, you and your business as well, visit the community tab at youmewe.ca.

I’m so excited to have our guests today, and I want to welcome Sarah Dunkley, the founder of Beautiful World Canada Foundation. Sarah is also the president of Stellar Outdoor advertising and Santa’s village. And I remember Santa’s it does village very fondly. Sarah. Sarah’s social initiative, Beautiful World Canada improves access to education for marginalized girls and women in Africa. They provide scholarships, enhance social support, increased knowledge and skills of financial management, health and nutrition, employment, and create businesses.

They have helped just under 850 students since 2011. As an avid supporter, myself of this phenomenal foundation and coming to you all the way from Toronto, Ontario, Canada welcome Sarah. It’s great to see you again.

[00:01:20] Sara Dunkley: Thank you. It’s lovely to be here.

[00:01:23] Suzanne F. Stevens: It’s a pleasure to interview you as you and I’ve been talking about women in Africa for such a long time now I think we both started around 2011 around the same time and you really just made such a huge impact. So I look at you with such admiration and am so glad to take more opportunities to share you with my network of people who could learn a ton about how to manage…

 Do you have two kids? Three boys. Okay. Boys, three boys, two companies and a charity. So we’ll start by focusing on the charity itself and we’ll get into some of the other things a little later on.

So what was the catalyst for you to start Beautiful World? In the first place?

[00:02:12] Sara Dunkley: I was looking for something to add purpose to my life. I’ve really enjoyed running my business and I love being an entrepreneur, but at the time I started Beautiful World, I was looking for something new that really felt like it was an opportunity to, instead of complain about things that were going on in the world, but actually try to make the world a better place.

So it was like my attempt to practice what I preach and not complain, but actually do something about it. So it was really rooted in that purpose and passion. And for me and the community that I grew up near Orilla, the opportunity to attend higher education and go to university was the door opener.

And I look at a lot of us where we are and it’s the opportunity, the education, the confidence, and the doors that degree opened for me. So I look at my background and I really credit the education that I received here in Canada as giving me the opportunity that I’ve had. And I really saw that as one of the missing pieces in Africa for girls to have the opportunity to become the women and leaders that they want to be. And for me, I felt like that was a piece that made sense, to change the experience one woman at a time. And to have them have the opportunity to graduate, get a good job that has a great income. Support, their families. Support their children and really change the trajectory for their families.

[00:03:38] Suzanne F. Stevens: So how did you identify that as a social gap in the first place? We hear it’s a gap, but how did you personally identify that women’s higher education was something that was needed?

[00:03:53] Sara Dunkley: Back in 2010 and 2009, I actually went to a lot of Canadian organizations and I was looking to, I wasn’t looking to start Beautiful World at that time. I was looking to find an organization that was already in this space, doing what I wanted to do. And I found a lot of organizations at that time were really focused on primary education and filling that gap, which is a very needed, necessary gap. Absolutely. But I wasn’t finding organizations that were involved in the higher education piece.

I could barely find organizations that were working in the high school space, let alone working at the university space. It just really wasn’t something, they were solving other challenges and other problems. So it was through that, I think being an entrepreneur we think that we can get into these projects, we get very motivated and excited about them and we start them and that kind of starts the ball rolling. Or that decision to start actually started the ball rolling for me and trying to figure out how to do what I wanted to do, finding the partners and figuring it all out. And it’s been quite

[00:04:52] Suzanne F. Stevens: And it’s so interesting. I think you and I, the fact that you and I found each other is a miracle in itself, and we found each other through a friend of ours. Because exactly what you did. You said you were looking at all these people that were doing incredible work. And yet I couldn’t find anybody either who was trying to put women through higher education.

And for me, it’s really about creating women leaders. So it is amazing that we found each other. And I’m so glad we did. Now talk about Beautiful World and how you empower marginalized girls and women beyond education. Because you have a specific system that you look at in order to provide those scholarships.

Could you talk about that?

[00:05:36] Sara Dunkley: Absolutely. So a scholarship for Beautiful World is a very comprehensive scholarship. And how I would indicate is that our students are coming from extremely marginalized vulnerable situations. A lot of the students in our program are orphans maybe being raised by a grandmother or an aunt.

So they’re really coming to our programs barely was shoes. They might have one outfit. They live in houses that are one room without any hydro, without any running water. There’ll be gathering wood to cook there to cook their food. So in order to bring them to university and have them be successful, they really need everything.

So we say tuition to toothpaste. So it’s they got a stipend that they can use to buy clothing and to buy their personal supplies and their food. They get everything that they need to go to school. So the school fees and internship fees, that type of thing, they get transportation to and from school they get accommodation, so a safe place to live while they’re at school. And that’s just the starting point.

The next kind of, part of our program is really supporting their emotional needs while they’re in school. And that’s done through a mentor. So they’re matched with a mentor and the mentors come through Education they’re successful.

They’re newly established in their careers or established in their careers. And they’re really providing that emotional support to the student that they’ve been matched with. Our students don’t have someone in their family that went to university, so there’s not someone they can go to and get advice.

And, when they encounter challenges and struggles they don’t have that person. And even sometimes we get told that our mentors will actually go to school when the schools have events for parents and families to go to, and that will be the person that represents them and makes them feel really good when those mentors come and support them in that way because they feel like I’m just like everybody else. I have a family that’s there for me at the school, which is really tremendous.

Our program partners also provide a ton of emotional support. So they’re going to visit the students. They’re checking in on them. If the students have a problem, they’re WhatsApping them at whatever time of the day or night it is to get help and support and guidance. So it’s on the emotional side.

We also have a graduation preparation program. So our objective isn’t just to have students graduate with post-secondary education. It’s that they’re now ready to join the job market and they know how to do that. So that particular program is about networking. It’s resumes, cover letters, interview questions. How do you even go about finding a job? Once you get a job, what do you need to do in order to keep the job? So job etiquette. And that’s been one of the programs that have been really critical to our students and actually one of the parts of the program that they’ve enjoyed the most. Even though we make them do financial literacy assignments and open bank accounts and stuff like that.

A new part of our program, which we’re really excited about which we’ll be launching this year is education about sexual and reproductive health. So I think that’s going to be really exciting. And we found a local organization that works in Uganda and Rwanda to teach that education. So it will be locally developed and, deal with some really interesting topics. And I think really provides the girls’ guidance and advice and knowledge that they wouldn’t have anywhere else or wouldn’t have received it in their schools so far.

So I think will be a really helpful additive to our program.

[00:08:55] Suzanne F. Stevens: Congratulations on that. That’s incredible. Every time I’ve spoken to you, there’s just more and more that you’ve added on. And so pretend I am somebody that knows nothing about a foundation. I want to create a foundation. Can you guide me through perhaps how I would start that and then how to embed it with my business? So we’ll just start with the foundation for now. How would I do that?

[00:09:25] Sara Dunkley: So it’s a legal process. For me, it was a legal process. So it’s, getting together with a lawyer who works on establishing foundations, going through, at that point in time, it was a lot of paperwork and establishing a small board of directors with the people, and love the most.

So you put your friends and family on your first board and you go forward with them with a great lawyer. You go through a lot of paperwork and then you wait in line. And you have a mission and mandate you write it broadly as you can because you have an idea of what you want to do, but you want to leave it open enough that you’re not really, pigeonholing yourself into something very specific.

You want to be wide enough that it gives you the ability to do a lot of things and change and adapt as you go. Your mission and mandate do form something that you can’t change easily. So you gotta be careful not to be too specific. You want to be a little bit broader. For Beautiful World, there was a long wait.

And my first step was okay, I’m going to get Beautiful World charity status done. And I thought, okay, I have 18 months to do this. So no problem. I can figure it all out. Once I get the charity status. But for some reason, for me, it came a lot faster than I thought it was going to. So I think I remember we were on vacation in Florida and I came back and I had a letter that I had charity status and I was like, okay Now it’s go time.

Now I have to figure out and do what I said I was going to do. So at that point in time, I think once you have charity status, you have in your foundation in whatever format is best for you to establish it as. Beautiful World is registered as a Canadian charity that gives money internationally. That’s how we’ve been set up.

But the next part is figuring out how to do what you want to do. And my guidance and advice would be to find people that know how to do what you want to do, bring them onto your team and set up the programs properly with them. And that’s what I did. I was lucky enough when I first started Beautiful World to have an amazing woman who had been worked with the Stephen Lewis foundation.

I had these ideas of what I wanted to do. I want to do these scholarships and I want to do them and all these countries, I had no idea how to do it. And the beautiful thing was that she knew exactly how to do it. And what the structure was and legally had a structure and how do we identify partners?

How do we do due diligence to make sure those partners can run our program successfully? And she knew how to do all that. So I think, as you’re starting, I think to get some expertise from experts that know how to do what you want to do. Bring in lots of people that know and specialize in different things.

Another thing that we did initially was we brought in a person that does monitoring and evaluation visits, and she does pre-grant visits and post-grant visits in Africa. I can’t go and visit every program that I want to consider funding. And even if I did whether it was first setting up, I wouldn’t even know what to look for.

Who do I speak to you? How do I even go about doing that? She knew exactly how to do that. So she could go in and evaluate the programs and really from an independent eye were that’s her role as these evaluations. So she knows what she’s doing. So I think that’s the key is, really find those people that know how to do what you want to do. Is I think it, it makes it easier as well as you’re going to make mistakes, but you’re not going to make as many of them because the learning process won’t be as difficult and challenging as it could be with them.

[00:12:32] Suzanne F. Stevens (2): Now did you ever do a community assessment prior to even deciding that you will start the foundation

[00:12:41] Sara Dunkley: I did a lot of work into the statistics on the countries that I was looking at supporting and the statistics on higher education, especially back in 2011 were so dismal. Even women’s literacy rates were very dismal.

For me, it was a very obvious step that was necessary and needed. I think that in order to have women leaders in society, they have to have the opportunity of going to higher education and they need to become business leaders, the doctors, the bankers, the lawyers, the marketers like they need to have those roles and be at those tables.

But in order for them to get to those tables, they have to get the crate credentials. So they have the abilities and talents and knowledge for when they get there, they can be effective.

[00:13:23] Suzanne F. Stevens: Oh, yeah. Amen to that. Very well said. So what would you recommend prior to working in a country other than your own, you’ve mentioned partnering with other people, is there anything else that you would recommend far as due diligence or anything for that matter when working with a country that you’re not as familiar with?

[00:13:48] Sara Dunkley: Yeah, absolutely. And I can talk about that through an experience that we just had with Beautiful World. We decided that we wanted to grow our programs to support students in Zambia, and we hadn’t worked in Zambia before.

So the first step that we did is we reached out to organizations in Canada who work in Zambia and we said, are there some programs or partners that you really like working with? You mean we’re looking for referrals from organizations. Other Canadian people are working with and they like working with them and they find that they do great work and they can submit all the receipts and reports and everything that the Canadian government requires so they can meet the standards.

That was the starting point for us was actually reaching out to Canadian organizations and ask for referrals and recommendations. And I do find the folks that are in the sector doing international work, it’s not a big group. The nice part about the group is that you can pick up the phone and call organizations to ask for that kind of advice and they’re very willing to give it. I think if they have a good partner, what our experience has been, that they’re happy to share that partner. With another organization. It’s a recognition that we’re all on the same team. So we’re all on the team of eliminating poverty and addressing the sustainable development goals, but we all do different things to get that to happen.

And we’re all needed in that journey for the world to be a better place. So I think it’s a recognition that we’re not competitors we’re on the same team trying to make these things happen. The suggestions have been really good. Then the next stage for us in the due diligence process is to send our monitoring and evaluation person who does the pre-grant visits to go to these organizations.

And, she has a detailed process she follows you she will meet with the beneficiaries they’re currently supporting, she’ll meet with their staff. She’ll meet with their board of directors. She goes through their filing cabinet and looks to make sure they have the proper receipts and everything matches up.

Like she’s really looking for an organization that’s very well-established. But even, we have some organizations that have come to us that are volunteer-run. So there is one of the organizations in Zambia that we’re supporting is volunteer-run organized and. Even then, we can still make it work, even if they don’t have a full-time team or staff.

It’s just that we need to make sure that they’re at the point that, they can handle the rigor of reporting that we need as a Canadian organization. There are a lot of requirements. There’s a lot of reporting. There are a lot of financial reports, receipts, report cards, that type of thing that we need on a regular basis to know that our programs are performing well.

So for us, we need to know we have a partner that can deliver all those things so that we ensure that we meet the standards that we have as well as we can. With sending money internationally as a charity there are regulations that you have to follow CRA regulations. So we need to be onsite and make sure that every partner we’re working with can meet those regulations that the Canadian government has.

[00:16:37] Suzanne F. Stevens: And really do rely on those partners don’t you?

[00:16:40] Sara Dunkley: Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:16:43] Suzanne F. Stevens: Would you recommend, I’m going to dive into partner partnerships a little bit more, a little later on. Would you recommend someone start a foundation if they have an idea, they see a social gap. Would that be the recommendation or would you recommend something else?

[00:16:59] Sara Dunkley: I know I’m not totally sure. And I think it might, my not sureness comes from a couple of reasons. I think. It’s getting harder and harder to get a charity established and it’s becoming more and more expensive to run a registered charity in Canada. Your, you don’t have to have very many donations until you’re full audit and a charity audit even for a small organization, is close to a $10,000 expense. So it’s I think it’s managing the compliance the government regulations, the costs of being a charity and really balancing and making that decision, based on the timelines, the cost to set up the cost of doing the financial reporting doesn’t make sense.

So that’s why I would say if there’s an opportunity to work with an existing organization, that’s in the space that you’re doing, come on as a board of directors work with them on developing a program. That’s the route I would recommend first. And then I would recommend the route of starting an organization because it’s a lot of work, running a charity. There’s a lot of compliance and regulations and audit. And it just, I think back when I started in 2011, it wasn’t as complicated as it is now, but now it’s quite complicated.

[00:18:08] Suzanne F. Stevens: And admittedly, I love your advice. I talk about this in my book.

Make Your Contribution Count for You Me We.  We also don’t need to be the one to start a foundation. We don’t have to be the ones. Now, if it’s beyond our ego, that is driving us to do it. The reality is there are a lot of foundations already out there seeking money to achieve an objective.

And the more we continue creating new charities the more we start splintering, the opportunity for people to donate as you started right off the front end, there, wasn’t a lot of people in this space when you and I started, because of that is why I started. My foundation is very different than yours.

Because you are a registered charity. I am not, and there are ways to go under another foundation. And those that’s what I often recommend to people to do actually is instead of taking on this burden because we haven’t even talked about yet, Three boys, two businesses and a charity. We haven’t got there yet.

So there’s a lot of time and effort. And a lot of people are doing things that you may actually be able to connect to. And they have a system in place that’s working. You don’t need to recreate it.

[00:19:24] Sara Dunkley: I’d also add that, not only do charities need your donations, they also need new energy.

They need new enthusiasm. They need new ways of looking at problems. They always need more people coming on board that are passionate about what they do and, joining the team in a way of really coming and wanting to contribute. So I think that’s also really necessary. So it’s not just the money that’s needed. It’s also the time and talent that’s needed and the passion. When new people come to Beautiful World, as board members are volunteers and they’re enthusiastic and they’re passionate, it’s they’re absolutely breath of fresh air. To the organization because it can get very difficult. There’s always a lot to do. And, when you can share the work and you have someone super excited to do it, it’s really awesome. So I think, for organizations that exist, they don’t just need the money they also need the willingness to come aboard and help and contribute and, bring your passions to bring your talents to that organization.

If you’re great at social media marketing, and that’s your passion, then you bring that skill to the organization. I think there are a lot of small organizations that, really do amazing work and, with some talent and the right people joining, I think it really makes a difference to those organizations, their sustainability, as well as their ability to scale up their programs.

I would say to, I would say to women, it’s not just their money, your money, that they need.

[00:20:46] Suzanne F. Stevens: Let’s dive right into boards. How many people do you have on your board?

[00:20:50] Sara Dunkley: 10.

[00:20:50] Suzanne F. Stevens: Now, how did you start with family and friends, as you said, and I believe it’s evolved from there.

[00:20:57] Sara Dunkley: We have a board of 10 and we have nine women and one man. So the reverse of a lot of what you read about boards, very non-traditional board. My board members is comprised of people from different sectors and industries, and there is a mutual passion for the work we do.

Some of them have been with Beautiful World for a very long time and, they all contribute in very different ways. But I think the nice thing about board members and for me anyway, is like when you’re having a problem or a challenge, you want to be able to pick up the phone and get advice from somebody, and trust and they’ll have your back, but there’ll be honest with you about what you need to do and, really offer some alternative views than what you have.

And I think that if you have that on your board, That’s a really great successful board. There are also other functions they’re doing their fundraising, they’re organizing events, which is amazing. But for me, it’s, I want to know that I can pick up the phone and rely on their talent and ability, and they’re going to give great suggestions and advice.

[00:21:56] Suzanne F Stevens: And you mentioned different roles. Do you have any advice on how to get on a board of a charity so that people that may be looking for an opportunity to expand their contribution, but don’t want to start a foundation? Is there any advice that you have for that?

[00:22:12] Sara Dunkley: I think maybe charity village does postings of board members. I think that’s the organization that you could actually go and search up a board member postings. I think if there’s an organization that you are really interested in and I think the first step is. Having a meeting, getting to know the organization, maybe you’re donating to that organization.

And you already have a relationship. And then I think it’s just to, have that conversation with the management team, indicating your interest. Put your hat in the ring, right? Put your name out there, let them know that’s what you want. I think if you know the organization, you think that’s a good fit for you and where you want to be. You have an idea. I think as charities, if there are people out there and we know they want to participate, then we know they want to volunteer. They want to contribute, if the opportunities are there, we’re definitely opening the doors to them because we need people who are passionate, who want to help.

[00:23:00] Suzanne F Stevens: If you contributing to the charity can also help that you have a relationship with them because board members by nature want to be able to know that they’re going to connect with somebody in there, not just prior to becoming a board member so that they can work together as well.

Absolutely.

Now let’s talk about some of your partnerships because sustainability is such an important thing. And I know you rely on your partnerships tremendously as you already alluded to is to ensure that you’re staying abreast of what’s going on and they are really the first point of contact to the beneficiaries, correct?

[00:23:39] Sara Dunkley: Absolutely. So our program partners are the ones really running our programs. So we don’t have Beautiful World staff from Canada in our communities, running our programs. Our programs are all run by people from the community that they’re, that they live in the communities that we’re supporting.

They’ve got relationships in the communities. They know the situation, challenges that are taking place in the community. And I think for us because we work in a variety of countries, that’s really important. Each one of our countries is completely different, regulations, culture Extremely different values and what everything looks like.

For us, we really rely on them for everything. They do the initial students selection. Beautiful World has criteria. We do a final review of all the applications to make sure that everything matches out. And then at that point in time, the students come into our scholarship program and their program manager who works at the local partner is their point of contact.

There’ll be the program manager will be making sure of the tuition payment. They have a safe place to live. They have accommodation, sending their stipend note to their bank account on whatever frequency basis that it’s required, collect their report cards to make sure they’re passing, but really critically, be that point of contact for the students when they’re having problems.

And that’s really critical. I think we’ve had a lot of situations where students, families. There is a lot of pressure to get married in the countries we work in as young women, there’s a lot of pressure. And the pressure doesn’t end when the students join the scholarship program, and the pressure continues in some cases, our program managers are having to come in and enter really negotiate with families to try to keep the student in school and, deal with all sources, circumstances, and challenges that have arisen to help these students stay in school. I’ll get asked, what’s the critical ingredient?

And I think one of the critical ingredients of Beautiful World’s success is, these local people that really look out for the students, they know them, my name, they know who they are. And the students have someone they can call on, no matter what’s taking place, the challenge, they have somebody who has their back.

[00:25:43] Suzanne F Stevens: Why did you name your charity Beautiful World?

[00:25:45] Sara Dunkley: Your organization’s name should match what you do. Nobody looks at Beautiful World and gets what you do. There were a lot of board members and a lot of people who had a lot of reservations about our name.

So I was really contemplating changing it. And then I went to Africa I think it was the second trip that I had to Africa. And I was touring the girl’s dorm rooms and they’re like, oh yeah, this is the Beautiful World dorm room where the beautiful girls. And it was just interesting because it was like the aspect of how, the way the world could be all the aspirational things about the name.

It was like, they got it. And it was so amazing to see, I came back and said, I cannot change the name of this organization. Like the people that I’m working with locally, get it. So at that point in time without, okay, we have to, we’ll find a way to embrace it and deal with the challenge of people, not understanding what we do.

The students were really meant something to them and they really got the aspirational value.

[00:26:34] Suzanne F. Stevens: That is such a great story. And it’s such a great story because it focused actually eventually on the beneficiary and what they wanted. And that’s such an important message. When you are establishing a charity, a foundation, any non-profit is what does the beneficiary actually want?

What did they resonate with? Sometimes we fall on it, right?

Which leads to the question of what are the two most challenging hurdles to sustain your social impact?

[00:27:08] Sara Dunkley: I think the first one, the comms, and that’s there’s so many, I think, these organizations, sometimes it feels really easy and all things come and check into a place and it’s really great.

And then other times you go through where it feels, I guess the metaphor I would use is like pushing a boulder up a mountain and you’re moving it up very slowly and very difficultly. And I think that’s maybe the first thing I would say is that the experience of a charity or my experience has not been that it’s like a nice, steady ride.

It’s like a roller coaster. I’m in the museum park industry, I’m riding a rollercoaster. And I’m going up and down Hills and there’s so much adrenaline and there’s so much fear. So the analogy of the rollercoaster kind of fits in quite nicely. So there are times were just really hard and what needs to get done to move it forward. Can be really difficult.

[00:27:54] Suzanne F. Stevens: When you say it’s, the things were really hard. Can you be a little more specific?

[00:27:57] Sara Dunkley: Sometimes it’s funding? Sometimes it’s program partnerships. Sometimes we have an idea of how things need to run and we have budgets that we need to adhere to.

And, the challenge of getting that to work with our local program partners is we’ll have some students that will be with us for several years and will drop out because they’ve been forced into a marriage and there’s no way to get them back. That’s the situation. You can have several years and see a student have so much promise, but that doesn’t mean that you’re going to ensure that they’re going to be successful.

 You can do all those things and still have unsuccessful outcomes. And we do, which is really unfortunate. The partnering to produce results is awesome. And, but it’s not always easy. We work with countries where there are very different value systems, ways of doing business, understanding of terms, and finding ways to always have an agreement, especially when you’re working in different countries in different times zones where you can only see each ever each other, when you’re in COVID it’s been online zoom. That part can sometimes be a challenge. Funding wise that’s also has been a really big challenge for us. So it’s, finding the right program partners, their right donors that are wanting to be in the space.

And I think there has been a lot of challenges. I think, of what’s taken place with WE has made it a little bit harder. Cause I think people had WE as an organization on such a pedestal and when the pedestal dismantled or fell apart, the way it did, it really brought a lot of skepticism to what’s taking place in the program.

Are they, are these organizations what they say they are? Do they really help the people on the ground? So that’s been some of the big hurdles and challenges.

[00:29:42] Suzanne F. Stevens: And to that point they also, that was during the pandemic as well. Raising funds during the pandemic, I would imagine Sarah hard enough.

[00:29:54] Sara Dunkley: It’s really hard. And I think I’m not alone, but there are lots of charities like Beautiful World that depended on in-person events. We used to do a breakfast event and an annual gala, and they raised a lot of our money. And most importantly, it was an opportunity for us to bring somebody from our program partners or a student, or we bring someone remarkable to present on this topic.

And it was really an opportunity for people to really hear from the person that was being impacted by the work and they were hearing from them in person, which is a little different than being on a zoom call and hearing them in zoom. So it took a while to adapt.

Like we did see a significant decline in donations from going into 2020 from 2019 because the in-person events that a lot of charities, including Beautiful World, relied on, were cancelled and, we’re really having to be creative about how do we continue to have our donors still, be passionate about helping Africa, especially when, back in 2020 Canadian hospitals didn’t have enough PPE equipment.

There were women’s shelters that were struggling like there so many organizations here in Canada where the struggle was so real like there was a real need for donors to focus on Canada. It just became difficult. It’s we had a lot of granting organizations that discontinued their funding with us and they said our hospitals don’t have PP equipment.

How can we not have our hospitals have PPE? And we have to solve this need first before we can solve the need for scholarships in Africa. And I get it.

[00:31:20] Suzanne F. Stevens: Oh, are you managing, like, how are you managing because you are a donation-based organization, how are you managing to continue funding or you?

[00:31:30] Sara Dunkley: We switched to really trying to have our donors meet with our local program partners by zoom. So we were setting up zoom meetings and we’ve been really lucky. In 2020, we’ve been the recipient of a global affairs Canada grant. So we’ve been trying for government funding for about five or six years. And this grant is two years in the making, but it’s really huge opportunity for us. So we just put our first students into this grant program through our local partners in November. So we, now we have students that are sponsored by the government of Canada, which is really incredible.

And, for us, it’s an amazing, sustainable way forward. I think it’s the credibility that comes when you are when your programs are funded by the government, because of the rigor of audit and process and evaluations and results, it’s really intense, but for Beautiful World, it’s a real opportunity.

It’s not just the funding we’re getting from this grant, but it’s also the capacity building and knowledge. Having to, figure out how are we going to measure results of all these different things that we’re doing to indicate that they’re important to our success. So it’s a really amazing learning opportunity.

And one that we’re really embracing and our local partners are really embracing to, not only have this funding but then, make our program stronger and better and be able to speak to those results of the program. So it’s an exciting time. And for us, it means so much. I think funding for charity is probably the biggest thing that keeps charities up at night is that funding piece.

And how do you continue to fund this organization? And our program partners will have waitlists of hundreds of students. And it’s oh, there are these hundreds of students. I want to go to school and we want them to go to school. It’s always a tug of, you can do more with more money, but how do you get more money and how do you have more people know, understand and are motivated and inspired to give to your programs. It’s challenging.

[00:33:29] Suzanne F. Stevens: Good for you for looking at other alternatives.

We’ve all had to pivot one way or another. And being in, the live event business I hear you. So what advice can you provide to somebody who wants to make a conscious contribution to a beneficiary?

[00:33:49] Sara Dunkley: As a donor, it’s important to give with your passion.

What is the, if you look at all those sustainable development goals all of those number of them now, what are the ones that you’re most passionate about? What are you interested in? And I think what I would say is if you’re giving to something that you’re passionate about and something that inspires you, that’s going to be the donations that you’re going to really enjoy making.

And you’re going to be feeling and experiencing as a donor that you’re making a difference in the world. And I think that’s really important. I remember I participated in a seminar and there was this person from the organization that was presenting. And he goes from the Ford foundation, they were presenting about, they had an analogy of a river and they said, as donors like strategic, you were talking about strategic philanthropy.

And they said, okay, imagine you’re at a river. And there’s all this stuff coming down the river and you’re standing at the river bed and you just pull things out of the river as they come down. So you can continue to do that as an owner solving the downstream, problems, or you can go up the river and figure out why is all this stuff falling in the river and solve that problem.

So I think as strategic, it just depends on where your interest is, but I would always say if if you can solve the up the river problem to address why the challenges are taking place that’s always an interesting thing to do if you encounter these challenges in society.

It’s I think the interesting question is, when society is experiencing a challenge and a struggle and we’re seeing hardship, I think the question is why is this taking place? What is in society? What’s the cause of these problems. And I think if you can address the what’s the cause of these problems, I think that’s a really interesting space to be in very challenging to figure out.

I think if we all could figure out the cause of these challenging societal problems, and if it was easy to fix, it would already be fixed. But that’s an interesting space to be as if you can solve those kinds of problems. I think I would say that, in the world of not-for-profits, I think, you’ll see a lot of organizations out there and they’ll promise amazing results and a little bit of money and you can change all these lives.

And I think to really take somebody out of poverty, I one of my things that I’m most passionate about is how do you have somebody come out of a life of poverty? I How does that happen? And I think it’s not an easy thing. Like I think if each one of our students and I think of the schools they go to and the scholarships they’ve received from other organizations and, the healthcare from different organizations and, they are where they are, but it’s been so many organizations that have contributed to their success.

We’re with them for that final leg of the journey while they’re in university. But it’s been a lot of organizations that have been there with them standing with them.

[00:36:20] Suzanne F. Stevens: How does a mother of three boys. Run two businesses and a charity at once. What is your secret and any insight that you can provide other women that want to contribute more, but really just don’t have the bandwidth to do it.

[00:36:41] Sara Dunkley: I think the most important thing for me has been I have amazing teams in my business, so I’ve got a great group of people that I love working with.

And the people who are in my businesses and helping me manage them and the leaders in those organizations, they’re incredible people. And. I have something with my employees. I say you know what? I trust you to make a decision, but if you need me, I’m here call me. I’m happy to you want to bounce the idea.

If you want my opinion, you want my advice, I’m happy to do it, but if you need to make a call, then I’m going to have your back. I’m gonna, I’m going to understand why you made that decision. If it goes well or it goes badly. So I think that’s part of it. I think part of his delegation, I have to stay very organized.

So I’m one of those paper planner people. I’m not like the computerized actually have it on paper. The things I have to do each day, I track I, who did I give one assignment to? When am I expecting that to come back? And I think, in, in my business, I try to do the stuff that I’m really passionate about.

So I the projects, the different things that are happening I try to money my money at the time my team can do something, but it’s like, what is this stuff that I’m passionate about? And I’m excited about and what stuff do I really enjoy doing? And that’s the kind of task that I take on.

In my business as I take on some really strange stuff, but I really enjoy it. And then I think the only last thing I would say is, you deal with the most important thing at the time, right? So if the most important thing and pressing thing at the moment is something, one of my son’s needs or it’s something my business needs, or it’s something my foundation needs, I’m getting those things out of the way before I’m tackling it.

And I’ve gotten used to you just wear multiple hats a day and you flip from thing to thing. And that’s been kind of part of my process for many years. So I’ve become used to it.

[00:38:19] Suzanne F. Stevens: And your boys, how old are they?

[00:38:21] Sara Dunkley: 14, 12 and eight.

[00:38:26] Suzanne F. Stevens: I don’t think most of us can handle that. And that’s really sound advice. So thank you for that. Entrepreneurs often have a hard time delegating. And one of the things that I’ve heard many times from many women that are entrepreneurs who say or acknowledge that they’re not good at delegating because of that perfectionist impulse, Is they have to have their hands on everything.

So the fact that you’re able to trust. And let go is hats off to you because it’s a great leadership skill to be able to do that. Not only for your businesses but also for your mental health, which is really important.

[00:39:12] Sara Dunkley: I’d love to add one thing. And I was really lucky. The more I delegated to my team and I delegated a task, they were really good at it, I found the better my business did because they were better at it than I was.

So you mean, my salespeople are way better salespeople than I am my accountants, way better and more meticulous and detailed than I am. So for me, it’s, if, as delegating have benefited because as they’re doing it, the business is doing better and way better than what I would have been able to do on my own because there are much more talented and skilled at it than I am.

[00:39:43] Suzanne F. Stevens: And there is phenomenal advice. So thanks for that, Sarah. Surround yourself with brilliant people who are strategic and better at everything they you , and you can do it all too.

But I love that advice is as much as I’m bastardizing it, but it is really, if you can surround yourself with those people and that you can afford to surround yourself with those people as well. So let’s dive into some rapid-fire. This is first thought, best thought, don’t think too much and let’s not expand too much.

And then we’ll call it a day. So why is your social impact important now?

[00:40:27] Sara Dunkley: We need women leaders. My countries especially need opportunities for girls to step into roles and fight the norms that exist in their society.

[00:40:38] Suzanne F. Stevens: Why are you the right person to lead this initiative?

Oh, I don’t know if I am. I am some days I’m not.

[00:40:48] Sara Dunkley: I think as women, we always think that somebody else would do a better job. I would say there are days when I believe that I’m the right person and there are days that I don’t believe that I’m enough.

[00:40:55] Suzanne F. Stevens: How has Beautiful World provided meaning in your life?

[00:41:00] Sara Dunkley: Oh, that’s a big question. I would simply say it as the transformations that I’ve seen in students. I’ve seen them come into our program. I read their applications and just the circumstance they’re coming from. And then I go and meet them four years later when they finished and they have a job and I just can’t believe what perseverance and hard work can accomplish.

It’s like that, the belief in the American dream, you mean you work hard and you can make it, it doesn’t matter what your background is. I just love seeing that come to life in such a short period of time.

Yeah. Beautiful. That’s why it’s called Beautiful World. What is one thing you wish you knew prior to starting Beautiful World?

I wish I knew how to ask people for money, confidently without hesitation and nervousness.

[00:41:51] Suzanne F. Stevens: That may lead to your next question is what have you done that has made you uncomfortable? But if you didn’t do it, you would not have achieved the impact on the beneficiary.

[00:42:01] Sara Dunkley: I think of myself as a fairly introverted person. People who don’t like to be in the limelight, that’s how I would describe myself and Beautiful World has forced me to get up on stage in front of lots of people and speak my mind about what my beliefs are and my values are and what I’m doing. And it really requires me to be out there in, in a big way.

And that’s been really hard.

[00:42:25] Suzanne F. Stevens: Great. Thanks for that. Worst piece of advice you’ve ever received?

[00:42:31] Sara Dunkley: Ooh. I remember meeting with a mining company and their belief was that I couldn’t help the populations that I was helping. I also want to remember I’m meeting with a fundraising organization and they told me because I wasn’t a poet, a politician or a celebrity.

I had no business starting a charity.

[00:42:49] Suzanne F Stevens: Those 850 women disagree. Best piece of advice you’ve ever received.

[00:42:55] Sara Dunkley: I’ve received so many good pieces of advice. It’s really hard to identify. I think that’s where I’ve been really lucky is that I’ve had amazing people. I think initially starting off the working with local partners, finding local organizations to work with, I think that was one that really in my, as I look at how we formed and what we’ve become, it’s results of that advice in that decision.

[00:43:18] Suzanne F. Stevens: Which of your strengths? Do you rely on most to have the success you have achieved?

[00:43:23] Sara Dunkley: I think it’s a combination of organization. I’m very organized. Really good at getting things done. I can, I’m a get-it-done person. So I think that helps like the organization and just getting it done.

 Wanting to get things done, will have me do things that I don’t necessarily want to do or things that I’m nervous or uncomfortable doing. But if I say I’m going to do what I follow through.

[00:43:45] Suzanne F. Stevens: Besides yours, which beneficiary do you think needs the most investment of time research and money?

[00:43:51] Sara Dunkley: Addictions. That’s the one that really stands out for me. I’ve done a lot of research and read and watch documentaries about addiction. And I think that is probably the biggest problem we are facing here in North America.

And I think that we will see that in other areas of the world as well, but I think addiction and successful solutions that deal with the problems. We have to heal people from addiction. And then we have to figure out how to stop it. But first we, I think we do have to heal those people that are addicted.

And I think that the family breakdown, the challenges, the poverty, I think a lot of the things that we’re experiencing in North America, we’re seeing right now, or as a result of addiction.

[00:44:34] Suzanne F. Stevens: What leadership advice do you have for people who want to have a social impact?

[00:44:37] Sara Dunkley: I think knowing what you’re excited about, know what you’re passionate about know what your talents are be willing to step out and do things that you wouldn’t normally think that you could do.

I think it’s been stepping out of my comfort zones. It’s really allowed me to grow as a person as well as to grow talents and capabilities that I didn’t have previously. So I think that’s what I would give.

[00:45:00] Suzanne F. Stevens: Now. We’ve already established a few times that you have three sons, but let’s say one of those sons was 10.

And let’s say that one son is now a daughter.

What advice would you give today to a 10-year-old daughter?

[00:45:19] Sara Dunkley: I think it’s the same advice that I would give to my boys. I think the advice that I’m giving my kids constantly is to do their best to, show up and participate and don’t sit on the sidelines of life.

And, if you’re going to do something, do you know your solid commitment you’re solid effort at doing it.

 What decisions can you make that are going to lead to you being successful? If you know what going into jobs and fields where there are jobs, when you graduate and, you can get a job like I’m, a little more practical than follow your dreams.

[00:45:51] Suzanne F. Stevens: So who’s the greatest female influence in your life?

[00:45:56] Sara Dunkley:

I’m going to pick a couple of our program partners. We’ve got some incredible women who are leading our organizations and who are leading our programs. And the humility and the passion and the things that they balance and the things they make happen.

I’m frequently in awe of all the things they accomplish. I think of one program partner we have, and, she’s the executive director there. She’s traveling all over the country. She has 900 primary students and she has a couple of hundred secondary students and she has all these students in our program in higher education and she’s got a grandmother’s program and she’s got Wells and she’s making all this work as a leader.

And I think that’s truly remarkable -with kids.

[00:46:42] Suzanne F. Stevens: Yeah. It’s amazing. Isn’t it? What three values do you live by?

[00:46:46] Sara Dunkley: Fairness. Honesty and just a commitment to do my best.

[00:46:53] Suzanne F. Stevens: And thank you Sarah, for some great insight during this hour together today. And thank you for joining us for those of you who have joined us live. And if you’re watching, recording, thank you for watching the recording.

You can subscribe to YouMeWe we amplified podcasts. So you receive each new interview notification in your inbox. Please share the interview by going to the share button located on the guests’ exclusive page. The interview will be available on podcasts, where you get your podcasts transcript if you like to read and video as well.

And if you want to grow your social impact, join the YouMeWe week community. When were women leading social impact, gathering and sharing to collaborate to amplify each other’s growth? You can visit youmewe.ca community to look into that community. And I’m going to come back and leave the, almost the final words to you, Sarah.

So do you have any words of wisdom for our audience regarding making a contribution to society?

[00:47:56] Sara Dunkley: I think as women it’s really important to just, if there’s something that you feel like you can accomplish or make happen to make the world a better place, it’s like try and tackle it.

You might succeed, you might fail. You’re gonna learn a lot for sure on that path. And it’s just to have the courage to try it out and tackle it. I think the big thing for me that really inspired me to action was, thinking about the role model that I am to my children. And do I want a role model complaining about the way the world is, or do I want a model that, anybody can tackle changing the world?

So it came to a point and I said, if not me then who? And that was a very powerful thing.

[00:48:37] Suzanne F. Stevens: Thank you so much, Sarah. Stay with me on the other side and for everybody else, make your contribution count until next time and make it count for you, me, we.