Your Team

Heather Nelson, President and Lead Consultant, MBA, CFRE

Heather loves fundraising, which is why she’s been working with charities, volunteers, and donors for more than 20 years.  Over the course of her career, she’s  demonstrated a deep expertise in corporate partnership with a unique approach that focuses on building relationships and ensuring mutual value.

Heather built the corporate partner program at Food Banks Canada from scratch to be a $7M program and over the last 5 years has supported over 50 different charities and nonprofits at establishing and expanding corporate partner and sponsorship programs at their organizations.

Heather understands the connection between fundraising and marketing and how to unlock the potential for win-win relationships.  Heather draws on her extensive experience in corporate fundraising, sponsorships and cause marketing to ensure her clients are successful.

Heather is a contributing author to the women’s leadership book Embracing Ambition, which you can purchase here.

Heather’s sweet spots: Accountability coaching, strategic planning and development, building prospect pipelines, organizational buy-in, cause marketing

Melanie Caul, Account Director

Melanie has 20+ years of experience in the fundraising sector, having worked in both agency-side and in-house roles. She has fundraised for high-ed and hospital institutions, humanitarian and social welfare causes, and has a special affinity for charities working in the housing and food insecurity space.

Melanie brings a diverse perspective to the BridgeRaise team, with specialized knowledge and applied experience in strategy and annual program development, integrated marketing approaches, and operational processes – in addition to corporate partnership development strategy and practices.

Melanie’s sweet spots: Strategy and planning, big-picture brainstorming, processes and logistics, prospect research and development, plus anything data and analytics.

Kate Taylor, Account Director, MA

Kate is passionate about helping not-for-profit organizations thrive by fostering meaningful partnerships with businesses that align with a charity’s mission. With over 15 years of dedicated experience in the not-for-profit realm, Kate truly values cultivating connections, collaborating on purposeful projects, and offering guidance to others.

Kate’s professional journey includes holding senior fundraising roles within various arts organizations in both Canada and the UK. With a background in museum curation, she seamlessly blends her organizational skills with her creative flair to make a tangible impact in the not-for-profit sector.

Kate’s specialty is in crafting customized strategies to secure funding through corporate partnerships that resonate with the core values of charitable organizations. Known for her unwavering commitment, authenticity, attention to detail, and optimistic approach, Kate is a trusted mentor you can always rely on.

Kate’s sweet spots: relationship building, partnership values alignment, revenue generation strategy, team capacity building, creative activation..

Debra Thompson, Account Consultant

Debra is a strategic fundraiser and development professional. She is an exceptional networker with a demonstrated strength in cultivating and stewarding long term, strategic relationships. Over the past 20+ years, she has worked in senior business development and account management roles in the agency, technology, and training sectors.

Most recently, her work has focused on in-house fundraising roles supporting community (library) and education causes. A lifelong volunteer, she has served on boards, built community strength, and supported meaningful change for local and national nonprofits including breast cancer, health care, mental health, youth, recreation, and humanitarian causes.

A natural connector, she builds trusted relationships by advocating for her clients. She collaborates and mentors her clients with a solution-oriented approach. Debra is a trailblazer, early tech adopter, storyteller and communicator which fuels her natural curiosity and positive outlook.

Debra’s sweet spots: relationship building, account management, digital engagement, event management, copywriting, project management and processes.

Anne Pathammavong, Client Support Consultant

Anne brings a wealth of experience to our team, having served in a variety of roles across a diverse range of industries. She has 10+ years of fundraising experience in health charities and public television, along with a fundraising certificate from Metropolitan University and is a former CFRE.

In addition to fundraising, her career journey encompasses sales and entrepreneurship, e-commerce, and editing at an international publishing company. Anne’s is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion becoming a founding member of DEI committees during her career, ensuring equal representation and advocacy in the workplace.

Beyond her professional endeavors, Anne finds time to give back to the community by volunteering as a coach for track and field and various community fundraising efforts for her child’s school.

Anne’s sweet spots: customer relationship management systems (CRMs), website design, prospect research, and sales execution.