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

Ashley Herod,  Senior Account Director

Ashley joins the team with 20+ years of sales, marketing and communications & PR experience, with expertise in driving sales, creating and implementing integrated sponsorship and partnership programs.

Ashley is passionate about guiding clients to grow relationships across sectors and industries to develop unique partnerships and additional revenue streams.

Ashley has held both senior leadership positions and consulting roles working successfully, with fluidity, across a variety of industries including charitable organizations & non-profits (destination marketing organizations, food rescue & food loss and waste, breast cancer, national sport organizations), tourism, event production, sports broadcasting, digital and content production & commercial real estate ancillary revenue.

Ashley loves to connect inspiring, creative, passionate people and is energized by like-minded individuals that also seek to create positive experiences in our professional and personal lives.

Ashley’s Sweet Spots: Partnership and sponsorship strategy, prospecting & pipeline development, integrated campaigns, client services.

Samantha Brown Aravinthan, Account Consultant

Samantha is an avid believer in the potential of social platforms to build relationships—and she is thrilled to be helping nonprofits and charities across Canada harness this potential, so they can change the world.

Prior to joining BridgeRaise, Samantha supported fundraising efforts at Shelter Movers Greater Toronto. She was one of the core event planners for their first virtual fundraising event in May 2021 (Her Time: A Virtual Wine Tasting), and this experience inspired her to continue building a career in the nonprofit sector.

As the newest addition to the BridgeRaise team, Samantha provides social media support, environmental scans and project-based prospect research, as well as fundraising-related outreach and moves management.

Samantha’s sweet spots: relationship building, social media copywriting, social media engagement and account management

Melanie Caul, Account Consultant

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.