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

Over her 20+ year career, she has fundraised for higher education and hospital institutions, humanitarian and social welfare causes, and has a special affinity for charities addressing housing and food insecurity. 

Melanie especially loves tackling complex challenges and collaborating with clients to create impactful fundraising strategies that drive meaningful change. She is passionate about developing innovative solutions that not only meet immediate goals but also lay the groundwork for sustainable growth. 

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.

Danielle Lewis, Design Consultant

Danielle brings 18+ of graphic design and visual branding experience to our team. She ensures that we visually look our best so that the work we do shines.

She is passionate about supporting not for profits and community led programming. Over her career she has created the visual branding for The New Mom Project, Durham Youth Services and The Period Purse to name a few. She continues to work with businesses big and small, though the not for profit and heart led businesses are her sweet spot and she is a champion and advocated of supporting local.

Beyond her professional work, Danielle is a cheerleader and supporter in the female business community, and enjoys volunteering at her kids’ school.