MusiCounts is an organization that supports music education across the country for children and youth, primarily in the form of grants to buy musical instruments.
My role as manager of major and annual gifts is to raise funds for our programs, so I work with corporate partners, private foundations and individuals. We take on a number of fundraising events during the year and also work with other orgs that do fundraisers and initiatives for us, supporting the people running them in whatever way they need.
I did my undergrad in music at Western. My academic major was in music theory, and I’m also a cellist. From there I got a master’s degree in sound recording and audio engineering at McGill. After that I did an MBA at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.
From a very young age I knew I wanted to have a career in support of music. But I wasn’t suited to being a performing artist and wasn’t drawn to teaching, so I looked at other ways to be involved. Audio engineering was really interesting to me.
Unfortunately it was a bad time to be working in audio engineering. The music industry started to undergo tremendous change thanks to the availability of digital music and new technologies that allowed musicians to do their own recording.
I really wanted to stick with music, possibly in the not-for-profit sector. I had such a focused education that I didn’t have a broader perspective on how to run a business or work in an administrative role.
That’s when I decided to apply to business schools. It seemed intimidating at first, but speaking with contacts at the various business schools, I realized I had an interesting perspective to share. That got me more excited. I thought Rotman would broaden my understanding of how the world works.
Marketing, sales, finance, negotiations and business strategy – all of those things are used in fundraising. I don’t think I’d be as successful a fundraising officer without having knowledge in all of those fields. The Rotman School is very much about case-based study. You not only learn the tools, but you walk out of there with a lot of experience in working through situations.
The learning curve was steep, so I had less time to devote to other things. At Rotman, they make it easy to immerse yourself in school life. They deliberately set aside time for out-of-classroom events. In my second year, I was an English-as-a-second-language coach for some of my classmates. I was also involved in a couple of committees and part of a not-for-profit student consulting team.
Fundraising is a lot about finding a fit with someone and a way to work with them that will suit their needs and yours. I discovered a passion for finance, economics and strategy.
The most rewarding aspect of my job is knowing that I’m supporting music education. Specifically, that I can take people who want to support music education and connect them directly to those in need of it.
When I was an audio engineer I worked directly with talent, helping them make their music available to fans. What’s great about my job with MusiCounts is that I am now helping to seed talent and build the audiences of the future.
