Charities Convention

January 13th, 2017

This convention was the first of its kind, bringing firefighters and their respective charities from all across BC, Alberta and the Yukon together for an informative, interactive and innovative seminar. Thank you to all those who attended this successful event. We hope you gained as much from it as we did.

The vision of this conference was to engage our fellow brothers and sisters who share in the philanthropic efforts outside the day to day fire service. The day consisted of a variety of keynote speakers that will be discussed topics pertinent to charities and non-profit societies. As well as an important opportunity of networking and brainstorming.

The topics included:

Charity tax receipting
Bookkeeping
Charity audits
CRA compliance
Conforming to new Bill 24 2015: Societies Act
Trademarking your Brand

Grant writing
Volunteer retention challenges
Launching a registered charity and society
Successes and failures of fundraising
BCPFFA Burn Fund Centre
Meet and network with fellow counterparts

Keynote Speakers

We want to give a tremendous thank you to our Keynote speakers, their support and expertise made for an extremely successful convention.
We also want to thank City of Coquitlam Mayor, Richard Stewart; Coquitlam Fire Chief, Wade Peirlot; and BCPFFA President, Gord Ditchburn for their welcome addresses to our attendees and show of support.

Barbara Collins

Barbara Collins is a partner at McMillan in the firm's Vancouver Office. She is a member of Corporate Finance, Securities and Mergers & Acquisitions Law Groups. Her practice consists mainly of securities law in public and private financing as well as mergers and acquisitions.

Todd Schierling

Todd Schierling is the Secretary-Treasurer for the British Columbia Professional Fire Fighters' Association and BC Burn Fund. Todd, an Acting Captain has served 20 years with the Surrey Fire Service and the Charitable Society. Todd served on Surrey's Local 1271 executive board as a Trustee, Registrar and Treasurer respectively. During his tenure, he also served as the Executive Director of the Surrey Firefighter's Charitable Society managing fundraising and program development.

Lisa Lacamell

What does “giving back” and “making a difference” mean to you? What a deep question, right? Giving brings us closer to creating the world we would want to live in. Many people answer that question by volunteering their time and through professional experiences. Lisa has dedicated her 20+yr career & volunteer time working with organizations who she shared personal passion with and joined them to try and help make a difference. She began her tenure with the Burn Fund over 5 years ago. A major project has been the successful completion and construction of the $13.1m Burn Fund Centre project which opened in March of 2016. As the Executive Director, she works closely with the board of directors to ensure the sound operations, leads fund development while assisting the board to strive for excellence in all prevention, research and survivor support programs that they deliver. She currently volunteers with the Dixon Transition House Society & the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Previously Lisa worked in administration in amateur sport and a physical disabilities organization. In addition for 12 years she was co-owner of Cartwheels Inc, a gymnastics and recreation business for children.

Linda Morgan

Linda Morgan has had the privilege of working in the charitable sector for over a decade as a front-facing representative of some very worthy organizations. Her work has allowed her to meet individuals from all walks of life, to partner with groups such as businesses, schools and churches and to help affect social change by engaging with various levels of government.

“As diverse as my experience has been, the thing that is constant is the generosity, compassion and care that Canadians have for one another, including our future generations. I see my role as being a conduit between the heart of individuals like yourself, and the needs of our community and our world. I was born in 1979, one month after my parents, brother and sister arrived in Canada as part of the post-war exodus out of Vietnam. We were sponsored to Abbotsford where I was raised until I moved to Vancouver for University. In 2004, our family had the opportunity to go back to Vietnam and to reflect on how different life could have been if not for the generosity and openness of people in Canada. It was after that trip that I left my career in real estate to align my work with my life’s purpose.”

Morgan McDonald

Morgan McDonald is an associate at McMillan firm's Vancouver office in the Business Law Group. Her practice focuses primarily on assisting private companies with mergers and acquisitions, purchase and sale transactions, reorganizations, joint ventures, and day to day corporate needs.

Andrea Knorr

Andrea Knorr, CPA, CGA became a Certified General Accountant in 1997 and has worked in public practice since 1994. She became a partner at W. Bruce & Associates in 2007. She has worked with several unions and charities preparing year-end financial statements and reports for the government (ie: charity returns, NPO returns, gaming reports). She is the accountant for the Coquitlam, Richmond, Vancouver, Burnaby and West Vancouver Firefighter's Charitable Societies. She also performs the audit for the BCPFFA Burn Fund.

Calvin Fong

Calvin Fong joined the Vancouver Foundation in May 2014 in the role of Director, Donor Services. Prior to joining Vancouver Foundation, he was the Manager, Philanthropic Services with Vancity Community Foundation for 5 years. Calvin was responsible for leading the Philanthropic Services team and managing its donor advised funds for individual and charitable organization donors. Before that, he spent over 25 years in the domestic and offshore wealth management industry, practicing in the personal trust field.

“I have a passion for assisting others with the complexity of their charitable giving and estate planning. I continue to learn and offer my time and expertise to the field by volunteering on boards and with various organizations. Currently, I am an executive member of the Estate Planning Council of Vancouver, a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), a director of the Greater Vancouver Chapter of the Canadian Association of Gift Planners (CAGP), Past Chair of LEAVE A LEGACY of Greater Vancouver and the Chair of the CAGP Foundation.”

Darren Genge

Darren Genge has been a Firefighter with Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services for the past 4 years,
volunteering many hours with the Vancouver Firefighters’ Charities (VFC). In 2014, Darren transitioned to the new roll
of Online Volunteer Manager for the many events the VFC hosts each year. He has recently accepted
a role on the Board of Directors for the Charity. Darren will be presenting an interactive demonstration on how their organization manages their volunteers and tracks their hours spent off-duty, with an easy to use and valuable software program.

Rob Gagliano

Rob Gagliano joined Vancouver Foundation in 2014 in the role of Estate Officer, Donor Services. He works with executors and their professional advisors whenever a donor leaves a planned gift to the Foundation. Before joining Vancouver Foundation, Rob oversaw estate gift administration for the Canadian Cancer Society in BC and the Yukon. His experience includes over 500 estate gifts and all other types of planned gifts. He volunteers with the Canadian Association of Gift Planners, Greater Vancouver Chapter and currently serves as the Chapter Secretary.