CESO Annual Report for 2011-2012

Message from the Chair and the CEO

Through partnership, anything is possible.

Partnership is a powerful thing. It welcomes input from everyone involved, and then, when done well, creates an impact that reaches far beyond the sum of its collective parts.

Over the past few years, development organizations have looked at new ways of collaborating—with each other, with our funders, and with the people we seek to help. This spring, the federal budget challenged Canadian development organizations to further tighten their belts, and to look to partnership as a means of maximizing the effectiveness of our work.

CESO welcomes this challenge. For 45 years, our focus on one-on-one mentorship has been anchored in partnership. Over the past year, we have expanded our partnerships with clients, other NGOs, and the public and private sectors. We’ve also grown as an organization. We’ve not only improved our programs and achieved a balanced operating budget, we’ve also matured in our understanding of our unique offering as a development organization—one grounded in our seven key service areas, a core model of capacitybuilding through mentorship, and pride in our focus on economic development.

As part of that maturing, we’ve fine-tuned our partnership model—a highly successful, demanddriven way of working that has proven itself in our international assignments—and applied it to our work here in Canada. We’ve also established a culture of continuous improvement through a relentless focus on results and on incorporating feedback from local partners and clients into our programs going forward. In the year ahead, our efforts will continue to focus on strengthening our programming diversifying our revenue sources, and seeking opportunities for strategic partnerships.

In the pages that follow, you’ll learn a little more about the kinds of partnerships we’ve been honoured to be a part of over the past year. We also reflect on the lessons we’ve learned, and celebrate our achievements. Among them: Over the past year CESO’s Volunteer Advisors donated more than 5,300 days of work to communities in Canada and around the world. Our Volunteer Advisors are our true differentiator—without them, there would be no CESO.

To all of our members, thank you for your tireless commitment over the past year to creating stronger economies and better lives for people around the world. To those who haven’t yet worked with us, there has never been a better time to support CESO.

Volunteer. Partner. Donate.

Every one of us can make a difference.

Peter Chiddy
Chair of the Board

Wendy Harris
CEO & President

Download CESO Annual Report for 2011-2012