{"id":74060,"date":"2021-02-24T15:18:45","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T20:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=74060"},"modified":"2025-10-10T13:38:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T17:38:01","slug":"jennifer-conley-businesswoman-year","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/jennifer-conley-businesswoman-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton’s Jennifer Conley Wins Businesswoman of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Carleton's Jennifer Conley Wins Businesswoman of the Year\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Creativity, disruption, innovation. Oh yes, and collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chief
Chief Advancement Officer Jennifer Conley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For Carleton\u2019s Chief Advancement Officer, Jennifer Conley, these aren\u2019t buzzwords\u2014they\u2019re directives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And for her adherence to them, she\u2019s been named Businesswoman of the Year in the category of organizations, chosen from more than 200 nominees by the Women\u2019s Business Network of Ottawa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conley, who also serves as president and CEO of the Carleton University Foundation (US), led the university\u2019s $300-million Collaborate Campaign, which in 2019 became the most successful fundraising campaign conducted in Ottawa.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI\u2019m really grateful to receive this recognition,\u201d says Conley, \u201cbut I see it as a proof point of the collaborative leadership model we have at Advancement and at Carleton. It\u2019s a unique and modern model that produces extraordinary results and impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\"Corrie
Corrie Hobin, Sarah Clarke, Ryan Davies, Jennifer Conley, Diane Chea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTeam Here for Good\u201d is Conley\u2019s affectionate name for the staff at Advancement, which encompasses alumni relations, community liaison, fundraising, stewardship, advancement communications and digital transformation. Their work is based on a pioneering premise that stakeholders are giving through<\/em>, not to, Carleton to produce social, economic and common good. According to Conley, positioning Carleton as the gateway to change resonates powerfully with stakeholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And her team? \u201cThey\u2019re the best in the business,\u201d she declares.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cTogether we have a really powerful dynamic that\u2019s been able to disrupt and change the landscape. We\u2019ve created new best practices for other charities to follow so they too can succeed in these challenging times.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

FutureFunder<\/a>, Carleton\u2019s crowdfunding platform, blazed a trail in Canadian higher education. Then there is the holistic partnership between Advancement and the Office of the Vice-President (Research and International), which integrates research and philanthropy for co-ordinated contact between Carleton and industry partners. \u201cThis isn\u2019t being done at other institutions,\u201d says Conley. \u201cIt\u2019s a new approach that\u2019s going very well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaping her team\u2019s trajectory is Carleton\u2019s Master of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership<\/a> (MPNL) program. The equivalent of an MBA for the charitable sector, MPNL is the only program of its kind in Canada: \u201cIn Advancement, we believe we have a responsibility to represent their research and lead change through evidence-based practice in everything we do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"MPNL
MPNL Prof. Nathan Grasse, Chief Advancement Officer Jennifer Conley and Carleton University President Benoit-Antoine Bacon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Conley enrolled in the program to ensure she was walking her talk. Two years on, she\u2019s an instructor and brings in members of her team to speak as expert field practitioners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery one of our students learns what the highest standards are and then is encouraged to go and be a change-maker. Between shifting demographics and the cessation of event-based fundraising, traditional philanthropy is in trouble,\u201d she continues, \u201cand leaders will need to do things differently going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"SIP<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But risk-taking isn\u2019t necessarily common in the charitable sector, and Conley is grateful that Carleton leadership has embraced Advancement\u2019s creativity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Strategic Integrated Plan<\/a> is a prime example. \u201cPart of our job is to be part of and to serve the community\u2014that\u2019s in Carleton\u2019s DNA\u2014and the strategic plan formalizes that and makes it part of our delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cue another innovation: Hub for Good<\/a>, the digital front door welcoming community stakeholders who want to connect with the campus, developed through close work with the Office of the Provost and Vice-President (Academic) and associated interdisciplinary committees.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cCarleton has a strong culture of philanthropy,\u201d Conley reflects.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cAdvancement has achieved a lot not because we are a standalone office, but because we\u2019re embedded in Carleton\u2019s mission. And people are responding to Carleton\u2019s invitation because it is authentic, and because they can see the impact we\u2019re having.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chief
Chief Advancement Officer Jennifer Conley and President Bacon celebrate reaching and surpassing the Collaborate Campaign’s $300 million goal in April 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Creativity, disruption, innovation. Oh yes, and collaboration. For Carleton\u2019s Chief Advancement Officer, Jennifer Conley, these aren\u2019t buzzwords\u2014they\u2019re directives. And for her adherence to them, she\u2019s been named Businesswoman of the Year in the category of organizations, chosen from more than 200 nominees by the Women\u2019s Business Network of Ottawa. Conley, who also serves as president […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":74065,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[28],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-74060","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-community-partnerships"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/74060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/74060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98245,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/74060\/revisions\/98245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=74060"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=74060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}