Raissa Marks

With over 20 years in the non-profit sector, Raissa is a collaborative leader with a passion for fostering healthy communities and empowering the people within them. She is the founder and principal consultant of Lily Mark, whose social purpose is to strengthen organizations and support collaboration for change. Raissa is a skilled facilitator with extensive experience leading diverse groups of people through consensus-based decision-making processes. She is an ICF-credentialed coach who helps her clients achieve clarity and realize transformative professional and personal growth. She is a strategic thinker with experience in policy work at both the federal and provincial levels. Raissa has experience at the director and executive director level with various environmental and social justice organizations, as well as board experience. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Environment from McGill University and a Master of Environmental Studies from York University, which focused on environmental education, civic engagement, and community building. Her mother tongue is English; she is also fluent in French thanks to primary school French immersion and subsequent work in both official languages in New Brunswick, Canada’s only bilingual province. Through Lily Mark, Raissa provides high quality services for mission-driven organizations large and small. Her services include executive and leadership coaching, workshop design and facilitation, and organizational development support including strategic planning, succession planning, governance, and change management. She currently lives in Montreal.

Expertise

Governance
Strategic Planning

Workshops

For more information visit ProfitLearn or Training for the Non-Profit Sector

Board Governance for Non-profits

This training covers the key elements of effective board governance and aims to strengthen participants’ understanding of board roles, responsibilities, and internal dynamics.

Introduction to Governance: What is board governance?

Roles and Responsibilities of the Board:

Defining the strategic vision and direction of the organization
Developing and maintaining organizational policies
Ensurirg strong financial oversight
Supporting, supervising, and evaluating the Executive Director
Conducting evaluations of the board and the organization

Board Operations:

Board roles (Chair, Treasurer, etc.)
Committees: roles and structure
Running and participating in effective board meetings

Strategic Plans for Non-profits

This workshop will cover the following topics:

What is a strategic plan?
Core elements of a strategic plan
Ideal timeframe for a strategic plan
Roles and responsibilities of the board, ED, and staff in relation to the strategic plan
Who should be involved in developing a strategic plan, and how they should be involved
Steps for developing a strategic plan
Typical timeframe and cost of developing a strategic plan
Implementation of the strategic plan

Workload, Time Management, and Boundary Setting

Are you a part of a small or medium-sized non-profit organization struggling with workload, time management, and boundary setting?

This interactive workshop is designed to provide you with practical strategies and empower you to make meaningful changes in how you manage your workload and time. Join us and take the first step towards a more balanced and productive work life!

This interactive workshop will cover the following topics:

Hard truths about workload and boundaries on our time in non-profit organizations
Key skills for avoiding burn-out
Hard and soft boundaries on our time
A simple method to help prioritize tasks

By the end of this workshop participants will have:

Reflected on some hard truths about their workload and boundaries on how they spend their time
Learned how to set boundaries on their time and hold themselves accountable to those boundaries
Learned how to prioritize their work on a weekly basis using a simple method
Been empowered to take charge of their time and their workload