On July 1st, Canadians across the country (and Canadian expats around the world!) will mark Canada Day. Celebrations often include fireworks, barbecues, concerts, parades, flag-waving, festivals and citizenship ceremonies. Expect a sea of red and white: people wearing the colors, attending parades, sharing Canada Day cake and watching red and white fireworks light up the night sky. Plenty of poutine and beaver tails get eaten along the way, too.  

The holiday dates back 159 years to July 1st, 1867, when the British North America Act (now known as the Constitution Act, 1867) created the Dominion of Canada. It was celebrated as Dominion Day for over a century before being renamed Canada Day in 1982. 

This year carries some extra meaning for our prospect development community: it's also Apra Canada's 25th anniversary! Chartered on March 2, 2001, Apra Canada has grown from 80 founding members to more than 200 today, spanning the country from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific. 

In honor of Canada Day and Apra Canada's milestone year, I reached out to a few prospect development professionals to learn how they celebrate Canada Day and what PD and Apra mean to them. 

What does Canada Day mean for you or your organization? How do you celebrate the occasion, if you do? 

I work in Ontario, where Canada Day is a statutory holiday, so our office will be closed. I’ll be spending the day with my family, enjoying the outdoors and taking in the local festivities, including fireworks in the evening. 

Amber Palmer 

Do you have a fun Canada Day story you'd like to share? 

When my family visited from Europe, we took them on a tour of Lake Louise, Banff and Jasper to show them the beauty of Canada. The trip included several bear sightings, some of them quite close. This led to a great deal of screaming, crying and praying from my mom and aunt. We tried to reassure them that the bears were harmless from a safe distance, and that the people getting out of their cars and moving closer to take pictures would make much easier prey than us. Still, they refused to leave the car or the cottage. We still tease them about it to this day. 

Anna Mandic Vukovic 

How does your involvement in the Apra Canada and Apra International communities enrich your work? 

Having a supportive community that shows up in many ways, from mentoring and PRSPCT-L to webinars, feels like I’m a part of a bigger team. People are willing to share their time, expertise, tips, new methodologies and experience, and that support makes a real difference. 

Anna Mandic Vukovic 

My involvement with Apra Canada and Apra International enriches my work by keeping me connected to a network of talented fundraising and prospect development professionals who are generous with their knowledge. I have learned so much from my colleagues across Canada being open to meeting with me to chat data and PD.  As a board member with Apra Canada for the past year and a half, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues across Canada and help plan our upcoming conference taking place in Toronto this October. We welcome all our Apra colleagues to attend! 

Amber Palmer 

What are the most unique parts of PD in Canada and Canadian philanthropy? 

Though in Canada we may use similar tools and methodologies to our American counterparts in PD, the type of public information we have access to differs greatly. As our privacy laws are more restrictive, the data points we have access to, to build predictive models or to include in a research profile, are more limited. From a major gift lens, we rely heavily on our qualitative and relationship data to identify prospects and build our profiles. 

This may not be unique to Canadian philanthropy, but there is a strong emphasis on the importance of impact for the community, for Canada and internationally. When developing a research profile or bringing forward a new prospect, I like to include the type of impact the prospect is looking to accomplish through their philanthropy. 

Amber Palmer 

When and where did your adventure in PD begin? 

My adventure in PD began in July 2023 at the University of Victoria. We had just moved to the Island, and I was looking for a new opportunity that would allow me to stay in fundraising while shifting into a new role. I have always loved data, reading, investigating and, generally, being a little nosey, so prospect development felt like a natural fit. 

Anna Mandic Vukovic 

Like so many involved in prospect development, I stumbled into prospect research without ever having heard of it before. What I did know was that I enjoyed researching, analyzing information and uncovering insights. That interest led me to apply for a research analyst position in higher education in 2013, without fully realizing where it would take me. 

Amber Palmer 

What aspects of PD are the most satisfying, inspiring, or surprising? 

I have a colleague at work with whom I share wins, both big and small. What continues to inspire us most is people’s generosity, not only financially, but also through their time, ideas, advice and connections. So many of the people we identify and engage with are willing to help in any way they can. 

Anna Mandic Vukovic 

Jump ahead a decade, and imagine the professional landscape Apra Canada members will face then. What do you see, and why? 

I can see the economic landscape looking very different over the next 10 years, and prospect research will adapt to those new realities. AI will likely become so deeply embedded in our day-to-day work that we will no longer talk about it as something separate. I think prospect research will become more predictive and strategic. 

Anna Mandic Vukovic 

Looking ahead a decade, I think prospect development professionals will be spending far less time on manual, transactional tasks and much more time on strategy, insight and partnership. I'm particularly excited about the role that AI and automation will play in our field. As self-service tools, AI agents and automated reporting become more sophisticated, fundraisers will have easier access to the information they need, when they need it. Rather than spending significant time creating reactive research profiles and prospect lists, we will be able to focus on higher-value work. 

Amber Palmer