We Give Back

Volunteer Work

Throughout the year, Michitsch Systems’ staff volunteer for our clients in various capacities. Here are some highlights from the last few years:

March 2016 – Canuck For Kids Telethon
Cathy and Fred (one of our developers) volunteered until the wee hours supporting the Roger’s Communications Team Call Centre Volunteers.

February/March 2016
Cathy has joined the newly formed AFP Canada Foundation – National Philanthropy Day Committee. This committee is tasked with aiding all the AFP Canada Chapters put on their National Philanthropy Day Celebrations.

February 2016 – Variety-The Children’s Charity Telethon
Cathy volunteered 23 hours during the February 13-14 weekend to ensure all the TV Crawl presented appropriately and reporting to the Global and Variety Production Team members was up to date throughout the Telethon. See News section for more information about this project.

December 5, 2015 Blackbaud User Group
Sat on a Consultant’s Panel discussing how organizations can get the most out of their consultants. Also did a quick presentation on Raiser’s Edge 7.95 and NXT to open up discussions for the future.

Fall 2015 – AFP Canada Foundation
Cathy joined the National Scholarship Committee for AFP Canada Foundation. They are tasked with the other committee members to score scholarship applications for professional development for fundraisers from all over Canada. The lucky recipients win scholarships to the international AFP Conference, the Toronto Congress, BCIT Fundraising Courses and many other worthy courses and development opportunities.

May 2015 – AHP Convene Speaker
Cathy, along with Ryan Garnett, CFRE, Head of Integrated Marketing – Harvey McKinnon & Associates.

Summer 2015 Blackbaud User Group
Presented Crystal Reports with Raiser’s Edge with Sandy Fiddis, bCRE-Pro to give users and idea what they can do with Crystal Reports to better visualize Raiser’s Edge Data.

February 2009 – 2015 – Variety-The Children’s Charity Telethon
We volunteer at this event as data entry clerks; and post event, once the data has been merged together, we manipulate it back into Raiser’s Edge.

March 2009 – 2015 – Canuck For Kids Telethon
Each year, Cathy volunteers at this event and processes all the credit card donations, manipulates the data and has ALL the telethon constituents & gifts back into Raiser’s Edge the day after the telethon; thus saving Canuck Place week’s worth of data entry and the cost of hiring temporary staff to enter that data.

November 15th, 2012 National Philanthropy Day Chair, AFP Vancouver Board Member
Luncheon with Keynote Speaker Trevor Linden

October 2011
Great Pumpkin Walk Data Entry Volunteer to give back to a long term client, Peace Arch Hospital Foundation.

Fall 2009
Cathy solicits donations from AFP Vancouver Chapter members for the AFP Foundation for Philanthropy – Canada’s Every Member Campaign.

May – June 2009 & 2010 – Easter Seal House 24 Hour Relay
Cathy conducts the same data conversion support as in the previous year.

Summer & Fall 2009 – Global Business Objects Network (GBN) Conference
Cathy, as Crystal Reports Special Interest Group, Program Chair, monitors speaker presentations, coordinates upcoming webinars and presentations, and prepares for October 2009’s GBN / SAP Conference.

November 2008 – National Philanthropy Day
Cathy celebrates her final year as co-Chair of the National Philanthropy Day event.

Guest speaker and celebrated author Lynne Twist enthralls the audience, while inspiring awards are distributed for Outstanding Philanthropist and Outstanding Youth Philanthropist.

May / June 2008 – Easter Seal House 24 Hour Relay
Cathy assembled a Volunteer Team that handled thousands of donor searches on the paper pledge forms to avoid duplicate records in their databases. Paper pledge forms were then sent to a data entry firm; Cathy then converted this data and it was imported into Raiser’s Edge with minimal amount of duplication.

Capilano College Volunteer Days
Cathy has attended as an industry leader, along with a number of Lower Mainland executives for the business courses in Organizational Behaviour. She enjoys spending time with students and sharing her experiences in management of staff and clients.Ongoing

We Raised Money for Friends & Clients

Not only do we support fundraisers, we ARE fundraisers. Three key events have been held, chaired by Cathy and with fabulous committee members to give back to our friends and clients.

Winter 2013 – Party for the Park
One of our president’s milestone birthdays was celebrated in style as a fundraiser for Stanley Park Ecology Society with a band, games and of course a silent auctions. Thousands of dollars were raised to support their conservation and education programs.

Fall 2010 – Helping a Colleague
Upon finding out that a past UBC project colleague, Bob Heavenor, was in need of more treatments for his brain cancer, Cathy built a committee of peers from UBC and Bob’s family members. She help them organize several fundraising events to raise money for treatments. The fundraisers were successful and Bob was able to try these treatments. Sadly though, we lost Bob in August of 2011.

Winter 2003 – The inaugural “Night at the Aquarium”
Cathy threw a party for 300+ people for her birthday at the Vancouver Aquarium. She named the event “Night at the Aquarium” which has since become their signature event. The evening included a casino, a live band, a silent auction and many other fun things to do through the Aquarium.

That evening raised thousands of dollars for both the Vancouver Aquarium and the BCSPCA for Cathy’s love of animal care for both marine wildlife and domestic animals.