Wayne Steer
Mr. Steer earned his Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in Finance, Economics and Marketing with strong minors in Psychology and Sociology from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington in 1984.
A childhood friend invited Wayne to join a community service club called the Canadian Progress Club (CPC), Calgary Bow River in September of 1984.After joining, Wayne proceeded to fall in love with helping people and developing into a volunteer fundraiser.
For two decades, Mr. Steer worked in the corporate world until the severe economic downturn of 2004 inspired Wayne to explore new career options that led him to discover fundraising was a career and he joined the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) to pursue that dream.
The ALS Society of Alberta recognized many transferable skills and took a chance on a fledgling (professional) fundraiser to run their one-person shop for the province of Alberta. After a couple of years there and some experience in planned giving, Mr. Steer was hired by the Canadian Red Cross to manage all Legacy Gifts in Alberta. In February of 2010, Wayne was hired by Fresh Start Recovery Centre to head the Capital Campaign for a new 40,000 square foot, state of the art building and to continue to source funding for ongoing operations. Wayne has been part of the Fresh Start Recovery Centre team/family ever since where he has served as their Director of Fund Development.
Wayne has been actively involved in AFP since becoming a member 2004. He served for sixteen years on the AFP Calgary & Area Chapter Board culminating in President, Past-President and President again in 2019. Other roles with the Calgary Chapter included Editor of the Calgary Chapter Newsletter, Co-chair of the National Philanthropy Day 2008, the Calgary Chapter’s first Diversity and Inclusion Chair, Secretary, President Elect, Chapter President, Past-President and then President again.
In addition to being an active member of AFP at the local level, Wayne has been involved at the national and international (AFP Global - formerly AFP International) levels since 2009. Wayne serves as a member of AFP’s Canadian Council and Government Relations Committee prior to being elected as an inaugural member of the AFP Canada Board in January of 2017 and served in various capacities until the end of December 2020 including member at large, Secretary and Chair Elect. Wayne has also served AFP International (now Global) Membership Services Division from 2011 to 2020 in the areas of International Development where he was chair from 2013 to 2014 with Diversity & Inclusion where he chaired a task force in 2012-2013 to redefine diversity and inclusion and in 2016-17 to serve on a second committee that developed IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access).
Other community activities have included Western Canada Old Boys Association Vice President since 1990, Western Canada High School Alumni Association President (2003-2010), GivingTuesdayYYC co-chair since 2014, volunteer fundraising consultant and Federal Official Agent (2015-2016) for the Calgary Centre Electoral District Association Board, a member of the Calgary Capacity Building Network from 2017 to 2020 and a member of the Hazel Gillespie Community Investment Leadership Award Committee from 2018 to 2020.
Wayne’s passion is connecting people who dream of making the world a better place with the causes that can help these dreamers reach their goals by advancing and sharing the practice of ethical fundraising locally and globally.
Wayne Steer
Twitter: @waynesteer
LinkedIn: Wayne Steer
Fresh Start Recovery Centre
Twitter: @FreshStartRC
Facebook: FreshStartRecovery
Website: www.freshstartrecovery.ca