What Happens When Fundraising and Marketing Join Forces?

Toronto’s Forward Avenue and Mississauga’s Castro & Co. are bringing fundraising and marketing together, starting with a free Ask Me Anything for small nonprofits this September.

For many small nonprofits, doing meaningful work is only part of the job.

They also have to fund it, communicate it, reach new audiences, maintain relationships with donors and sponsors, promote their programming and make sure people understand why their work matters.

“This feels like a natural progression of being on both sides of the coin, two companies working toward the same outcome,” says Ruth Castro, Founder of Castro & Co. “There are so many small nonprofits out there doing great work with limited staff and limited budgets. When fundraising is helping create capacity and marketing and communications are helping people see and connect with the work, those things shouldn’t be happening in isolation.”

This reality is part of what led Toronto-based fundraising consultancy Forward Avenue and Mississauga-based marketing and communications agency Castro & Co. to form a strategic partnership focused on small and growing nonprofits. And with year-end fundraising approaching, the two companies are starting by bringing those conversations together.

A Fundraising + Marketing Ask Me Anything

On September 23 at 1 p.m. ET, Forward Avenue Founder and CEO Betty Xie and Castro & Co. Founder Ruth Castro will host a free Fundraising + Marketing Ask Me Anything for Small Nonprofits.

This isn’t a webinar where attendees will spend an hour listening to a presentation. Nonprofit leaders and teams are being invited to bring the questions they are actually dealing with.

That could mean figuring out how to warm up an email list before making a year-end ask, whether social media is actually reaching potential donors, how to build an audience when you’re starting small, how PR can support fundraising or how to approach media when you have a story worth telling.

“For small nonprofits, fundraising and marketing can’t sit in separate silos.”— Betty Xie, Founder & CEO, Forward Avenue

“Fundraising is ultimately about trust and relationships, and marketing is often how people first come to understand, remember and feel connected to an organization’s work. For small nonprofits, those two things can’t sit in separate silos. When fundraising and communications are aligned, you’re not just asking people to give; you’re inviting them into a clearer story about the impact they can help make. We’re excited to be partnering with Castro & Co. and support more small and mighty nonprofits.”— Betty Xie, Founder & CEO, Forward Avenue

Joining Xie and Castro as a special guest will be Jay Kana, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Modern Mississauga Media, adding the media perspective to the conversation.

For nonprofits trying to earn media attention without a dedicated PR team, his participation gives them an opportunity to hear directly from someone on the receiving end of pitches: what makes a story relevant, what catches an editor’s attention and how organizations can build better relationships with local media.

“Captivate me in the first line, compel me in the first paragraph. If I don’t know what your purpose for reaching out is in the first 10 seconds, I won’t be inspired to keep reading. Stay connected outside of when you need something; it eliminates the transactionality of communication and will strengthen the relationship.” — Jay Kana, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Modern Mississauga Media

Two Companies, One Outcome

Fundraising and marketing may look like two different areas of work. In practice, there is a lot of overlap. The story an organization tells a donor isn’t completely separate from the story it tells its community or pitches to the media, and the people discovering an organization can become attendees, volunteers, advocates, sponsors and donors.

For Xie and Castro, the potential of doing that became particularly clear through their recent work with Mississauga-based dance-theatre company Frog in Hand.

Both companies supported the organization from different sides.

Forward Avenue’s work focused on strengthening Frog in Hand’s fundraising capacity. According to a case study published by Forward Avenue, the organization achieved a 1,450 per cent return on its fundraising investment.

That additional capacity allowed Frog in Hand to invest in other areas of the organization, including marketing and public relations.

Castro & Co. later led marketing and communications for Frog in Hand’s 2026 summer programming, working across PR and media outreach, partnerships, digital communications, audience development and promotion.

The summer ended with four of six performances of Taranta selling out, including Opening Night.

“Having recently seen the success of our work alongside Forward Avenue on Frog in Hand’s summer programming, we’ve seen what this can look like in practice,” says Castro. “It wasn’t fundraising happening over here and marketing happening over there. One helped create capacity for the other, and ultimately we were both working toward helping the organization grow.”

Why This Matters Now

Year-end fundraising doesn’t begin when an organization sends its first donation appeal. People need to know who you are, understand the work you’re doing and why it matters, and those relationships have to start before asking people to give.

For a large organization, there may be separate departments responsible for fundraising, communications, marketing and PR. For a small nonprofit, there may be one person doing all of it.

The September 23 AMA gives those smaller teams access to fundraising, marketing and media expertise in the same conversation, while there is still time to put what they learn into practice before year-end.

Fundraising + Marketing Ask Me Anything for Small Nonprofits

Wednesday, September 23, 2026
1 p.m. ET | Online
Free to attend

Hosted by: Betty Xie, Founder & CEO, Forward Avenue, and Ruth Castro, Founder, Castro & Co.

Special Guest: Jay Kana, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Modern Mississauga Media

Registration is now open.

The partnership between Forward Avenue and Castro & Co. is new, but the thinking behind it isn’t complicated.

For small nonprofits already trying to do more with less, fundraising and marketing shouldn’t be competing for attention when both are working toward the same outcome: helping the organization grow and continue doing the work that matters.