Leadership Lens is a series of Q&As with participants from AKFC’s Global Leadership Program. From artists to philanthropists, finance executives to medical doctors, AKFC’s Global Leaders are all dedicated to strengthening Canada’s role in addressing global and local issues, and building a more prosperous, peaceful, and pluralistic world.
Tanya Rumble is a nationally recognized fundraising executive, named one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women in 2023. With nearly 15 years of experience, she has raised millions for leading institutions including the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Canadian Cancer Society, McMaster University, and Toronto Metropolitan University, where she is currently Executive Director, Development for University-Wide Initiatives. As co-founder of Recast Philanthropy, Tanya is a catalyst for change in the charitable sector, advancing restorative, equity-centred approaches to giving. Learn more Tanya on our 2025-2026 Global Leadership Program cohort page.
AKFC: What led you to pursue a career in fundraising and philanthropy?
Tanya Rumble: I started my career in public health, and I felt really passionate about addressing health equities and the social determinants of health. But when you work in population-level health programming, the change that you’re going to see is over a very long term. I wanted to transition into work that felt more entrepreneurial, but still connected to health, equity, and other values that I thought were important. That led me to a career in health fundraising.
A lot of the journey was really born out of my participation in the Diversecity Fellows program. It was really that opportunity to work in an intersectional, very diverse group of people working across different industries, different lived experiences, different identities, that made me realize I wanted to be more entrepreneurial in the thrust of my work.
I’ve been a professional fundraiser for 15 years. Over the last eight years or so, I’ve been in higher education advancement. I think that what brought me [here] is this understanding that systems level change in this sector is happening where big gifts are happening, and I wanted to have influence in those spaces.
AKFC: What keeps you motivated?
TR: I’ve built a lot of lasting relationships in this work and really value the sector. I spend a lot of my time thinking about how to improve the practice of philanthropy and how to improve the profession of fundraising to have it really reflect the values of what charity is supposed to be about, which is the love of humanity. But whose humanity does it love? And is everyone equitably loved and valued for their contributions to this work?
I run a consultancy that was born in the pandemic called Recast Philanthropy that started as a community of practice and remains a community of practice, where we talk about these complex topics within fundraising and philanthropy. It started in response to the racial justice uprisings happening around the world. The fact that on many university campuses there were protests around the renaming and denaming of spaces on campuses where funds had been donated by individuals who we later learned had actions or pasts that were irredeemable.
I think there are ways in which we can advance reconciliation, we can advance decolonization, we can advance EDI, we can advance ethics, and we can advance climate justice through fundraising. We can come to greater alignment within our organizational values and our priorities in the way in which we gather resources to support our work. And I think that starts with community.
I’m constantly inspired by the communities that are enlivening this sector. That’s often what’s not talked about, in fundraising and philanthropy: charities do not exist to issue tax receipts.
They exist because they must deliver a public good. We forget that sometimes. My work is around reconnecting with the communities that are the purpose of these organizations, the mission of these organizations, because I think wherever you find social, political, environmental, and resource challenges, the people that are closest to those challenges are the ones with the most hopeful solutions, the ones with the greatest understanding of the depths of the problems and what will get us away from those challenges. I think there’s lots of bright spots in the work that I do, and I’m endlessly inspired.
AKFC: What inspired you to apply for the Global Leadership Program?
TR: I’ve taken lots of opportunities for leadership development throughout my career and to intentionally put myself in community with others that have disparate lived experiences, professional experiences, and identities from my own because I enjoy existing in the liminal spaces.
I also grew up in a Muslim country. I am a third culture kid. I am Canadian born to two non-Canadian parents, raised in the United Arab Emirates and then returned to Canada when I was older. I think that being raised with a multi-faith, multi-racial background, I’m really comfortable existing in the liminal spaces. I think the more that we spend in the nuance, [the more] we find greater understanding, greater sense of belonging, greater solutions to the intractable challenges of our time, and greater sense of identities for ourselves.
This program felt like it was really going to bring a lot of those elements to bear given the focus on pluralism, and the focus on people from across the country with really varied lived experience, professional experiences, and identities.
AKFC: Do you have any questions or curiosities you are excited to explore over the course of the program?
TR: I think we’re at an interesting time when it comes to democracy and borders. The geopolitical climate is really heightened, and there is a lot of misinformation and disinformation. I think there’s also a lot of marginalization and people feeling really disenfranchised and not feeling empowered to have effects on their community, their nation, and their global community. [I’m also interested in exploring] the idea of how we can help build social capital in a world where people are increasingly feeling disempowered in many ways.
AKFC: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
TR: I’d like to highlight the work that I have done both around gift acceptance policies and practices — it’s about how we infuse organizational values into the transaction of philanthropy.
[I’m also sharing] some of my work and writing about around restorative approaches to philanthropy, rooted in Indigenous values. These are themes that I hope we will have an opportunity to explore together.
This interview was conducted prior to the 2025 Global Leadership Program convening in Ottawa. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Tanya Rumble is part of the 2025-2026 cohort of AKFC’s Global Leadership Program. Learn more about the program here.
