COMING SOON
Your Blueprint to Change the World.
Welcome to a new platform focused on empowering organizations and individuals with the skills to realize profound change.
Fifteen years after publishing The Art of the Possible: A Handbook for Political Activism (2007), I am more optimistic than ever about the power of everyday people to affect big changes through democracy. In the book, I offered advice from those on the inside of government to those on the outside seeking change. Now, after taking my own advice, testing and refining it and learning from the best around the world, I know that it not only works to achieve what’s possible — but that it can also be used to reimagine the possibilities themselves to address the greatest challenges confronting democracies today.
I’m excited to bring you the Art of the Possible Academy, a platform that offers training on advocacy for the causes you believe in from a-z: articulating your values; defining SMART objectives; unconscious bias and depolarization; building coalitions; developing constructive policy proposals; public awareness campaigns; developing key messages; running effective meetings; navigating bottlenecks; developing a strategy; and celebrating success. The school will be resolutely non-partisan, welcoming people from all political leanings to empower users to live and work with people with whom they disagree to achieve positive change.
I believe in elevating the power of everyday people to strengthen our democracy. Join me here to learn how!
Amanda Sussman
Founder / Consultant / Educator / Seed Changer
As Seen in:
Level the
Playing Field.
Playing Field.
Level the playing field between citizens and the corporate sector in shaping and influencing government policy.
Spark
Momentum.
Momentum.
Spark momentum to achieve the big changes we need to solve today’s biggest challenges.
Deliver Solutions That
Make a Difference.
Make a Difference.
Learn how to build and propose constructive solutions that bring people together across party lines to deliver profound changes at the local, municipal, national and global levels.
Strengthen
Democracy.
Democracy.
Inspire others to join your cause and close the gap between politicians and those they represent to build trust in our democracy.
Infuse
Optimism.
Optimism.
Experience first-hand success in making government work for you and rediscover the optimism underpinning your mission for social change.
Tested with real world experience in running dozens of policy and public engagement campaigns at the local, national and global levels, the new platform will offer a step-by-step Master Course for non-profit organizations and individuals who want to see big changes result from their actions. It will empower civil society organizations to envision the big changes.
Our Founder
Amanda Sussman
Amanda Sussman is a proven changemaker with over 20 years-experience leading global and national advocacy strategies and campaigns. From grassroots organizations, to government, international NGOs, the UN, the World Bank and the private sector, she has empowered civil society to achieve significant policy changes across health care, human rights, the environment, food security, education, the Arts and the media. In 2010 and 2018, she led civil society campaigns that resulted in the G7 Muskoka Initiative, Charlevoix Declaration, and Adolescent Girl Declaration that changed policy and raised billions of dollars for health and education in the developing world.
Amanda led Plan International’s global advocacy strategy to create the International Day of the Girl and is currently leading campaign strategies for Adidas, the Lego Foundation and the Global Partnership for Education to advance the Sustainable Development Goals around the world. In Canada, Amanda is an advocacy coach for the Innoweave program of the McConnell Foundation where she coaches grassroots organizations from across Canada to achieve their legislative, policy and public engagement goals.
Amanda began as an activist for social justice with organizations ranging from Amnesty International to Human Rights Watch and then spent years as an insider on the receiving end of advocacy as Senior Human Rights Advisor to Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. She holds a Master of Arts from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington D.C and a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University in Montreal.
Amanda is the author of The Art of the Possible: A Handbook for Political Activism and was featured at TEDxToronto on social change.
Our Advisors
Rosemary McCarney
Diplomat in Residence at Massey College and the James Coutts Scholar in International Relations at Trinity College, University of Toronto
Rosemary McCarney is the immediate past Canadian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva. She is an award-winning humanitarian, a business leader, an author, a recognized public speaker and an expert in international relations and foreign policy. She has been awarded two Honourary Doctorates. She worked with the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, USAID and the EU, as well as with civil society, foreign governments and UN bodies. In 2005, she became the president and chief executive officer of Plan International Canada Inc., one of the oldest and largest charities in Canada until 2015 and her appointment as Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations.
Elinor Caplan
Elinor Caplan is a distinguished businesswoman and former Cabinet Minister at the federal and provincial levels in Canada. She served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1985 to 1997, and was a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada from 1997 to 2004. Elected as a federal Member of Parliament representing Thornhill in 1997, Elinor served as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Health in 1998-99, and was appointed to cabinet as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration in August 1999. In January, 2002, Caplan was appointed Minister of National Revenue.
Shari Austin
Shari Austin is an advisor to companies, foundations and individuals on social impact, philanthropy and ESG (environmental, social and governance) initiatives. She is an active not-for-profit board member and advisor who focuses on impact, collaboration and results. Previously Shari served as Vice President of Corporate Citizenship at RBC, where she led the corporate social responsibility area for one of Canada’s most respected companies.
Paula Roberts
Paula Roberts is an award-winning not-for-profit marketer and fundraising professional with three decades of senior executive experience. Her NFP career spans health care, international development, social services and amateur athletics, including some of the largest charities in the country. She honed her strategic abilities and deep understanding of how to motivate audiences early in her career working at world class advertising agencies on brands like FedEx, Mercedes-Benz, adidas and Apple.
As Executive Vice President, Marketing and Development at Plan International Canada, Paula led multiple global brand initiatives including the introduction of the celebrated “Because I am a Girl” campaign. As Vice President, Strategic Communications, Paula led SickKids Foundation’s first large scale integrated campaign – “Believe”, supporting double digit fundraising growth and annual funds raised of 100M+. Both “Because I Am a Girl” and “Believe” won multiple awards for marketing effectiveness.
In 2015 Paula founded HALO Brand Leadership, a consultancy specializing in the development of compelling brand strategies and fundraising campaigns for the NFP sector.
Lynne Hudson
Lynne is the current President and CEO (Interim) of Plexxus, a leading shared service organization in Canadian healthcare. As the past Chief Executive Officer at Canada’s most respected charities, Lynne has a passion for delivering proven results through times of organizational changes. Her visionary leadership was instrumental in the success of the historic merger between the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and the Canadian Cancer Society. Her results-oriented approach helped guide CCS through tremendous transformational change to achieve an incredible 28% year-over-year reduction in fundraising expenses, a $33M bottom-line improvement in its first fiscal year post-merger and a $15M surplus in the second year. She was awarded Canada’s Most Powerful Women Top 100 in 2018.
Chris Dendys
Chris Dendys has extensive experience working in support of social justice and social impact domestically and internationally. She is a seasoned executive with a background in advocacy, government relations, strategic partnerships, and supporting grassroots movements. In addition to serving on the Board of Partners in Health Canada, Chris is also a Director on the Board of the Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health (Can-WaCH), and is on the leadership group of ACTION, an international partnership of global health advocates.
Karen Craggs-Milne
Karen Craggs-Milne is a leading go-to expert for organizations that are serious about ‘getting gender equality work RIGHT’. A proud Kenyan Canadian, Karen is a recognized global expert with over 20 years of international experience promoting anti-racism, diversity, equity, gender equality and inclusion. Karen works globally with NGOs, Corporations, and Governments to deliver on their equality mandates intentionally and with real impact.
Juliette Miremont Morton
Juliette is a serial social entrepreneur with a track record of building and growing high-engagement digital products and taking early-stage startups to the next level of growth. As a founder and CEO of the leading online platform for women in Vietnam, she managed a team that grew the audience to over a million visitors (sold to P&G). As a COO of curatio.me (now RxPx), she helped grow the first social health digital solution to address isolation of chronic patients. As an Executive-in-residence and Advisor, Juliette now enjoys working with social impact leaders to empower them with the know-how, network and support they need to launch, fund and grow the next generation of impact-driven businesses.
