CEO Message

Message from the CEO

November was a busy month for the Profound Impact team as we released our annual Social Impact Report, participated in industry conferences and met with venture capitalists in the US in preparation for the company’s next funding round.

The Profound Impact Social Impact Report highlights strategies we’ve undertaken over the last twelve months to maintain and improve a positive environment for our employees. These initiatives have included monthly in-person team meetings, team-building activities, virtual social events (including group cooking sessions), group volunteering, professional skills and growth support education programs, a team-wide book club and the matching of charitable contributions to community organizations. I’m proud to report that Profound Impact has achieved an employee retention rate of 100% (with 0% attrition) while growing the team by 33%. This employee retention rate is in stark contrast with tech companies globally, where the average attrition rate sits at 13.2%. 

Conference attendance and presentations took Profound Impact employees across North America to learn more about key technologies and to meet current and potential customers.  

Our Technical Program Manager, Sohail Ramzan, attended AWS Reinvent in Las Vegas to meet with AWS experts and to learn about the latest cloud industry innovations and how generative AI is revolutionizing the workplace.

Sherryl Petricevic, Director of Strategic Alliances and Partnerships was joined by Mike Folinas, Director of Research Administration at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto to present a case study on the use of Profound Impact’s Research Impact tool at the Canadian Association of Research Administrators (CARA) East in London, Ontario.

Jacqueline Watty from our Business Development team represented Profound Impact at qConnect 2023 in Calgary to connect with researchers and industry representatives discussing Canada’s role as a leader in quantum research and development, and how and why quantum is going to affect, change and benefit businesses.

Karl Burger, Director of Sales, attended the VentureLAB HardTech Summit, Canada’s premiere technology and innovation-focused summit that brought together global industry leaders, Canadian founders, investors, and innovators to explore the necessary ingredients to build a strong, connected hardware and semiconductor ecosystem in Canada.

Dr. Deborah Rosati, the chair of Profound Impact’s board of directors, and I took part in Pathways to Silicon Valley, where 24 female founders from across Canada participated in a curated immersion program designed for women founders of start-ups on their path to global business growth. We joined this program to establish relationships with US venture capital firms to prepare for our next fundraising round and our launch into the US in 2024.  

December is the season of giving and the team at Profound Impact is demonstrating the power of small acts of kindness through our annual 12 Days of Impact, a program that encourages generosity. Our 12 Days of Impact campaign provides great examples of easy and inexpensive ways to be kind and generous and has also helped members of the Profound Impact team create a meaningful sense of contribution to their community while increasing bonds of collegiality on the job. We encourage you to download the 12 Days of Impact calendar and challenge your team to participate through small acts of kindness that have great big impacts.

I wish you all the best for 2024 and look forward to working with you in the new year.

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

Profound Impact Achieves Staff Retention of 100% Over Two Years, Releases Social Impact Report and 12 Days of Impact Downloadable Calendar

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LOCAL TECH COMPANY PROFOUND IMPACT ACHIEVES 100 PERCENT STAFF RETENTION OVER TWO YEARS DESPITE TUMULTUOUS MARKET CONDITIONS

Profound Impact attributes a staff retention rate of 100% to employee programs driven by purpose

WATERLOO, ON | NOVEMBER 27, 2023 — Profound Impact™ Corporation, a local tech company in the Toronto-Waterloo corridor, has reported in its annual Social Impact Report that it has achieved an employee retention rate of 100 percent (zero percent attrition) while growing the team by 33 percent. This employee retention rate is in stark contrast with tech companies globally, where the average attrition rate sits at 13.2 percent. 

“It’s a rarity to see a start-up tech organization embody social impact programs so early in their company journey,” says Renata Rusiniak, who leads People & Purpose programs at Profound Impact. “Our CEO, Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, understands the business value of purpose-driven work and invests accordingly. Her early adoption of programs that support her team to engage with community organizations has created a culture of generosity and as a result, an impressive employee retention rate.” 

The Social Impact Report highlights strategies the Profound Impact team undertook to maintain and improve a positive environment for their employees. Initiatives included monthly team meetings with team-building activities, virtual social events such as cooking sessions conducted through online platforms such as Zoom, team wellness programs such as team volunteering, professional skills and growth support education programs, matching charitable contributions to community organizations, book clubs, and much more.

Profound Impact’s annual ‘12 Days of Impact’ program encouraging generosity and the impact of small acts of kindness upon others, has also helped employees create a meaningful sense of contribution to their community while increasing bonds of collegiality on the job.

“Our 12 Days of Impact campaign provides great examples of easy and inexpensive ways to be kind and generous,” says Dr. Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, the CEO and Founder of Profound Impact. “ We’re encouraging our team members and our whole community to demonstrate the power of many through small acts of kindness that create big impacts in society.” 

Profound Impact’s AI-powered tool, Research Impact, offers automatic, targeted and timely grant matching. The company is also passionate about community, environmental sustainability, and employer-supported volunteerism. In addition to giving back through the 12 Days of Impact, Profound Impact has implemented employee donation matching, time off for volunteering, and group volunteering. To learn more about Profound Impact’s purpose-driven business, take a look at our FY23 Social Impact Report.

Individuals and organizations participating in the 12 Days of Impact can download the 12 Days calendar and share their actions on social media using #12DaysOfImpact.

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ABOUT PROFOUND IMPACT™ CORPORATION 

Based in the Toronto-Waterloo technology corridor, Profound Impact’s AI-powered tool – Research Impact – helps academic and industry researchers find the perfect funding match. With over $300 Billion in research funding opportunities, 100,000s industry partners and 8.8 Million researchers globally, finding the optimal grant for academic and industry innovators is often overwhelming and unnecessarily time-consuming.  More than just a search engine, Research Impact offers automatic, targeted and timely matching.  Profound Impact’s customers include top North American research institutions, universities and industry partners.  CEO and Founder Sherry Shannon-Vanstone is a serial technology entrepreneur with an unparalleled track record.  She has had five successful start-ups and exits in Silicon Valley and Canada, including two IPOs and acquisitions.    

Visit us at www.profoundimpact.com

Connect with us at 

Facebook: @aprofoundimpact

Instagram: @aprofoundimpact 

LinkedIn: Profound Impact Corporation

Twitter: @aprofoundimpact

YouTube: @profoundimpactcorporation

For media inquiries, please contact:

Durrell Communications

media@profoundimpact.com 

12 Days of Impact Campaign

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LOCAL TECH STARTUP ENCOURAGES COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT 

THROUGH 12 DAYS OF IMPACT CAMPAIGN

The 12 Days of Impact campaign kicks off on Giving Tuesday, inspiring acts of kindness and generosity

WATERLOO, ON | NOVEMBER 29, 2022 — Profound Impact™ Corporation, a local startup based in the Toronto-Waterloo technology corridor, is giving back to the community this holiday season and encouraging other companies to get involved. 

The 12 Days of Impact kicks off on Giving Tuesday, building on the global movement to encourage people and organizations to contribute their time, resources and talents to making their community a better place.

“The Profound Impact team knows that small acts of kindness and generosity can have a big impact within our community,” says Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, founder and CEO of Profound Impact. “Giving back does not have to be time-consuming, expensive, or difficult and the 12 Days of Impact calendar really proves it. For the second year in a row, we’re engaging our whole team in these simple acts of kindness and we hope to encourage others to do the same.”

The small team with big hearts at Profound Impact has developed a calendar of community actions throughout the month of December. From donating clothing to helping out a neighbour, the campaign offers simple suggestions on how to make our communities stronger by working together. 

“We’re challenging others in Waterloo Region and across southern Ontario to take part in the 12 Days of Impact,” Shannon-Vanstone says. “We want to build a community of ambassadors who are committed to making an impact where they live and work. No action is too big or too small and our calendar focuses on how to make giving simple and accessible to everyone.”

Anyone accepting the challenge is encouraged to follow along with Profound Impact’s calendar or create their own. Participants can share their actions online through #12DaysOfImpact.

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ABOUT PROFOUND IMPACT CORPORATION 

Profound Impact is a female-founded Canadian company located in the Toronto-Waterloo technology corridor. Profound Impact’s data, AI and analytics driven solutions help education, research and social impact organizations automate their processes, measure program impact, tell their story and inform strategy. Profound Impact’s products include Research Impact, which automatically matches researchers to funding opportunities; Career Impact, which provides organizations with actionable insights  by analyzing  the career trajectory of program participants; and Connection Impact, which provides a platform for connecting organizations’ stakeholders to measure and visualize impact. These three products involve different stakeholders, but all work towards the important goal of connecting great people to do great things and maximizing their worldwide impact.

Website: www.profoundimpact.com 

Facebook: @aprofoundimpact

Instagram: @aprofoundimpact 

LinkedIn: Profound Impact Corporation

Twitter: @aprofoundimpact

For media inquiries, please contact:

Durrell Communications

media@profoundimpact.com 

Inspiring Generosity and Kindness: 12 Days of Impact Challenge 2022

The Profound Impact team is excited to launch 12 Days of Impact 2022 to kick off the giving season. The 12 Days of Impact, in partnership with Giving Tuesday, is dedicated to encouraging the importance of small acts that can make a big difference! Building on Giving Tuesday, a global generosity movement, the 12 Days of Impact encourages individuals, organizations, and businesses to address local challenges, promoting kindness, generosity, and the humanitarian spirit.

This year, the Profound Impact team is challenging individuals and organizations to create a community of ambassadors working to make a difference. The 12 Days of Impact will kick off on Giving Tuesday, November 29th, and run until Thursday, December 15th. Check out the Profound Impact 12 Days of Impact calendar, showcasing good deeds and positive acts to encourage us all to make a difference this holiday season! Click here to download a sample calendar with space to insert your own logo and challenge your network! #GivingTuesday

CEO Message

Message from the CEO

Happy New Year and welcome to the first 2022 edition of Profound Connections!

I hope that you all had a restful holiday season. With a new year underway, the team here at Profound Impact™ can’t wait to share with you what we have planned for 2022 but before we do that…let’s look back at 2021.

To close out 2021, our team launched a new initiative: 12 Days of Impact, designed to encourage people and organizations to contribute their time, resources and talents to help address local challenges. Our 12 Days of Impact calendar outlined daily challenges that focused on spreading the giving spirit during the holiday season. Not only did our team members at Profound Impact contribute to these daily challenges, but as an organization, we took it one step further. 

Through our efforts, we were able to give back to organizations doing vital work in our greater community. Additionally, based on the social media engagement and votes of our followers, Profound Impact was able to support Actua, Canada’s largest STEM outreach organization. Profound Impact’s contribution will support the delivery of impactful hands-on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) experience to youth across Canada. Many youth including Indigenous youth, girls, and at-risk youth face barriers that prevent access to education opportunities. Through Actua’s national inclusion and diversity programs, they are hard at work to remove these barriers.

Now on to 2022…coming in March is International Women’s Day (IWD) 2022 with the theme #BreakTheBias. We are thrilled to once again be working with the Women in Communications and Technology Waterloo Region Chapter (WCT WR) and 18 other organizations representing this vibrant community to present during the month of March several  IWD 2022 events and amplify over 10 other events in celebration of women in the Waterloo Region. 

For more information on this event and additional exciting news from our team, read on and enjoy this edition of Profound Connections!

Warmest regards, 

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

12 Days of Impact

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

12 Days of ImpactDownload

LOCAL TECH STARTUP PROFOUND IMPACT™ PARTNERS WITH GIVING TUESDAY TO KICK-OFF THE 12 DAYS OF IMPACT CAMPAIGN

The 12 Days of Impact Campaign is Profound Impact’s way of inspiring acts of kindness and generosity throughout the community that builds on the Giving Tuesday movement

WATERLOO, ON | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 — Profound Impact™ Corporation, a Waterloo Region-based tech company offering a suite of digital engagement and impact measurement tools, is launching its 12 Days of Impact campaign – encouraging small acts to create big impact. Building on the global #GivingTuesday movement, the 12 Days of Impact campaign is designed to encourage people and organizations to contribute their time, resources and talents to help address local challenges. 

“The team at Profound Impact believes that encouraging small acts of generosity can have big impacts on those who experience undue hardship,” said Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, Founder and CEO of Profound Impact Corporation. “We hope that by engaging our team in a calendar of ‘good deeds’, we can inspire the collective power of individuals and businesses to do the same, amplifying the resulting impacts.” 

The small team with big hearts at Profound Impact makes a start internally by matching their team’s contributions to charitable organizations and sharing fun challenges to engage everyone in giving. Externally, Profound Impact organized a social media contest aimed at providing underrepresented youth opportunities to engage in STEM programming, something Sherry Shannon-Vanstone and her team are passionate about.

As a next step, Profound Impact challenges others to take part in the 12 Days of Impact campaign, sharing your acts of generosity and kindness through #12DaysOfImpact. These acts include donating food or funding to a local food bank, buying a toy for a community toy drive, helping a neighbour in need, cooking a meal for someone in need, donating warm clothing and paying it forward to a stranger. No action is too big or too small and collectively, we can make meaningful contributions to the betterment of our community. 

“The holidays can be a particularly difficult time for vulnerable members of our community,” said Shannon-Vanstone. “We hope that through these small acts of generosity, we can inspire others to give back (in whatever way they can) making a positive impact during the holiday season.”

For a complete list of Profound Impact’s 12 Days of Impact daily challenges, including information on how to get involved, please visit https://givingtuesday.ca/partners/profound-impact-corporation or download the 12 Days of Impact calendar and track your impacts at https://www.profoundimpact.com/2021/11/25/12-days-of-impact/.

For more information on Profound Impact™ please visit www.profoundimpact.com. See how Profound Impact™ is being deployed by visiting https://demo.profoundimpact.com/.

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ABOUT PROFOUND IMPACT CORPORATION 

Profound Impact connects great people to do great things by providing a unique and transformational digital community to measure the worldwide impact of an organization and by facilitating and accelerating connectivity to inspire collaborative solutions to difficult global problems. Profound Impact offers a next-generation digital community and interaction platform, helping universities and colleges, research institutions and social impact organizations accelerate connectivity, inspire collaboration and measure their impact. In September of this year, the Profound Impact team debuted their new career trajectory solution, designed to help institutions and enterprises find and tell their impact stories through alumni career trajectory data. 

Website: www.profoundimpact.com 

Facebook: @aprofoundimpact

Instagram: @aprofoundimpact 

LinkedIn: Profound Impact Corporation

Twitter: @aprofoundimpact

For media inquiries, please contact:

Durrell Communications

media@profoundimpact.com