Profound Impact and AI Partnerships Announce Strategic Partnership

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PROFOUND IMPACT AND AI PARTNERSHIPS ANNOUNCE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP TO ADVANCE THE CANADIAN AI ECOSYSTEM

Strategic partnership aims to bring new sources of grants and industry partnerships to AI research projects.

TORONTO, ON | April 25, 2024 — Profound Impact™ Corporation (“Profound Impact”), a technology company that has developed an AI-powered researcher-to-funding matching platform, and AI Partnerships Corporation (“AIP”), an affiliate network of Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions providers and researchers, announce their strategic partnership aimed at efficiently and effectively matching available grant funding with AI-focused companies and researchers looking for non-dilutive project funding.

“Our robust AI-driven platform, Research Impact, uses proprietary and patented AI-powered algorithms to match industry and academic researchers to grant funding in an automatic, targeted and timely manner,” said Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, President & CEO of Profound Impact. “We are excited to partner with AIP as this provides an opportunity for AIP’s affiliate network to add their AI-based research projects to Research Impact’s database and engage with the platform.

“At AIP, we have over 80 Canadian companies in our Affiliate Network and approximately  130 worldwide Affiliates, all engaged in providing SaaS-based AI services or products,” said Dr. Tom Corr, cofounder and CEO of AI Partnerships Corporation. “Our strategic partnership with Profound Impact will allow our Affiliate Network to discover additional funding, as well as the possibility of finding a research partner for their projects.”

The partnership also provides the opportunity for the development and facilitation of interactions and collaboration with industry and academic institutions who are already working with or interested in AI. 

Through the partnership, both organizations will continue to promote the Canadian AI technology ecosystem, increasing their own presence in the robust AI marketplace and concurrently supporting the growth of Canadian AI companies. Additionally, with AIP’s worldwide reach, this partnership will provide the opportunity for an increased impact on the AI ecosystems in the US and globally.

ABOUT PROFOUND IMPACT™ CORPORATION 

Based in the Toronto-Waterloo technology corridor, Profound Impact’s AI-powered platform – 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 25 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. To learn more, visit www.profoundimpact.com

For Profound Impact media inquiries, please contact:

Alex Hebert

Durrell Communications

alexh@durrellcomm.com

media@profoundimpact.com

Connect with Profound Impact: 

Facebook: @aprofoundimpact

Instagram: @aprofoundimpact 

LinkedIn: Profound Impact Corporation

Twitter: @aprofoundimpact

YouTube: @profoundimpactcorporation

ABOUT AI PARTNERSHIPS CORPORATION 

AI Partnerships Corp. matches small to medium businesses or enterprises with an Affiliate Network of 130+ companies experienced in delivering Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning-powered solutions to solve various business needs. Whether it is a specific task that needs to be automated to increase revenue or a robust set of processes that reduce costs. Together, AIP and its Affiliates develop  winning strategies for enterprise customers in the Finance, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Retail, Sales and Marketing, Data Science, and other sectors. Learn more at www.aipartnershipscorp.com.

For AI Partnership Corp. media inquiries, please contact:

AIP Marketing

info@aipartnershipscorp.com

Connect with AIP:

LinkedIn: AI Partnerships Corp.

YouTube:@AIPartnershipsCorp

Twitter: @AIPartnerships

CS-CAN|INFO-CAN and Profound Impact Announce New Partnership Offering Research Impact to CS-CAN|INFO-CAN Members

This newly announced partnership provides an exciting benefit to the CS-CAN|INFO-CAN membership! Profound Impact is offering CS-CAN|INFO-CAN members a free evaluation of Research Impact, which uses advanced AI to match researchers with the best research funding opportunities in their field and helps find industry partners to support successful grant applications.

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PLEASE READ AND USE THE CHECKBOX BELOW TO AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE.

Profound Impact is pleased to provide ORGANIZATION with the right to evaluate Research Impact, a Software as a Service product, for a period of ninety (90) days. This service will be provided at no charge during the evaluation period.

As part of the evaluation ORGANIZATION agrees to assign a Research Administrative Manager to 1) participate in a bi-weekly, thirty(30) minute meeting to share feedback about their use of Research Impact and to 2) complete a product survey at the end of the evaluation period. Profound Impact shall assist ORGANIZATION to support the evaluation by up to two (2) administrative staff and ten (10) researchers.

In order to support the evaluation, Profound Impact requires permission from ORGANIZATION to obtain the following publicly available information about each researcher from ORGANIZATION’S website and from other public sources on the Internet to create a researcher profile to prepopulate these profiles within Research Impact: i) First Name, (ii) Last Name, (iii) Faculty (iv) Program (v) Role (vi) Email Address (vii) Researcher Interests (viii) Publication History and (ix) Award History. Each researcher profile will be used by Research Impact to automatically generate key words to match each researcher with grant opportunities and industry partners.

ORGANIZATION agrees to provide the above information about each researcher and administrator via email to info@profoundimpact.com within two (2) weeks of the signature date of this document. Profound Impact shall obtain any and all public information about each researcher solely to create a researcher profile.

At the conclusion of the evaluation, ORGANIZATION will have the option to 1) continue to use the service with a paid subscription or 2) if ORGANIZATION chooses not to continue the service and at the ORGANIZATION’s instruction, Profound Impact shall delete all information about researchers and administrators described above, including all researcher grant matches, and shall provide written confirmation to ORGANIZATION within seven (7) business days.

In order to facilitate the evaluation of Research Impact, Profound Impact shall provide an online training session for ORGANIZATION research administrative staff.

CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

PLEASE READ AND USE THE CHECKBOX BELOW TO AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE.

Profound Impact is pleased to provide you (the Researcher) with the right to evaluate Research Impact, a Software as a Service product, for a period of three hundred sixty-five (365) days. This service will be provided at no charge during the evaluation period. As part of the evaluation you agree to share feedback about your use of Research Impact by responding to a monthly email, and you expressly, give permission for Profound Impact to obtain the following publicly available information about you from public sources such as your curriculum vitae to create your profile within Research Impact including but not limited to the following: i) First Name, (ii) Last Name, (iii) Faculty, (iv) Program, (v) Role, (vi) Email Address, (vii) Your Research Interests, (viii) Publication History, (ix) Award History, and (x) Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID). Your profile will be used by Research Impact to automatically generate key words to match you with grant opportunities and industry partners.

At the conclusion of the evaluation, you will have the option to 1) continue to use the service with a paid subscription or 2) if you choose not to continue the service and at the your instruction, Profound Impact shall delete all information about you described above, including all your grant matches, and shall provide written confirmation to you within seven (7) business days.

CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

I have read and agree to the terms and conditions including the Additional Terms and Conditions in the PDF document linked above.

Would you like to see Research Impact in action? You can view a video here or sign up for a live demonstration!

CS-CAN|INFO-CAN and Profound Impact partnered earlier this year to produce two webinars on researcher and industry collaboration. If you missed the live event, you can watch the videos here!

Profound Impact + CS-CAN|INFO-CAN Webinar – Industry Collaboration: Benefits and Challenges, March 24, 2023

Profound Impact + CS-CAN|INFO-CAN Webinar: Industry/Researcher Collaboration Best Practices and Tools for Success, April 20, 2023

Profound Impact Partners with Haltech

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PROFOUND IMPACT PARTNERS WITH HALTECH TO OFFER TARGETED GRANT MATCHING THROUGH RESEARCH IMPACT

The partnership will allow clients to match with research funding and collaborative partners

HALTON REGION, ON | SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 — Profound Impact™ Corporation and Haltech Regional Innovation Centre are working together to provide targeted and timely grant matching opportunities to Haltech’s roster of clients.

The companies announced the partnership at Haltech’s annual open house on September 19, 2023. The newly announced agreement will offer Haltech clients access to grant matching through Profound Impact’s AI-powered tool, Research Impact. Research Impact offers automatic, targeted and timely grant matching. With more than $300 billion in funding opportunities, hundreds of thousands of industry partners and 8.8 million researchers available across the globe, it can be overwhelming and time-consuming to find the right matches for academia, industry and grants. Research Impact helps innovators find their perfect match, sending best-fit grant opportunities directly to the inboxes of interested parties.

“Academics and innovators face several challenges when it comes to discovering partnerships and finding suitable funding opportunities for applied research,” says Dr. Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, President and CEO of Profound Impact. “Our innovative matching tool, Research Impact, provides a faster, more accurate way to find these resources, saving time and money. We are excited to offer this tool to Haltech’s clients and look forward to helping advance new research projects.”

Haltech is a non-profit organization empowering innovative companies to realize their full potential through education, advisory services and strategic connections. Companies joining the Haltech roster have the opportunity to accelerate their business growth through educational workshops, business advisory services and strategic connections.

“We’re so pleased to be able to connect our clients to grant and research opportunities through this partnership with Profound Impact,” says Shann McGrail, Chief Executive Officer with Haltech. “We know the matches through Research Impact will help companies find new funding opportunities for their internal research and product development. 

Haltech clients interested in utilizing Research Impact can sign up using this form.

Anyone interested in learning more about Research Impact can contact the Profound Impact team and book a custom demo here

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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.

ABOUT HALTECH

Haltech is a non-profit corporation supported by Ontario’s Ministry of Research, Innovation & Science, Ministry of Economic Development & Growth, and their valued Corporate Sponsors.

Haltech empowers all innovative companies to realize their full potential through education, advisory services, and strategic connections. Haltech launched in 2011 and is the go-to strategic connector and educator for startups in Halton and beyond. To date, Haltech has helped boost more than 1,000 startups and scale ups. 

Website: www.profoundimpact.com 

Facebook: @aprofoundimpact

Instagram: @aprofoundimpact 

LinkedIn: Profound Impact Corporation

Twitter: @aprofoundimpact

YouTube: @profoundimpactcorporation

For media inquiries, please contact:

Durrell Communications

media@profoundimpact.com 

2023 Impactful Actions Awards Finalists Announced

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PROFOUND IMPACT ANNOUNCES 2023 IMPACTFUL ACTIONS AWARDS FINALISTS

The Impactful Actions Awards recognize leaders making a profound impact in communities globally 

WATERLOO, ON | AUGUST 16, 2023 — Profound Impact is proud to announce the finalists for this year’s Impactful Actions Awards.

Presented annually, the Impactful Actions Awards recognize leaders who are making a profound impact on communities globally by inspiring collaborative solutions to difficult problems. The award launched in 2021 and has now grown to include two categories (Young Leader and Lifetime Achievement) to attract and honour a diverse range of nominees. 

“We were inspired by this year’s impressive nominees and are excited to recognize two recipients of the Impactful Actions Awards,” says Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, Founder and CEO of Profound Impact. “It’s never an easy decision to narrow down our finalists and winners, but our judges feel confident in our choices this year.”

The finalists in the Young Leaders category are as follows (in alphabetical order):

  • Leigh Zachary Bursey, an activist, journalist, former three-term politician, singer-songwriter, recording artist and author.
  • Hui Huang Hoe, the founder of elerGreen, a cleantech startup recovering polymers, metals and chemicals and medical waste.
  • Tabatha Laverty, the VP of Marketing and External Relations at the Accelerator Centre, and a non-profit leader with a passion for equity and inclusion.

These are the Lifetime Achievement finalists (in alphabetical order):

  • Mike Farwell, host of The Mike Farwell Show on CityNews 570 and leader of the Farwell4Hire campaign, which has raised over $1.25 million in funds to support Canadians living with cystic fibrosis. 
  • Lynn Smith, a proud member of the Peavine Métis Settlement who is leading her northern community through a significant change to take control over monitoring the impact of climate change on their land and waterways.
  • Stephanie Thompson, the founder of STEM by Steph and a passionate engineer and community leader who is always pursuing new and innovative ways to promote science, technology and learning in the Niagara area.

“These finalists showcase what it means to make a profound impact in the world, and we are honoured to share their stories of impact,” Shannon-Vanstone says. “Thank you to everyone who took the time to nominate someone for the Impactful Actions Awards this year.”

The inaugural Impactful Actions Award was presented to Dr. Feridun Hamdullahpur, former President & Vice-Chancellor (2010-2021) and Professor of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo, in 2021. In 2022, Profound Impact presented the Impactful Actions Award to Kehkashan Basu, M.S.M., who is the Founder and President of the Green Hope Foundation. 

The 2023 Impactful Actions Awards winners will be announced during the Profound Impact Day virtual event on September 14, 2023. 

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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.

Website: www.profoundimpact.com 

Facebook: @aprofoundimpact

Instagram: @aprofoundimpact 

LinkedIn: Profound Impact Corporation

Twitter: @aprofoundimpact

For media inquiries, please contact:

Durrell Communications

media@profoundimpact.com 

Research Spotlight: Research Impact at Collision 2023

Profound Impact Presents Research Impact at Collision 2023

This month’s Research Spotlight focuses on Research Impact, Profound Impact’s research matchmaking product. As the company that connects great people to do great things, Profound Impact was proud to present and demonstrate our Research Impact product at Collision in Toronto on June 26 – 29, 2023. The annual Collision conference brings together global technology leaders and companies, high-potential start-ups and top journalists to participate in more than 20 content tracks that cover topics including corporate innovation, health, finance, sustainability, start-ups, venture capital and the future of work.  

Profound Impact had the opportunity to participate in the Alpha Startup Program which connects early-stage companies with outstanding potential to the world’s most influential people and companies. Our CEO, Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, was selected to participate in the PITCH competition and was chosen to advance to the top ten from over 500 startups! Sherry also teamed up with Deloitte partner Jigna Shah on the AWS Collision stage to present the benefits of using Research Impact to meet the challenges of making those connections.

Profound Impact launched as a data and analytics company to work with universities to empower their alumni and students on their career journeys. Research Impact was developed to help those universities connect with industry partners and government granting agencies. Connections between industry and universities are essential as researchers seek industry partners for research programs and industry looks to researchers for insight into long-term research directions to develop strategic development road maps. On average, it takes 17 years for fundamental research to move to commercial practice.  Global issues like climate change, water contamination, public health, energy, food insecurity and cybersecurity can’t wait more than a decade for the application of groundbreaking research results. A different approach, featuring collaboration between researchers and industry, is required to accelerate innovation.

Over $300 billion in global research funding is available annually for 8.8 million researchers and hundreds of thousands of industry partners around the world. But there are challenges in making connections between researchers and industry partners, knowing where to look for the right funding programs and understanding eligibility requirements.

How do companies navigate the challenges of finding academic research partners and applying for grants? How do researchers find all of the funding programs relevant to their areas of expertise? Without effective tools, many hours are spent researching available funding programs, attempting to reach out to funding agencies and submitting applications for grants in programs that are oversubscribed and competitive without necessarily meeting eligibility requirements.

What if there was an automatic way to match academic and industry researchers to each other and to funding programs? Research Impact combines private and public data using Al and data analytic tools to optimize research funding opportunities.

As demonstrated by the Profound Research team at our booth at Collision, Research Impact features an easy-to-use dashboard that manages researcher areas of focus, funding opportunities, grant deadlines, historical funding matches and industry projects. The tool’s automatic loading of grant programs and researcher profiles, streamlined and targeted communication with researchers and the use of AI and machine learning to make appropriate matches greatly simplifies the process for applying for research funding. The increased efficiency and resulting additional access to funding opportunities can save as much as 80% of the time previously spent by academics, university funding offices and industry researchers.

Profound Impact’s presentations of Research Impact’s power to provide research organizations and industry partners with an increased share of grant funding and a resulting boost in institutional rankings were met with great interest and enthusiasm by Collision’s national and international audience.  We look forward to working with universities, research institutions, industry researchers and funding partners to deploy Research Impact in their organizations.

CS-CAN Two Part Webinar Series

Industry – Research Collaboration Webinars

Profound Impact is excited to announce our participation in two CS-CAN webinars for a discussion on new strategies for matching funding and researchers. The webinar series will run in two parts on March 24, 2023 and April 20, 2023

Webinar #1 – March 24, 2023 View the recording here

Industry – Research Collaboration: Benefits and Challenges

Connections between industry, colleges and universities are vital as researchers seek industry partners for federally and provincially-funded research programs and industry looks to researchers for insight into long-term research directions as strategic development road maps are developed.

This webinar will discuss the benefits of collaboration to researchers, students and industry partners as well as the challenges in identifying potential partners and developing collaborative agreements.  

This webinar features:

  • Emily Gordon, Advisor, Business Development at Mitacs
  • Camelia Nunez, Manager of Operations at the Lazaridis Institute at Wilfrid Laurier University
  • Ig Kolenko, Executive Director at the Smart Manufacturing and Advanced Recycling Technologies (SMART) Centre at Conestoga College

Webinar #2 – April 20, 2023, 3:00 PM EST View the recording here

Industry – Research Collaboration: Best Practices and Tools for Success

What makes an industry-researcher collaboration a success? 

Hear from the experts:

  • Vio Onut, Principal R&D Strategist at the Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS) at IBM Canada and Adjunct Professor at University of Ottawa;
  • Jennifer Moles, Director, R&D Collaboration and Commercialization Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI)
  • George Shaker, Principal Scientist and Head of Research at Spark Technology Labs (STL).
  • Brian Romansky of Profound Impact demonstrates the Research Impact matching tool.

You can view both webinars with this playlist on Youtube!

Workforce of Tomorrow Webinar

Empowering the students and educators of today to create the relevant workforce of tomorrow – February 16, 2022 1:00 pm EST

Profound Impact’s Sherryl Petricevic will be a panelist in an upcoming GEDI Exchange webinar on the workforce of tomorrow. A workforce with relevant skills is the “air supply” on which Canada’s economy of the future will depend.  But how to ensure alignment between employee education and the job market?  Our guests this month use current student and alumni data to help colleges, universities, research institutes, and social profit organizations strategically optimize the type and content of the programs and services they deliver to the communities they serve. 

Profound Impact and 1Mentor use data-driven insights to find and understand the key indicators for workplace progression and opportunities to improve candidate success.  This information in turn is used to evaluate programming content and delivery, which is all the more important as it becomes increasingly critical to be “students for life”: many jobs today didn’t exist 10-20+ years ago, and the pace of change is accelerating, particularly in technical fields. It’s time to use the latest and greatest analytical tools and artificial intelligence techniques on the education system itself.

John Loeprich

John Loeprich

Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Director
3iQ Corp.

Passionate about democratizing the financial services sector through innovation and bold leadership, John Loeprich is making his mark on the global economy. As Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer and Director of 3iQ Corp., Canada’s largest digital asset manager, John is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the company’s finance and operations and leads the formulation of the company’s strategic planning. Part of his vision for 3iQ is to provide new financial opportunities for people around the world that are marginalized by traditional financial markets and limited in their business opportunities. Using blockchain technology, digital assets and distributed networks, John hopes to level the playing field and ensure everyone around the world has the opportunity to build wealth. 

John graduated from the University of Waterloo with a degree in mathematics, while also majoring in finance and business. He was enrolled in the university’s mathematics co-op program, which he credits as being integral to his professional development. Through various co-op placements, John was able to immerse himself in all elements of the business world, enabling him to apply theoretical knowledge in real-world situations. For a person who dreamed of one day becoming an entrepreneur, this type of exposure to specialized knowledge at such a young age would prove to be invaluable to his professional endeavours. 

After graduation, John worked in the traditional financial services sector with Smith, Nixon & Company Chartered Accountants, TD Bank Group and Fidelity Investments Canada Ltd. Holding various positions with these companies, John gained a deep understanding of a range of business sectors including finance, fund operations, internal audit, systems and operations, sales, project management, navigating regulatory processes and much more. He transitioned from traditional finance jobs in 1997, launching his own consulting firm, Magellan Consulting Group. From there, John became a partner at @rgentum Management & Research, where he helped introduce quantitative-driven mutual funds, as well as Canada’s first long-short mutual fund. This experience in the alternative investments field fed his desire to find other solutions to wealth management that would offer investors different options to traditional market-correlated investments.

As technology began to evolve in the financial services sector, so too did John’s desire to explore new opportunities offered by the digital assets sector of investment management. With the advent of cryptocurrency, John was given the opportunity to join 3iQ and to introduce a new asset class, using digital assets and blockchain technologies to ensure people around the world have affordable access to financial services and investment products that provided a hedge against inflation. By reducing the need for using financial institutions that charge large fees for money transfer services, blockchains and cryptocurrencies can help to reduce or eliminate fees as well as barriers to entry for those who don’t even have access to financial services.

Since its launch in 2012, 3iQ has become the first company in the world to have a regulator-approved, publicly listed bitcoin fund on a major exchange. Now the largest digital asset manager in Canada (and third largest in the world), 3iQ plans to continue to be innovative and break new ground in its pursuit of new financial opportunities in digital assets. 

Inspired by the transformative power of digital assets and cryptocurrency in global wealth distribution, John is optimistic about the opportunities that are beginning to emerge for so many people around the world that have been marginalized by the current financial systems in place. The hope is that investors will now have access to a new non-correlated asset in their investment portfolio and those who are currently financially disadvantaged will no longer have to pay exorbitant fees or resort to dangerous lending practices with high-interest rates. Entrepreneurs and business owners will also be able to receive payments in various currencies with less friction costs, helping fuel innovation and economic growth. 

While John’s legacy will undoubtedly be his role in the democratization of wealth across the world, his most rewarding work is being a mentor. By imparting knowledge to others, John has been able to hone his understanding of a multitude of business practices and distill it in a way that others can understand and apply in real-world situations. A self-proclaimed lifelong learner, John is passionate about teaching others the many aspects of the financial services industry, including its traditional roots and all aspects of the digital transformation currently underway. 

John’s contributions to advancing the use of blockchain technology, digital assets, cryptocurrency and distributed networks are “game-changing” and the impacts of his work will be felt for years to come. You can view some of his accomplishments in the image below:

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Do you have an impact story to share? Reach out to us at connections@profoundimpact.com for a chance to have your story featured in an upcoming newsletter!