About
Our Mission
Helping communities reach their full potential.
Charitable Registration Number: 80335 5692 RR 0001
Our Story
Much more than a platform, the Small Change Fund is people: leaders and experts whose experience, knowledge, and connections make campaigns soar. We help community advocates accomplish innovative solutions to important environmental and Indigenous issues.
Using the power of storytelling, we help our partners share their stories to engage a wide audience of supporters.
We help with community engagement and setting the table for successful campaigns.
We use our crowdfunding platform to raise the funds needed to achieve real tangible impacts.
Since our founding in 2008, the Small Change Fund has worked with over 200 community partners to support more than 230 projects. We have connected these groups with more than 1,850 donors, including matched funds from corporate and foundation partners, raising $1 million and counting.
Small Change Fund believes in people. We believe people know how to fix the problems in their communities, their cities, and their country. We believe people can make change without long studies, thick reports, and big money.
People helping each other by crowdsourcing big change.
Our Team
BurkhardMausberg
Burkhard Mausberg was the founding CEO of the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation and the Greenbelt Fund for twelve years, making the Greenbelt the most popular and successful environmental initiative in its time.
A leader in Ontario’s environmental/food sector, Mausberg has worked for non-profit groups for three decades. Before joining the Greenbelt Foundation, he directed the programs of the Ivey Foundation.
Mausberg was also CEO of several environmental organizations, such as Environmental Defence and Great Lakes United, which he transformed into essential forces for change. Mausberg has served on NGO boards, on the Boards of Government agencies/commissions, and mentors young talent to become skillful leaders in their field.
He writes extensively on vital issues in diverse settings, and in 2017 published the critically acclaimed book Ontario’s Greenbelt: Protecting and Cultivating a Great Ontario Treasure (Barlow Books).
Mausberg studied environmental science at the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto, where he also taught for eight years. He lives in Toronto with his daughters.
Franz collaborates with the Small Change Fund on select projects. Franz was the Executive Director of the Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA) for eleven years. Under his leadership, TEA succeeded in getting key environmental policies adopted at City Hall, including a new climate action plan and a zero waste plan. Franz expanded TEA’s community engagement activities in all areas of the city, as well as enlisted many non-environmental community partners.
He served as Chair of the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance for four years and helped the Alliance build vast community support for the Greenbelt. He is currently serving as the OGA Coordinator.
Prior to working at TEA, Franz was the Environmental Advisor to City Councillor Jack Layton and oversaw Jack’s civil society engagement activities in Ottawa.
He has taught numerous environmental policies courses at the University of Toronto and is regularly asked to deliver lectures and talks across Ontario. Franz has a PhD in Political Science at York University, enjoys science fiction and wood working, and lives in Toronto.
Brooklyn joined Small Change Fund in March 2019.
With a long-lived passion for all things IT and a background in building custom computer systems, she graduated from the Computer Programmer Analyst program at Durham College where she studied for 3 years to learn the inner workings of computers to compliment her hardware abilities.
She developed a strong interest in mobile and web application development, particularly in how to use it to better her community and the world.
Hailing from Oshawa where she lives with her wife and children, she’s proud to offer new perspectives and skills to help Small Change Fund crowdsource big change.
SarahCeci
The Small Change Fund welcomes Sarah Ceci to our team as Community Worker!
Sarah was born and raised in Southern Ontario and has a background in accounting. At the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) she completed a Bachelor of Commerce, as well as minored in environmental science. Sarah recently graduated with a Master of Science in UTM’s Sustainability Management program as she felt “the call to do more for people and the planet.” This unique program investigates sustainability issues through the lens of social and environmental sciences, as well as economics.
Sarah has a passion for environmental and social justice and is “delighted to be a part of the Small
Change Fund family working towards making a big difference.”
Sarah is an avid gardener who takes a holistic approach to her favourite pastime. She grows both edible and non-edible plants, makes use of natural fertilizers, and employs biodynamic practices to promote pollinators and allow her plants to “flourish and to nourish myself, my family, and my community.”
A fun fact about Sarah? Her family includes an orange tabby named Apollo, who they adopted in 2015!
The Small Change Fund welcomes Abbie Branchflower to our team as Communications Specialist!
Abbie was born in the UK, grew up in Southern Ontario, and now resides in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. She attended Delaware Valley University where she earned a BSc in Animal Sciences and minored in English. She recently completed her MSc in Animal Biosciences, Behaviour and Welfare at the University of Guelph where she focused on ecology and conservation. While attending the University of Guelph she worked for the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare as their Social Media
Specialist.
Abbie got an early taste for advocacy when she became aware of the controversial management of American Mustangs as an elementary school student. She began writing letters to the government at age 8 and hasn’t stopped since!
Abbie has a passion for taking care of our planet for the sake of all living creatures and lives by Theodore Roosevelt’s statement, “The wildlife and its habitat cannot speak, so we must and we will.”
What’s Abbie’s fun fact? She has a black rescue cat, Roxy, and a grey Appendix Quarter Horse called
Keeper!
.