By Anjali Rego and Nathalie Noël
IABC/Toronto surveys our members every year. We’re grateful to all who took the time at the end of 2025 to share what you value most and how the chapter can continue to improve. Inspired by some of the feedback we heard, we wanted to shed more light on the chapter and how we operate.
Membership costs
Reality #1: IABC is a global association. Membership types and dues are set and collected by IABC International. Chapters receive a portion of these dues to support programming in their local communities. With membership pricing determined by International, IABC/Toronto strives to make the most of the portion we receive. We also advocate on behalf of our members to keep affordability and ROI top of mind, particularly at this time of tighter budgets and increased cost of living.
Volunteer-run
Reality #2: IABC/Toronto is run by a small group of volunteers. Like you, we are busy juggling day jobs, family commitments, and our health and hobbies. We’re making a commitment to IABC/Toronto because we believe in our association and profession. Board members and other volunteers devote a significant amount of time managing the chapter’s operations and budget, recruiting and mentoring volunteers, organizing events, delivering programs, and generally supporting and promoting members across the GTA. If you attended a chapter event, read an article in Communicator or The Buzz, joined a Special Interest Group, got support toward certification, found a candidate or job through CareerLine, or celebrated an Ovation Award win, these are all possible because of volunteers.
Taking action
Leadership volunteers have the privilege and responsibility to focus our finite time and revenue on the activities that increase value and matter most to members. This means continually balancing competing priorities and budgets. To that end, we wanted to highlight our primary strategy areas this year:
1. Delivering value at the local level
Leadership volunteers are working to deliver the best value while also covering the chapter’s operational costs, including administrative support, accounting-related fees, and technology subscriptions. We’ve been making tough decisions to keep expenses down and to price events to break even. Whenever possible, we offered no- or low-cost ways to connect, including unique events such as Hike ‘n’ Network, a new SCMP® study group, and the Special Interest Groups (SIGs). We worked the phones to secure new and returning sponsors. Sponsorship is often overlooked, but it’s what offsets expenses and helps bring ticket prices down. (So thank you, Arc & Crown, APEX, Bar Neon, ContactMonkey, Edelman, Hatch, Hollinrake Photography, InnerStrength, Fullintel, Mattamy Asset Management, Toronto Metropolitan University, Understory Café, Volaris, and all others!) Finally, you may have noticed that we revived CareerLine’s brand strategy this year. With job postings climbing back up, this effort is paying off for the chapter!
2. Rebuilding Ovation Awards
Ovation Awards is the chapter’s largest and most prestigious program. It’s also our largest revenue source, although award submissions and event attendance have been declining since COVID. In the past few years, we’ve been experimenting with different formats and price points to increase participation. We reached out to past winners and attendees. They reinforced that the awards are a big achievement, deserving of big-time recognition. For 2026, we acted on this feedback and returned to Ovation’s roots as a gala event with a sit-down dinner. We worked hard to offer a fair ticket price that would still largely cover the costs of this elevated experience. On May 7, we were thrilled to host over 150 people at the Ovation Awards Ceremony.
3. Prioritizing Professional Development
Members consistently tell us that professional development is the most valuable benefit of IABC. That’s why it’s our top priority. We organized many events this year, including a sold-out panel event on AI and popular sessions on negotiation and financial communications, panel and networking events to gear up for Pride and the World Cup, and media relations in today’s climate. We encourage members to pitch their own professional development and networking ideas. You can host, and we can help! Volunteering is professional development too. Members are developing leadership and other skills on our Board and committees. They’re gleaning best practices through Ovation Awards judging, SIG’s peer sharing, and managing events and programs. We’re trying to thoughtfully tailor professional development to the chapter’s diverse membership of early-career and retired professionals, students, freelancers, consultants, business owners and C-Suite executives.
Doing more, together
Once again, we thank everyone who took the time to share their opinions in our member survey. We know that sometimes members want more from IABC/Toronto. As members ourselves, we understand. If you believe the chapter could do more or do better, we sincerely encourage you to get involved. Many hands make light work. The more revenue we earn and the more volunteers we have, the more we can offer and accomplish. We look forward to doing more together.
