UN visit inspiring for Kitchener entrepreneur

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at the United Nations on Thursday.

And Lisa Grogan, co-founder of a Kitchener consulting firm, will be there. For the Stratford resident and mother of three girls, that’s an inspiring moment.

“It’s very special going to the United Nations,” Grogan said on Tuesday morning in a phone interview from New York City.

“You can’t help but be in awe when you go in there and there are people from all over the world. It’s just an incredible feeling. To be there when the prime minister is giving his address will be a very proud moment.” Why is Grogan here? Because she took a chance three years ago.

She signed on to become part of a new fundraising endeavour for the Canadian wing of United Nations Children’s Fund.

She became part of the “25th Team,” a group of 60 Canadian women who would each contribute $100,000 over four years to help women and children in developing nations Cambodia, Ethiopia, Namibia, Peru and Indonesia.

As more women signed on, Grogan decided her company would also make the leap of faith and sign on to the philanthropic program with an entrepreneurial tilt.

She was something like the 30th woman to join the team, named in reference to the 24 soccer teams that took part in the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada.

“It was a big gulp moment for a company like ours,” Grogan recalled of the decision to commit to the program. “We’re a small but growing company.”

But they had already worked with UNICEF and felt comfortable.

Grogan, a former marketing director for the K-W Symphony, had worked in fundraising in the past, with the National Media Museum in the United Kingdom. She visited Peru last year.

So, on Tuesday, Grogan had a few thoughts on how the entrepreneurial spirit might invigorate the national and international aid efforts by supporting and encouraging agencies and charities to be creative and innovate.

“In a nonprofit, oftentimes, there’s no room for risk-taking,” Grogan said before scheduled discussions with Canada’s International Development and La Francophonie minister, Marie-Claude Bibeau. “But you have to try new things.”

On Thursday, Grogan’s daughters — ages 7, 12, 14 — will join her in New York. They won’t get a chance to witness Trudeau’s address.

But they will get to experience the atmosphere surrounding the general assembly, where Donald Trump spoke on Tuesday.

“It’s important to open up their world a little bit,” said Grogan, who did not get to attend the Trump speech.

“And to show them that, ‘You can do this.’ If I can do this, what other things can we be doing on a smaller scale?”