The Spark Angel Network is excited to announce that we were Awarded the Business Excellence Award [BEA] 2018 for the Not-For-Profit/Charity Category! We are so grateful to be nominated alone for this award— never mind winning. Thank you to the judges for supporting our vision by awarding us with this prestigious award.
May 25th, 2018, we became aware by the Ajax-Pickering Board of Trade that we were nominated for the BEA. We were so thankful that one of our peers saw what have been doing for our community and wanted to share that.
After meeting with the Ajax-Pickering Board of Trade [APBOT], we discovered we had our work cut out for us to complete the required submission. There were 22 questions that we were required to answer, such as: “are there good examples of customer satisfaction?”. Not only did we have to answer the questions fully, it was also recommended we provided proof.
Our team did not want to take this lightly. We believed really digging deep into this report, will give us insights on how to make the Spark Angel Network better overall. We strategically planned how we were going to answer each question, and the ‘proof’ we would provide. The team brainstormed what members of Durham Regions community, and our personal community, who would be best suited to reach out to, to support our submission.
We were blown away but the support of our community and supporters. The kind feedback we received was overwhelming. After speaking with many members of our community, and past companies we have helped, we really began to understand what Spark Angels excels at and needs to improve upon.
After many hours, days, weeks of working on our BEA submission, we finally submitted it on August 17th at 12:00 pm. The award show was held October 3rd, 2018 at Deer Creek Golf Club, in Ajax. The gala was breathtaking. The APBOT really out-did themselves. We felt so privileged to be nominated alongside such powerful not-for-profits and charities, who are as followed:
· Alzheimer Society of Durham Region
· Abilities Centre
· Boys & Girls Club of Durham
· Business Advisory Centre Durham
· Girls Inc. of Durham
· Friends Indeed Canada (Pak-Canadian Society of Durham)
We would like to thank all of our members, community supporters, and companies we have worked with who supported us in our process of completing our submission. We could not have done it with without you. We value how you took the time out of your busy schedules to help support us, we are so grateful for that.
We would also like to thank the Ajax-Pickering Board of Trade for giving us the opportunity and assisting us throughout this process. We are so appreciative to be given the chance to share our vision, of transforming Durham’s economy, and to be recognized for our efforts.