Media kit

Smiling woman sitting at a desk with a laptop, surrounded by decorative shelves with books and plants.

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A woman seated at a modern desk using a laptop in a bright office space. The desk has a black lamp, a small plant, and a wicker basket underneath. Shelves in the background display decorative vases and dried flowers.

Founder and CEO of Further Together | Fractional Fundraiser | Community-Centric Fundraising Consultant

Maria Rio

(she/her)

Maria Rio is the founder of Further Together, a fundraising consulting firm she launched in January 2023. A refugee who arrived in Canada at an early age, Maria’s personal experience with charitable services fueled her passion for nonprofit work. She began fundraising in 2011 as a face-to-face fundraiser and later transitioned to in-house roles, serving as Director of Development and Communications at small and mid-sized nonprofits.

Maria has spoken at numerous fundraising conferences, including AFP ICON, AFP Congress, APRA, Xlerate, and for Imagine Canada. She has been published in The Globe and Mail and The Star, and she was a finalist for the 2022 Charity Village Best Individual Fundraiser Award. All publications can be found here.

Most recently, Maria has spoken on TVO’s The Agenda, on CityNews, at the Ontario Parliement, and has written a chapter for Against The People: How Ford Nation is Dismantling Ontario.

She was also one of only ten Canadian entrepreneurs accepted into the ELLA Accelerator Altitude program. This highly selective accelerator helps women entrepreneurs in Canada scale their businesses and is offered through YSpace, York University.

An advocate for anti-poverty work and a thought leader in Community-Centric Fundraising, Maria uses her lived experience to push for innovative, equity-driven approaches in the nonprofit sector. She is passionate about helping nonprofits break away from outdated practices and embrace new, impactful models of fundraising.

In addition to her consulting work, Maria hosts The Small Nonprofit Podcast and serves on the Board of Living Wage Canada. Maria is also passionate about photography and psychology.