Wrap-up: Activating for Impact at Spark Festival 🎉

Gisela Wildie — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 09:18:26 GMT

Pledge 1% hosted a session as part of Sydney's Spark Festival: Activating for Impact: How Founders Do the Do — and what an evening it was!

Despite the rain, we had a full room at Canva Space, with a chatty, energetic crowd that stuck around well past the finish time. Nick Shepherd (Founder & MD, tekFinder) and Joni Fleischer (Co-founder, tekFoundation) shared the honest story of how a small Sydney business turned their Pledge into a real giving program — no polished pitch, just what they got wrong, what they'd do differently, and what actually got them moving.

The group conversations were a real highlight, with rich discussion and takeaways for founders and not-for-profits alike. Lots of new connections were made across the Spark and Pledge 1% community — exactly what these sessions are for.

A special thanks to our member Canva, and to Kathy Ngo from the Canva Foundation, for being part of the conversation.

New to Spark Festival? It's Australia's largest grassroots startup festival — free, community-run, and hosted across NSW each year by the Spark Foundation. It brings together founders, investors, students and anyone curious about the startup world for a week of talks, workshops and networking. We loved being part of it this year.

If you couldn't make it, keep an eye out here for details on our next event — and if you want to talk through how to activate your pledge, reach out to the team anytime at members@pledge1percent.org

topic Wrap-up: Activating for Impact at Spark Festival 🎉 in Australia

Wrap-up: Activating for Impact at Spark Festival 🎉