Wrap-up: Activating for Impact at Spark Festival 🎉

Gisela Wildie — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 15:34:38 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

Re: Wrap-up: Activating for Impact at Spark Festival 🎉

LYV GROUP — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 04:41:58 GMT

So glad I came along. Thank you to the Pledge 1% team, Nick and Joni for their inspiring journey. As a founder, it reminded me that giving can start with the time and experience we already have. I’m putting that into practice through mentoring university students. Great to meet others making their pledge part of everyday business.

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Wrap-up: Activating for Impact at Spark Festival 🎉

Re: Wrap-up: Activating for Impact at Spark Festival 🎉