Profile – Robin C. Johnston

Robin Johnston is one of those rare individuals who can bridge the profit and nonprofit sectors. With his entire career alternating between entrepreneurism and public service, he truly sees both sides of the coin. He is a passionate fundraiser, serial entrepreneur and seasoned sales & marketing pro.

At the age of 17 Robin started his first company, MULTEX Couriers – a regional courier service that grew to serve several major Canadian clients including the Royal Bank of Canada, Speedy Muffler and Canadian Tire Corporation. MULTEX was also a regular contract carrier for other national logistics companies including Loomis and Associated National Couriers.

Robin was elected to public office a few weeks before his 25th birthday and served a three-year term as city commissioner for Brockville, Ontario, in Canada. He championed a customer-centric approach to municipal management, and was responsible for Brockville’s first city-wide survey, the results of which were used to improve priority-setting and service delivery.

He led the marketing team for Verian Technologies, one of the world’s leading enterprise spend management software companies. His team drove the leads that grew the company from start-up to 90 people in just 20 months.

Robin served for nearly eight years as Vice President for Institutional Advancement and Foundation Executive Director for Tallahassee Community College. During this time, he established more than 100 new scholarship and program funds, and increased foundation assets by more than 70%. Prior to that, he was the first Vice President for Development & Foundation Executive Director at Randolph Community College in Asheboro, North Carolina, where he implemented the College’s first comprehensive annual campaign.

He has also held executive management and faculty positions at Clarke College in Ontario, Canada and the University of North Carolina’s Charlotte campus, where he developed and taught The Belk College of Business’s senior-year Internet Marketing course.

Founder of Motivation Design Group, Robin developed Fundraising Judo — an innovative model for board engagement that aligns solicitor passions, donors interests, and organizational needs to raise more money, more quickly than traditional fundraising approaches. He helps nonprofit clients with board retreats, strategic planning, recurring giving programs, and campaign management for annual and major gifts campaigns.

Robin excels at developing marketing and business development plans, generating leads, deploying programs to out-market competitors, and accelerating revenue with limited marketing budgets.

Robin C Johnston 

Robin holds an MBA in Marketing and Corporate Strategy from the University of Toronto’s acclaimed Joseph L. Rotman School of Management and is currently pursuing a PhD in Instructional Systems Design at Florida State University.

Robin is a member of the National Speakers Association, and has earned the Certified Management Consultant designation, the highest designation bestowed by the Institute of Management Consultants.