Marts & Lundy is expanding its business in Canada and continuing to add an international flavor to its clientele. The partnership also provides new growth opportunities for The Offord Group, whose research-based approach is in synch with Marts & Lundy's long history of applying analytics to philanthropy - Blending the Art & Science of Philanthropy.

When Nicholas Offord and Michael Sinkus met at a health care conference three years ago, they sensed an opportunity for cross-border cooperation.

"Nicholas was a pioneer," says Sinkus, senior consultant at Marts & Lundy. "We very quickly learned we were on the same wavelength."

And so a strategic partnership of Marts & Lundy and The Offord Group of Toronto (www.theoffordgroup.com) was born. Along with Sinkus, nine other Marts & Lundy consultants are working with The Offord Group in a strategic alliance that offers reciprocal access to each other's clients in Canada and the U.S.

Offord, 45, founded The Offord Group after a successful career leading major giving campaigns for universities and hospitals. The Canadian consultant recalled how easy it was to establish a rapport with Sinkus, and later, the entire Marts & Lundy organization.

"We very quickly learned we were on the same wavelength."

"I'd seen Marts & Lundy as the kind of company I wanted to build here," Offord says. "I realized we had very common values around client servicing, and what a strategic counsel company could do for charity."

"What I like about Marts & Lundy," Offord explains, "is an approach to practice that is dependent on the most experienced people you can possibly recruit. In many respects, there is no substitute for experience."

Comments Sinkus: "Marts & Lundy is strongly committed to this, and it's part of our plans for the future. We hope that by working with our Canadian partners, it will make us stronger in Canada, and the U.S., and everywhere else."

He added, "What's interesting is that Canada now has a large segment of its philanthropic capacity that's ready for maturity." This includes education, health care, and the arts. "That's where the experience of Marts & Lundy makes the most difference. Nicholas figured this out in Canada because all of the other competitors, instead of being in a consulting format, are in a management format."

Offord has a rich background in Canadian government, health care, academia and business. A British native who immigrated to Canada, he graduated from the University of Toronto in the early 80s and worked in politics as part of the team that brought the government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to power in 1984.

His early experiences in politics, government, and media gave Offord expertise in how to use research to track personal decision making - techniques that he still uses in his consulting work. After, he served as a Campaign Director for Ketchum Canada Inc., where he received an on-the-job education in the world of Canadian philanthropy. Unlike the traditional American way of giving, which typically steers clear of government participation, Canada's nonprofit sector historically has worked in partnership with government for guidance and funding.

"You have to understand the country never had a revolution," Offord explains. "We were a country established by two countries -- Britain and France. We never had a tradition that governments were meant to be distrusted. This persists to this day. Canadians have an abiding sense that government matters and is important."