Director (ON)
Joseph (Joe) Torres is an Independent Consultant working to advise organizations on fundraising, partnerships, and organizational development and sustainability. Joe has two decades of experience working across the philanthropic and impact investing sectors, with recent consulting work supporting the Global Innovation Fund (blended finance impact investor) and the Wellcome Trust (Coalition for Mental Health Investment). Joe currently advises local non-profits, Indigenous organizations, and other impact-driven organizations to build partnerships and raise funding.
Prior to independent consulting, Joe was co-appointed as the Executive Director of the Grand Challenges Canada Foundation (Canadian Charity) and also served as the Director of Funder and Partner Relations at Grand Challenges Canada. Joe helped launch new programs in the Indigenous and Humanitarian Assistance spaces, using open calls for proposals to find and fund the best ideas.
Before arriving in Toronto, Joe was the Program Manager for the Grand Challenges initiative at the Gates Foundation leading all the business and operations of the international initiative, and was based in Seattle. During his tenure at the Gates Foundation, Joe supported development of open, innovation challenge programs in India, Brazil, and a pan-African platform in Nairobi in partnership with national governments and health ministries. He mobilized a global coalition of international funding partners to develop programs on the intersections of health impacts of climate change. He serves as a reviewer for many open global funding competitions, including Lever for Change.
Joe earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Washington. Joe is currently based in Toronto and is a dual-citizen of Canada and the United States, speaks Spanish fluently and is conversational in French. When he’s not consulting, you will find him biking around town and exploring local coffee shops.