Give Back to Something That Works: Join the Wavemakers Board

The students the system misses
Work experience is the hinge on which early careers turn, and access to it has never been evenly distributed. If your campus is small, or remote, or if the employers you want to reach recruit from three schools in two cities, the career fair does not come to you. The internship pipeline does not run past your door. Talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not.
Wavemakers exists to close that distance.

What we have built
Wavemakers is a national non-profit delivering virtual work-integrated learning through a first-of-its-kind virtual reality ecosystem. Students join cohorts from anywhere in Canada. Employers meet talent they would otherwise never reach. The platform architecture, the onboarding flow, and the experience design all start from structural inclusion rather than treating it as a later adjustment.
The result: between 84 and 89 percent of the students we serve are equity-deserving, and we work with over 100 institutions and community partners from coast to coast to coast. That reach is a design outcome, not an accident of outreach.
We are now entering a three to five year strategic plan and working toward Imagine Canada accreditation. Both raise the bar on governance, which is why we are growing the board now.

Who we are looking for
Board members who reflect the diversity of the community of students and partners we serve, and who want to give back.
A board governing a program built for students the system misses should include people who know that experience from the inside, and people whose communities and networks look like the ones we serve.
The rest follows from it. The directors who serve Wavemakers well are the ones who care about the students, who want their governance work to add impact, and who are ready to give their time to an organization that will use it carefully.

The experience we could use
We are looking for Board members with experience in one or more of these areas.

Financial stewardship. Reading financial statements critically, guiding annual budget review, and supporting our work to diversify grant and unrestricted funding streams, including paid activities such as virtual career fairs. An accounting or financial management background is valuable here, whether or not it comes with a designation.

To be clear about scope: no one on our board does our books. Operational finance is well in hand with a fractional CFO, outsourced accounting, audit, and bookkeeping, and our Operations Director.

Governance and compliance. An understanding of non-profit governance, board terms of reference, and regulatory obligation. You would help us work through compliance frameworks and statutory remittance reviews, and transition cleanly into national accreditation standards as we pursue Imagine Canada accreditation.

Partnerships and fundraising. Connections across post-secondary education, corporate inclusion, or philanthropy that can expand our community of strategic allies, mentors, and employers, and experience supporting non-profits in identifying opportunities for financial and other support: sponsorship, in-kind contribution, granting relationships, and partnerships that bring capacity as well as funding.

These two things are one capability in practice. The relationship that brings an employer into a cohort is often the same relationship that brings a sponsorship, and every new employer is a set of doors that opens for students. Diversifying revenue and widening our partner community are both priorities in our strategic plan, and they tend to move together.
One area is enough. We are not looking for a single person who covers all three.

Lived experience is expertise
Diverse perspectives make organizations stronger and they guard against groupthink. We actively invite expressions of interest from people who have faced structural barriers to employment or belonging, including Indigenous Peoples, Black and racialized people, people with visible or invisible disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ2S+ community.
We do not treat a formal degree or a traditional corporate background as the only route to leadership. Equivalent lived experience, community leadership, and grassroots advocacy carry real weight in this process.

This is a first conversation
Write to us, tell us a little about yourself and why this work matters to you, and we will take it from there. How you contribute takes shape as we get to know each other.

Terms, time, and flexibility

• Term: We typically invite directors to serve a three-year term. Life changes, and we work collaboratively with directors whose personal or professional circumstances shift.

• Time commitment: Approximately 5 to 6 hours per quarter. That covers preparing for and attending board meetings, occasional asynchronous work, and light mentorship or advisory support. Some directors take on more over time, and we are candid about what that involves before anyone agrees to it.

• Meetings: Quarterly, virtual, 90 to 120 minutes, so you can serve from anywhere in Canada.

• Compensation: Board positions are voluntary and uncompensated, in line with non-profit governance practice.

• Location: You must be based in Canada.

How to express interest
Send a brief note about your background, your lived experience, and why the Wavemakers mission resonates with you to Emma at emma@wavemakers.network. First round review closes September 30, 2026, and we will keep reading after that.
A traditional résumé is welcome but not required. A LinkedIn profile link or a short video introducing yourself works just as well.

Accessibility. We are committed to removing barriers in this process. Accommodations are available at every stage, including interview questions provided in advance, alternative virtual formats, and closed captioning. Write to emma@wavemakers.network and we will make it work.

The invitation
There is a student right now who has done everything asked of her. The grades, the work, the persistence. What she has not had is a way into the room where hiring happens.
This year she will meet an employer, do real work on a real team, and finish with experience, references, and a professional network that were out of reach before. She earns every bit of that herself. What changes is whether the door is there at all.
The door is there because people choose to build it, fund it, and steward it carefully. Come be one of them.