Thomas, Steve, 1945-

Stephen Morley Thomas (1945- ) was born in Kingston, Ontario. He earned an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of Western Ontario in 1968 and a Masters of Arts in Historical Geography from York University in 1971. In the early 1970s, Thomas taught geography and history; from 1970 to 1971, he taught at the International School Eerde in the Netherlands and from 1971 to 1972 at the Crescent School, a private boys' school in Toronto. Between 1977 and 1978, Thomas taught Labour History and Human Studies at Humber College. With an interest in international development, Thomas sought a job with Oxfam Ontario in 1973. The only position available was as the organization's fundraiser, which Thomas accepted. There, he gained his first experiences with direct response mail. Following his time at Oxfam, Thomas spent two years (1975-1977) as Director of Development at Humber College. In 1977, Thomas became the New Democratic Party's first professional fundraiser, a position in which he would continue until the creation of his company, Stephen Thomas Associates, in 1980. Two years later Stephen Thomas Associates Consulting Limited was established as the first Canadian-owned and -operated direct marketing agency specializing in fundraising for not-for-profit organizations. Since its establishment, the company's clients have largely been organizations devoted to democracy and socialism, health, humanitarianism, environmentalism, children and youth services, feminist and women's issues, disability and rehabilitation and public broadcasting. Clients have included the New Democratic Party, the Red Cross Society, the Schizophrenia Society, Oxfam Canada, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Kids Help Phone, Planned Parenthood, the Ontario March of Dimes, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting and TVOntario. During its first years, Stephen Thomas Limited worked exclusively at producing mailing campaigns. The company expanded its direct marketing services in 1984 to include telephone solicitations. In 1989, Stephen Thomas Limited began to conduct campaigns via Electronic Mail, a telegram-style product administered by Canada Post. During the 1990s the company expanded its services once more to include planned gifts and bequests, intermediate giving, magazine advertisements, special events, email fundraising, mailing lists management, brokering and analysis and general fundraising consulting. In 2003, Stephen Thomas Associates Consulting Limited became known as Stephen Thomas Limited. The firm merged with FRM Consulting (a strategic and data analytics consultancy) and marketing firm Gail Picco Associates in 2006 and began to specialize in direct and digital marketing, database analytics, capital campaigns, branding and communications. Thomas' work in the direct response marketing field has been recognized on several occasions. The Canadian (Direct) Marketing Association awarded Thomas the Directors' Choice Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998. In 2002, Thomas was presented with the Outstanding Fundraising Executive Award by the Association of Fundraising Professionals Greater Toronto Chapter. In 2006, Amnesty International honoured Thomas for 25 years of fundraising on its behalf.