Penn Road Advisors | Fundraising & Partnerships for the Arts

Focused strategy. Sustainable growth.

Penn Road Advisors helps mission-driven organizations of every size launch new work or reinvigorate what they already do. We step in as senior project leads to get the work done: raising money, designing and launching programs, and building true partnerships that make them last. We also lead strategic planning processes for organizations that need to set clear priorities for the years ahead.

Most established institutions don’t lack for ideas; they lack focus and follow-through. In less-resourced organizations, teams are often too overwhelmed by their current workloads to even consider what growth might look like. And in a start-up culture, ambition and impatience can overshadow the wisdom needed to prepare the ground for sustainable growth. We’ve worked in all of these contexts.

Every engagement starts with a clear-eyed analysis of what’s underused and what’s misaligned in your organization, and then we work alongside teams to fix it. That might mean building sponsor and philanthropic partnerships, launching a new program, developing a strategic plan, or using data, technology and AI to streamline operations.

The goal is simple: build momentum that lasts and organizations resilient enough to carry it forward.

How We Help

Clients engage us on a project or retainer basis to get experienced leadership without adding permanent overhead.

We keep projects moving, on time and on target, handling the details so your team can stay focused on the big picture.
The best funders aren’t just writing cheques; they’re invested in your success. We identify the right sponsors and philanthropic partners, shape the case for support, and build relationships that last.
Technology should work for you, not against you. We streamline your processes so tools like AI and digital platforms save time and reduce headaches instead of adding to them.
Partnerships should create value on both sides. We help you identify, build, and manage collaborations that move your mission forward.
We help you expand the reach of your “one-time” events, transforming them into ongoing campaigns that deepen engagement and deliver long-term results.

Beth Janson, Principal

I’m a native of Montreal, but my career started in New York, where I sought out interesting people and did what needed to be done to be in their orbit, whether it was handing out free tickets to Shakespeare in the Park, or working on the assistant desk at HBO Documentaries.

My path led me to the Tribeca Film Institute, where I spent more than a decade growing a young organization into a leading force for independent filmmakers and groundbreaking storytelling. Much of that growth came through partnerships. I cultivated long-term relationships with funders and brands including Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, AT&T and Gucci and in one two-year stretch we grew direct funding to filmmakers from $240K to $1.3M.

In 2015, I was recruited by the founders of Rent the Runway to build Project Entrepreneur, a program developed in partnership with UBS that helped women founders scale their companies.

In 2016, I came home to Canada to become CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, where I spent six years broadening the mission from “celebrating award winners” to building the next generation of them. We secured the largest foundation grant in the Academy’s history to launch professional development programs for Canadian creators, and rebuilt our financial systems so we could measure outcomes across every line of activity. I then joined the Toronto International Film Festival as COO, where I led a rebuild of TIFF.net that doubled e-commerce revenue and gave the organization its first audience data dashboard.

Much of what I’ve achieved comes from the support of the powerful women I’ve worked for and with, and I carry their lessons with me in every role. Along the way, I’ve been recognized by the Ford Foundation with a fellowship to attend Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management Program, received Women in Film & TV Toronto’s Crystal Award for Business Achievement, and earned an Emmy nomination for Meet the Patels.

Today, through Penn Road Advisors, I help mission-driven organizations across North America launch new work and reinvigorate what they already do. I’m also pursuing a Master of Information at the University of Toronto, focused on culture and technology, so I can help organizations put tools like AI to practical use for their missions.

Some Things I’ve Made Happen

Launched Project Entrepreneur: built from the ground up in under a year, with workshops and summits in five U.S. cities that reached 1,650 women founders from across the country.
Raised $5M to launch the TFI New Media Fund: the first U.S. fund dedicated to interactive and immersive storytelling.
Produced the Canadian Screen Awards: the nationally televised awards honoring Canada’s film, television and digital media sectors.
Built TFI Interactive and Tribeca Hacks: programs that brought filmmakers and technologists together to experiment with new forms of storytelling.
Launched a science and technology storytelling program at TIFF: funded through a six-figure, multi-year foundation partnership.
Developed the Canadian Screen Awards’ Narrative Sovereignty Rule: requiring productions that tell Indigenous stories to demonstrate meaningful Indigenous involvement, in support of the Indigenous Screen Office’s work toward narrative sovereignty for First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities.

How We Work

We work with your leadership, not around them. Our job is to lighten the load for your team so they can focus on the work at hand. The result is clarity, and a team aligned on purpose instead of stuck in process. Nous travaillons également en français !

Why Penn Road?

Because every journey starts with a first step, or a pen to paper. Penn Road is both the street I grew up on and a reminder that progress begins when ideas move from thought to action. That spirit of clarity and momentum drives how we work with clients today.

Why Advisors?

Because the best solutions don’t come from one person alone. When the challenge calls for it, we bring in trusted experts from across the US and Canada. You get sharp advice, the right skills at the right time, and none of the overhead of a big consulting firm.