Testimonials
What people say
Renée is smart and an incredibly capable facilitator. Renée has the ability to apply appropriate tools to facilitate large groups of disparate stakeholders to achieve agreed outcomes. I have been fortunate to work internally and externally with Renée; she is always a pleasure to work with. Her professionalism and easy going nature, combined with skills and knowledge, shines through on every occasion.
Donna-marie Audas
Assistant Director, Environment and Sustainability, Department of Defence
I highly recommend Renée for facilitation requirements, particularly strategic plan reviews. Renée's approach and communication skills make her fantastic at getting people to become involved and contribute. The feedback from my Board members was that the way in which Renée undertook the task asked of her matched exactly what we were looking for. Thank you Renée.
Wayne Crase
CEO, Everglow Community Care
Thank you for facilitating a professional and productive Strategic Planning session for our local children's charity Renée. We appreciate your advice, guidance and expertise to support our volunteer Board and senior management to develop our latest Strategic Plan. You are a pleasure to work with, your warmth, enthusiasm and expertise is truly appreciated.
Denise Lumsden
CEO, Ronald McDonald House Charities North Australia
I would highly recommend this service to any business or organisation looking for more efficient stakeholder engagement meetings. Renée's facilitation style is warm and inclusive, carefully guiding the group to the questions and answers needing to be uncovered. Her information check points and summaries along the journey kept the process on-track and easily avoided the fatigued minds that might appear around 3pm.
Maree Dibella
Steering Committee member, Burdekin Dry Tropics Regional Natural Resource Management Plan
What we’ve covered today [in our strategic planning session with Renée] could not be done in a whole year of Board meetings. We now have a good skeleton to build the next year on.
Pat Driscoll
CEO, Drive It NQ
Thank you for the effort that went in to the preparation for our [team building and planning] meeting and also for your facilitation. It was positive, engaged, flexible, yet kept us moving and got through the key deliverables for me from the day. I’m delighted with the outcomes.
Teena Browning
Director - Strategic Policy, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
Renée is not just a facilitator that talks at people, but rather she facilitates meaningful discussion creating positive and useful outcomes. Renée took the time to listen to our needs and provide recommendations on what type of session would be most beneficial for our team. Renée is an exceptional facilitator and feedback from the team has been extremely positive. Everyone felt included in discussions, valued, and they all engaged in whole group and small group discussions. Renée provided everyone with valuable, informative information, learnings and an action plan that could be implemented immediately at work the next day. I will be using Renee again for future team sessions.
Joanna Murray
Director, Access Therapy Services, now Apricus Health
I highly recommend Renee for the facilitation of any strategic or organisation planning session. Renee has exceptional communication skills and the ability to keep a group on track and focused. Our strategic planning session involved one member attending via zoom which would be difficult to manage but Renee had no issues keeping this member involved and heard throughout the whole day. I received positive feedback from every one of our team members about Renee as a facilitator. I will not hesitate to engage Renee’s services again. Thank you for being so accommodating, engaging and for making strategic planning enjoyable.
Lisa Pyne
Manager, Sharehouse Youth Programs Inc
The online Regional Integrated Science Forum moderated by Renée was the best-moderated online forum I have ever been to.
Michael Kern
Manager and Secretary, AgForce Cane Ltd
Effective facilitation. Structure was good. Everyone’s input was really valuable. Resulted in a significant amount of information to work with.
Technical Advisory Group members
Lower Burdekin Extension Irrigation Action Plan
Renée is an accomplished facilitator. She has provided highly skilled facilitation support to NQ Dry Tropics for over 10 years, covering a range of topics with people from a diversity of backgrounds and varying group sizes. Renée presents professionally and respectfully and ensures all in the room have a voice. She is a clear communicator and her practical and targeted approach to facilitation encourages collaborative outcomes.
Donna Turner
Manager Strategy & Partnerships, NQ Dry Tropics
I have worked with Renée several times over the last 3 years. On all occasions Reneé's work is professional, detailed and comprehensive. This year Renee provided additional support towards the evaluation of our project activity areas and governance arrangements. Renee facilitated 6 different sessions for us and handled Zoom attendees with ease. Collectively there were more than 60 participants from a broad mix of stakeholder groups including project staff, agriculture landholders, technical experts, science and government. Importantly, all were highly satisfied, stating that they felt included and were able to contribute meaningfully to discussions and activities. As a facilitator Renee is fantastic, everything was supplied and coordinated seamlessly, and agendas ran to time with a range of participant activities to hold everyone's attention. Renee worked to our timeframes and was adaptive to several changes that arose along the way. I am very impressed with the thoroughness of her planning and preparation as this allows clear objectives to be set and resulted in highly valuable reports for our team and for our project. The reports combine a well balanced mix of images, graphics and synthesised detail against the evaluation objectives. I am very impressed with Renees' objective and thorough approach and am looking forward to working together more in the future."
Barbara Colls
Monitoring & Evaluation Coordinator for $15m Landholders Driving Change project, NQ Dry Tropics
Great facilitation is an art and Renée excels at it. Fantastic to work with Renée on upskilling 35 of our internal team at Moreton Bay Regional Council to achieve enhanced community outcomes. Such a great opportunity for a refresher in facilitating for an outcome. Short, sharp, really effective training.
Leila Collins
Community Planning and Development Manager, Moreton Bay Regional Council
Thanks for the inspiration, Renée. Such mature, inclusive facilitation, full of real life examples you've experienced. You even 'fessed up to 'things you would do differently next time'. Such a warm, ego-free approach, helping us all understand each other's experience more, which will inform our teaming up on facilitation in Moreton Bay Region.
Gail Price
Community and Cultural Programs, Moreton Bay Regional Council
Renée designed and delivered a six-month training program in presentation and facilitation skills for over 25 participants from the Local Government Division of our state government department. Renée's training was perfect for our division. She demonstrated a thoughtful, enthusiastic and thorough approach to training delivery, and her relaxed training style really hit the mark for the team. It is hard to find someone to deliver training in a way that resonates with a diverse range of people from different seniority levels, and Renée excelled here. The high attendance rate at the training sessions and the very positive feedback from all participants showed how valuable Renee's teaching and coaching has been in building the knowledge and practical skills of our staff.
Claire van Wel
Manager (Acting), Qld Government Department of State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning
Renée provided training in online facilitation skills for over 20 participants from the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) and partner organisations. Our staff are very experienced in face to face presenting, but the new world of virtual video conferencing requires a different set of skills. All participants rated Renee highly, and feedback from attendees showed that participants got a lot out of the training. Renée was able to deliver training to our specifications within a tight timeframe, and provided attendees with one on one mentoring sessions after the workshop, along with detailed workbooks and templates.
Isabel Bryce
Senior Communications Officer (Agribusiness), Qld Government Department of Agriculture and Fisheries
We engaged Renée to develop an evaluation framework for our Teaching & Learning suite of professional development programs. Renée helped us develop practical tools to measure the impact of our work, and provided us with a strong foundation to think critically about our programs, impact and intended outcomes. Renée also ran evaluation workshops for our team that provided a democratic and collaborative space for staff to build ownership of the evaluation framework.
Michael Gilliver
Assistant Director - Teaching & Learning, Independent Schools Queensland
Renée worked with Cape York NRM Directors and staff to develop a multi-level evaluation and improvement strategy based on an existing organisation-wide program logic for strategic and business planning. Renée prepared and administered surveys and conducted a series of staff consultation workshops to gather input for the Strategy. Renée was flexible in her approach and timing, prepared meticulously and communicated well with myself and key team members throughout the project. She accommodated the needs of a diverse Board and multi-disciplined staff team and ensured that the workshops were engaging for the participants. I highly recommend Renée to anyone looking to engage her services.
Bob Frazer
Acting CEO, Cape York NRM
Renee has been a pleasure to work with on program evaluation. Working through a not-for-profit, I particularly appreciated her ability to scale her involvement with our evaluation processes to match our budget constraints. She has made the evaluation process clear and easy to follow for staff and for stakeholders. Thanks Renee!
Jayne Thorpe
Business Innovation & Development Coordinator, CatholicCare Social Services
Thank you Renée Madsen and Josephine Wise for leading tonight's master class for the Leading Evaluation Unit in the QUT Master of Education course. You modelled reflexive, ethical and inspiring leadership. You also showed how evaluation can be a process of individual and collective learning. The students and I are grateful.
Jill Willis
Associate Professor, School of Teacher Education and Leadership, Queensland University of Technology
At Community Gro, it is important to us to continually strive towards the highest quality service delivery and embed continuous improvement throughout our organisation. Renée worked with us to develop a clear and efficient evaluation plan to inform continuous improvement. Renée helped us to identify existing processes that could be used, rather than create additional work. This is working well to embed evaluation throughout our service.
Additionally, working with Renee on two government tenders was a smooth, enjoyable experience for our team. We met with her a few times and provided the raw information and data, and Renee turned it into professional but easy to read responses. The end result was two highly professional tenders that we were proud to submit and confident that we had done the best job we could.
Susan Perry
CEO, Community Gro
"The evaluation training was very clear and practical." "Well structured." "Modelled the process, not just the theory.""Relevant to our work."
Training participants, program evaluation training
We engaged Ricky Esterquest and Renée Madsen to help us develop a theory of change and 3-year project plan for the $2.5mil Charters Towers Wellness Hub, a complex and innovative initiative that is the first of its kind in this region. Ricky and Renée also wrote a grant application for us to help with startup costs for the Hub over the first 3 years. We were able to submit the grant application on time with minimal changes, and the planning material that Ricky and Renée developed will be useful for many other purposes including other grants. Our team is very happy with the results from this work and we enjoyed the professional processes and planning involved in bringing everything together.
Tracy Maff
Business Development & Marketing Manager, Prospect Community Services
Renee did a great job of designing and facilitating our Academic Writing Workshop. I was particularly impressed by the way in which she carefully listened to what was needed, but was also able to think outside the box, including exercises in our workshop that I didn’t realise we needed, but that we definitely benefitted from. Thanks for a productive few days, Renee!
Jane Addison
Research Fellow, James Cook University
We engaged Renée to deliver a series of workshops as part of our training program to equip community groups. I was impressed by Renée's communication, preparation, and flexibility to accommodate all our needs while ensuring that the workshops were engaging for the participants. I highly recommend Renée to anyone looking to engage her services.
Shane Harris
Manager, Volunteering North Queensland
A huge thank you for the incredible work that you have done creating the master classes for the Volunteers and Events Training Program study tour. It was a huge success and I am so glad that we got you to work with the project. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and energy with the group, it's been inspiring. I look forward to working with you again in future.
Katie Coe
Project Manager, TAFE Queensland
I would highly recommend Renée as a professional, personable facilitator. Renée ran a Planning Day for our Club involving all members of the Management Committee and two senior members of the Club. She was able to empathise with all of us and ensured we kept to the aim of the day and did not wander off track. Everyone was impressed with Renee’s professionalism and her ability to inspire us to create a positive and professional way forward for our Club.
Eileen McGrath
Secretary, NQ Speedway Kart Club
We engaged Renée to deliver online training in grant and tender writing for our clients. Renée provided some great tips during the training, and made sure that she covered what each attendee specifically wanted to learn, so everyone got the most out of the training. The takeaways from this training will help our clients to be more confident and successful when writing grant applications and tenders.
Alan Zamparutti
Chef de Mission (Director), Strategic Media Partners
I've been successful with 4 grants so far as a result of doing Renée's grant writing workshop [over $11,000]. It's also given me a huge confidence boost - I've been applying for grants left, right and centre! I'm excited to apply for as many grants as I can. Renée also provided follow-up support after the workshop so I was able to get some advice on grants that I've written. I want to acknowledge all of the hard work Renée puts into her workshops.
Jean Barnett
Family Support Hub Coordinator, Community Gro
Our business was successful in receiving a grant for almost $10,000 which will allow us to release a new service that I have been dreaming about for the last two years. Honestly I would have not been successful without the skills that Renée taught me. She facilitated an excellent workshop that equipped me with the correct language and content for the application. That was what made us successful with this particular grant. Go and do Renée's grant writing workshop, you will not regret it!
Deni Knuth
Business Owner, Roofguard Roof Painting
Our club was successful in receiving a $10,000 grant for domestic violence awareness raising in Townsville. We would not have received the grant if it wasn't for Renée's grant writing workshop. When we attended Renée's workshop, our group was about 3-5 days away from submitting an application for the Gambling Community Benefit Fund. I was worried that our application wouldn't have a good chance of success, as it didn't seem to match the parameters of the Gambling Community Benefit Fund and wasn't the usual type of thing that they fund. After attending Renée's grant-writing workshop, we rewrote our entire application based on what we learned at the workshop, particularly matching our grant project goals to the goals of the funding body, tips for using the right words, etc. We were successful! Keep running these workshops Renée, you're doing wonderful things for the people of Townsville!
Anneli Haipola
Zonta Club of Townsville Metro
I went on one of Renée's training workshops because I wanted to learn how to write successful grant applications. I went home with a bag full of skills and lots of confidence, and I wrote a winning scholarship application. Thank you Renée.
Louise Ashford Steine
Entrepreneur and Founder of start-up Sublime Experiences
The grant writing course was amazing and I would recommend it for anyone working with grants. I had to complete some [grant] reporting when I got back [to the office] and honestly the knowledge that you passed along was so useful within hours of leaving the course."
Timothy Burden
Program Coordinator, selectability
I thoroughly enjoyed Renee's Grants Workshop. Well worth every penny spent. It gave a great overview of what's involved in grant applications, where to find them, and practical examples of how to answer application questions thoroughly. I feel the workshop clarified the process and has given me the confidence to apply for grants in the future. Thanks Renee."
Bonnie Weston
Business Owner, The Avid Organiser
Having worked with Renée on a number of occasions, I would have no hesitation recommending her services to anyone. Incredibly knowledgeable and extremely experienced in her role, Renée is my first point of call with anything to do with grants and tenders.
Joshua Roberts
Owner-Operator, Co. Habitat Co-Working Space
I'm doing my first big grant application to the Council. Thanks to your training I am definitely feeling a lot more confident.
Clare Leo
Administration Officer, Stable at Riverway (formerly Stable on the Strand)
"I've gone from not knowing how to write a grant to inspired to try.""That was a brilliant session, makes me want to get straight into writing a grant.""The workshop catered for all levels of experience.""The workshop was very informative and easy to follow.""Very interactive, with good discussions and exchange of ideas.""The presenter was very knowledgeable."
Training participants, grant and tender writing workshops
Video testimonials
Watch video testimonials from attendees at our grant writing course.
.png)
Like what you've read so far?
Sign up for useful articles on topics that interest you
Meeting facilitation, community engagement, strategic planning and others