Turning Passion into Action: How Max Built Community Through Giving

Max Lieberman, a dog trainer from Toronto, Ontario, had a simple idea: bring together his love of dog training, his growing interest in stand-up comedy and his community to raise funds for charities close to his heart.

What began as a virtual birthday fundraiser in 2023, where he raised $1,000 for the Toronto Humane Society, grew into his first live event, Giggles and Dogs, held on August 21, 2025, in Toronto. The event brought his community together and raised more than $3,000 for the Toronto Humane Society and the Baycrest Hospital Foundation, surpassing his original goal of $2,000.

Max’s Lieberdog Giving Group shows how everyday passions can turn into meaningful impact when intention moves into action, building connection and generosity within his community.

The Story

Max’s love for animals started early. As a kid, he dreamed of becoming a zookeeper after seeing elephants on TV, but living in Canada led him to discover a different path working with dogs. His connection with his uncle’s Jack Russell Terrier, Jack, sparked what became a lifelong passion for training and caring for animals.

That bond deepened when he adopted his own dog, Churchill. “Our dogs give us so much that we often take for granted,” Max says. “The unconditional love, the health benefits, the companionship… It’s unlike any other bond we have. That’s what inspired me to give back.”

Giving back was a key part of Max’s family life. When his grandfather was diagnosed with a brain tumour and cared for at Baycrest Hospital in Toronto, the experience left a lasting impression. After his passing, the family established a charitable fund within the Baycrest Hospital Foundation in memory of Max’s grandfather and grandmother to support research and programs that advance seniors’ brain health. “My grandparents were big advocates for giving back,” Max says. “Supporting Baycrest feels like continuing what they started.”

Next, Max decided to try to get his community involved with giving too. In 2023, he actioned this intention by dedicating his birthday to raising funds for the Toronto Humane Society and launched his first Giving Group on Charitable Impact to make it happen. He set a goal of $1,000 and promised to shave his head if he reached it—which he did. “It was a cheeky way to give back,” he laughs. “And I’m still bald to this day.”

After running several online fundraisers, Max wanted to bring people together in person to continue developing his community ties. With more than a decade of experience working on events with the Toronto Argonauts, Toronto Blue Jays and working as a contractor for events like Veld, Way Home and Boots and Hearts Festival, and a growing passion for stand-up comedy, he came up with the idea for Giggles and Dogs — a live event where the dog training community and local comedy scene could unite for a good cause.

For Max, the event was another step in building lasting connections with people who shared his interests to help animals and his values of doing something about it. Each fundraiser gave him a chance to grow his network of supporters and invite them to take part in something fun and meaningful. “I thought it would be a great way for people to learn, laugh, and give back all in one evening,” he says.

The Challenge

As Max prepared for his first in person fundraising event, he knew exactly what he wanted to accomplish: create a simple, engaging way to bring his community together and raise funds for two charities he cares about. What he didn’t yet have was the right platform to make it happen.

Traditional fundraising tools felt rigid and complicated. “Some of the sites I looked at just made it feel daunting,” Max explains. “There were too many steps before you could even start.” He wanted something that would let him focus on creativity and community instead of logistics.

His goals were straightforward:

• Make it easy for supporters to give

• Keep the process of collecting and allocating donations transparent and engaging

• Have a reliable way to collect and manage donations online

“I wasn’t in the mood to jump through hoops or deal with a lot of red tape,” he says. “I like to create things on my own and get them moving.”

While searching online, Max came across Charitable Impact, a giving platform that immediately stood out among the rest. “The best part was that it’s Canadian,” he says. “I’m a Canadian business, so supporting another Canadian organization just made sense.

The platform offered exactly what he needed: a simple way to create his own Giving Group and start fundraising right away without barriers or approval processes.

The Solution: Charitable Impact’s Giving Groups

After discovering Charitable Impact, Max created the Lieberdog Giving Group as a home base for his fundraising efforts. His first campaign, launched in 2023, supported the Toronto Humane Society and helped him build a community of donors who cared as deeply about animals as he did. 

“The Giving Group made it so easy to get started,” Max says. “Everything I needed was in one place. I could set a goal, share a link, and start collecting donations right away.”

Because a Giving Group is built on a donor-centred structure, Max could reuse it for multiple fundraisers over the years. This setup allows donations to be collected and tracked independently from the allocation to charities, giving him flexibility to support different charities over time while keeping his growing community of supporters engaged. Each birthday fundraiser refreshed the details, introduced creative challenges, and kept his network connected—helping him build momentum and track impact, much like running a personal foundation, only simpler and free.

When it came time to launch Giggles and Dogs, Max used the same Giving Group again. The familiarity made giving simple for returning supporters and helped him grow his community of recurring givers. With guidance from Charitable Impact’s Donor Engagement and Experience team, including account manager Kirsten Hurlbut, Max prepared for his first in-person event: “Kirsten helped me organize everything, cleaned up my page, and suggested using QR codes so people could donate right from their phones. It made a huge difference.”

The Giving Group’s flexibility and donor-centred design let Max focus on what mattered most—connecting with his community and creating an experience that inspired people to give, again and again.

The Results

With the help of his Giving Group and support from Charitable Impact’s team, Max surpassed his $2,000 fundraising goal, raising more than $3,000. His efforts supported both animal welfare through the Toronto Humane Society and brain health research through the Baycrest Hospital Foundation — two causes that reflect his personal passions and family legacy.

“Seeing everyone laughing and having a great time while giving back was the best part,” Max says. “People told me they wanted me to do it again. It was a good, wholesome moment.”

Giggles and Dogs brought together local dog trainers, pet guardians, and comedy fans for an evening that blended learning, laughter, and generosity. Guests enjoyed stand-up performances alongside live dog training demonstrations and Q&A sessions that connected the audience to Max’s expertise and mission.

The event also demonstrated how giving can be most powerful when people share their time, talent, treasure (e.g. money), and ties in support of a cause they care about. Max used his skills as a dog trainer, his creativity as a comedian, and his relationships within the community to make a meaningful impact.

“Most of the donations came in at the event,” Max says. “It was easy for people to scan, give, and then just enjoy themselves. That simplicity helped us pass our goal.”

With the Lieberdog Giving Group still active, Max plans to build on the success of Giggles and Dogs and continue bringing people together through giving.

Max’s story shows how everyday passions can grow into powerful opportunities for giving when action is taken. Through Charitable Impact’s Giving Groups, anyone can:

• Support one or more charities from a single place
• Automatically issue charitable tax receipts to every donor
• Bring friends, family, and community together around a shared cause
• Make giving fun, social, and easy to manage

“If you’ve never started a fundraiser, just start,” Max says. “Once you do, things start to snowball, and you can make it your own.”

His journey reminds us that meaningful giving doesn’t have to start big. It begins with passion, creativity, and the willingness to share what you love in support of others.

If you’re looking to rally like-minded people to fundraise and support a cause, consider setting up a Giving Group today.