Our Story

By connecting company and cause, ORENDA helps businesses discover their Emotional Profit Center™, creating inspired workplaces that attract great talent, increase loyalty and trust, retain employees, increase productivity and increase customer satisfaction.
ORENDA was founded in 2005 by Peggie Pelosi after she discovered first hand the business case for strategic corporate philanthropy.
Hired in 2000 as Vice-President of Sales for a struggling public US company, Peggie left 4 years later having more than doubled the company’s sales and increasing the share value by over 3000%. Looking from the outside in, nothing had changed- not the product, the people, the marketing or the market place. Looking through the internal lens what became clear was that the corporate culture had changed. The company had transformed from a toxic, dysfunctional culture into an inspiring work environment.
Corporate philanthropy made the difference by being a catalyst for a culture shift, and Peggie wanted to share what she had learned. Peggie returned to Canada to establish ORENDA; a strategic corporate philanthropy consulting company dedicated to helping companies leverage the power of corporate philanthropy to create a meaningful connection between people and the places they work.

Since 2005 ORENDA has helped a number of great companies, both in Canada and the USA, connect with great causes and create Emotional Profit Centers™, inspiring employees, growing their business and making a difference!

The Name ORENDA

The work we do at ORENDA helps companies discover their corporate soul. It breathes life into an organization. It inspires.

"ORENDA" is an Iroquois word. It means "Tribal Soul on the Right Path."

In another context, ORENDA refers to breath. Native Americans call each breath we inhale Spirit and every breath exhale Spirit. Yoga holds as a central truth that breath is the connection, the bridge, between mind and body, between the visible and the invisible. The Hindus call it prana, which literally means “life” — that is “life-force.” The Chinese call it ch’i, the Polynesians mana, the Amerindians ORENDA, and the ancient Germans od. In India it is named by the Sanskrit word prana; in Tibet it is called sugs, and in Aikido, Japan, ki. It is an all-pervasive “organic” energy. Breath connects us to each other, and it connects all of us to creation, nature and existence.