The Bigger Picture
A Sessions: Friday, November 7 – 10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
A2 Changing Demographics: Implications for School, Community and Youth Funders
Veronica Lacey, The Learning Partnership, Toronto
Dr. Paul Cappon, Canadian Council on Learning, Ottawa
The skills and knowledge that Canadians bring to their workplaces and their communities play an important role in determining our economic success and the health of our communities. Better understanding the demographic changes and diverse nature of today's Canada will allow you to be a more responsive community funder. Learn how best practice examples across Canada have demonstrated these principles with measurable results.
A11 Funding Innovation: Understanding the Dynamics and Phases of Social Innovation in Order to Enhance Strategic Grant Giving
Frances Westley, J.W. McConnell Chair in Social Innovation
This workshop will present stages and phases of social innovation, barriers and traps to building capacity for ongoing innovation and the dynamics of increasing and measuring impact of innovation. It will allow participants an opportunity to experiment using the tools presented to explore how current grant making supports innovation.
A12 Exploring Organizational Models to Support Emerging Ideas and Social Innovation - Two Case Studies and a Discussion
Doug Kerr, Sage Centre, Tides Canada Foundation, Toronto
Jonathon Spack, Third Sector New England
How can foundations support innovation and emerging groups in their communities? This session will highlight two models – the Sage Centre in Canada and Third Sector New England from the U.S. These shared charitable infrastructure platforms, known as “fiscal sponsorship” in the U.S., house separate charitable initiatives within a single legal entity which share governance, administration, human resource and financial systems. Presentations will be followed by discussion to explore other ways foundations can support innovation and new ideas and the applicability of these shared models.
A13 Working Together - Engaging Government and the Non-Profit Sector
Faye Wightman and Barbara Grantham, Vancouver Foundation
Vancouver Foundaiton has played a notable convening and leadership role as joint sponsor of a 2-year effort to foster dialogue and more effective relationships between the Provincial government and the non-profit sector. After a Roundtable in 2007, three task forces developed ideas on Working Together, Procurement/Funding/Performance Measurement, and Non-Profit Sector Capacity. This session is the springboard for discussion of issues like capacity building, government engagement in community issues, policy making on complex community problems.
B Sessions: Saturday, November 8 – 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
B11 Citizen Re-Generation: Rising
Ilona Dougherty, Apathy is Boring; Mark Gifford
Nellie Gossen and Cia Ramirez, Vancouver Foundation
Justine Castonguay-Payant, Taking IT Global
Many communities are more intentional about including youth voices in planning and decision-making. But a more significant shift is evident as the millennial generation challenges the traditional meaning of civic engagement. Working more collaboratively, interactively, and entrepreneurially, these young people are harnessing the power of connection to make change locally, regionally, and globally. How do we connect with the most connected generation in history, and what would a community foundation look like, if it were designed by this idealistic, technologically-savvy generation?
B12 Beyond Investing in Financial Resources: Making the Case for Investing in HR to Achieve Results
Pat Else, Moderator, Ontario Trillium Foundation
Lynne Toupin, Human Resources Council for the Voluntary and
Non-profit Sector, Ottawa
Dan Thorburn, The Calgary Foundation
Cathy Wright, Community Foundations of Canada
In a context of changing demographics and looming workforce shortages, this session will make the case that foundations should not only invest their financial resources wisely, they also need to invest in human resources, both within their own organizations and within the community organizations they support. This session will present new information about the voluntary sector workforce based on a 2008 national survey of employers and employees. Panellists will share two perspectives: that of a foundation and that of a community-based organization. Session will be interactive, allowing for questions and discussion.
C Sessions: Saturday, November 8 – 2:45 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
C11 Inclusive Leadership: How your Foundation Builds Connections with the Communities you Serve
Rich Lopez, Chair of the Board of Trustees, The Denver Foundation
Adrienne Mansanares, Program Officer for the Inclusiveness Project, The Denver Foundation
In 1996, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy charged The Denver Foundation with a lack of connection to community. The Foundation had less than $50 million in assets. Now the Foundation has a “majority minority” Board, operates both a widely-heralded grassroots grantmaking program and the Inclusiveness Project, which helps nonprofits build diversity and inclusiveness – and stewards $550 million in assets. Learn how this transition happened, how it affects the organization today, and how your community foundation can expand connections to the communities you serve.
C12 Advancing Equity through Community Foundation Endowments
Lucy Bernholz, Blueprint Research & Design Inc., San Francisco
Lisa Richter, GPS Capital Partners, LLC
This session reports on a new project, the Advancing Equity Project. The work will profile the potential of community endowments as tools for increasing access to capital and asset building in minority, low income and marginalized rural communities. This work provides a timely, practical and participatory look at how community based endowments can lead with their investment assets.
D Sessions: Sunday, November 9 – 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
D7 Assessing Foundation Practice with the “Measures of the Measured”: A Southern African Exploration
Susan Wilkinson- Maposa, Centre for Leadership and Public Values, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Inviolatta Moyo, Community Foundation for Western Region of Zimbabwe
Beulah Fredericks, Community Development Foundation Western Cape, South Africa
How can a foundation move beyond a self referential assessment to one informed by the local philanthropic ethos drawing on the measures used by the community to gauge its own helping, caring and sharing behaviour? Participants will be exposed to the five dimensions of horizontal philanthropy, efforts to apply them as measures for practice and consideration of their utility in organisational development processes. This session is not definitive or prescriptive rather exploratory. Session participants from Canadian Foundations will reflect on how two systems of “community philanthropy” interact in the context of indigenous and immigrant communities exploring implications for their foundation practice.