Looking Ahead to the Closing Conversation: Reciprocity, Reconciliation, and the Stories we Carry Forward

PFC’s largest-ever conference opens next week in Winnipeg, welcoming a record 600 participants. My hope is that it will be a true source of inspiration for everyone across Canada’s philanthropic sector, wherever they stand on their impact-building, reconciliation and reciprocity journeys.

For the closing plenary on ‘’Reciprocity, Reconciliation, and the Stories we Carry Forward’’, I very much look forward to my discussion with Kris Archie, the CEO of the Circle on Philanthropy and Glen Galaich, the CEO of Stupski Foundation and the author of “Control: Why Big Giving Falls Big”.

Stories of Possible Reconciliation and Reciprocity

Kris is well known to many of us as a passionate voice for Indigenous-led transformation of Canadian philanthropy. The original copy of the 2015 Philanthropic Community’s Declaration of Action to support the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action will be on stage to help us reflect on the progress made since 2015 and on the deep work that still needs to be done.

If you have not yet had the opportunity to read Glen’s book, Hilary Pearson offers an excellent introduction in her review in The Philanthropist Journal. Glen’s journey of moving from a donor-centered philanthropy to one that puts the needs and voices of community at its core is of direct relevance to our theme of reciprocity. (There will be many copies of his book available at the conference).

I took from Glen’s book that this work of transformation is not linear, often challenging but also joyful and very personal. He stresses the importance of getting started to achieve greater and sustained impact in communities for the public good.

For each foundation and Donor Advised Fund holder, their path towards more meaningful and sustained impact will be unique, but similar themes and questions emerge. Our conversation will aim to identify these issues through our own personal journeys.

Hopefully that will be a fitting way to close a conference centered on reciprocity: not by arriving at a single answer or destination, but by leaving Winnipeg with a clearer sense of what we can learn from one another, what we owe to the communities we serve, and what each of us is prepared to carry forward.