We are all leaders in knowledge-sharing

We feel immensely proud of our 2022 Conference in Montreal in terms of programming and speaker representation. We were proud to hold 28 sessions over 2 days featuring 80+ speakers, and were successful in attracting approximately 60% speakers who identify as women and 40% who identify as Black, Indigenous or Person of Colour. We say this knowing that this is an estimate; we did not track everyone’s identity, and there are other identities that should be represented.

This year, we do want to be more transparent and accountable to how we source, select, and invite speakers into this conference, and want to take a justice-based approach, ensuring we give space to the full representation of our membership and community across the country. While much of the work at the intersection of justice and philanthropy relates to flow of capital, decision-making and where we focus our impact, we believe justice can be applied to spaces where we share knowledge, perspectives and hold space for dialogue as well.

We were encouraged recently through a BIPOC peer network in philanthropy to move from “bias” towards “justice” in how we approach what and who we highlight in the programming. Here we outline our approach and recognize it is a work in progress. If you have any ideas, suggestions, or examples of how we can improve our approach, please email me.

Are you prioritizing certain groups of people in your selection process?

Yes. We do want to make sure that equity-deserving groups and perspectives that have been heard less within philanthropy have a chance to be heard at our conference. In our nomination form, we offer an opportunity for people to self-identify, if they choose to do so. If needed, we may also follow up with speakers to ask for further optional self-identification. This will help us better understand the diversity of representation in our conference program and report back to our network.

Will all speakers who get nominated be part of the conference?

No. Our first step is to be clear in our call that we do not have capacity for all speakers who are nominated to be invited to speak at the event. However, with the nomination process, we do aim to develop a roster of speakers that can support our future programming, as well as requests from our members and network looking for speakers for their own initiatives.

Why a call for speakers and not sessions?

We are doing things a little differently, and it feels risky. We have been doing much work engaging our community in developing our conference streams and sessions over the past months, including at regional gatherings, affinity groups, surveys, and putting together a member advisory committee. We also feel that calls for proposals require a lot of work for those applying, and we cannot adequately compensate people for developing sessions.

We want to test how we can do less shoulder tapping and shift the power to our network to identify those with the knowledge to support our programming. In our call, we do leave room for our network to suggest additional sessions, and we believe that this roster of speakers and sessions will also support future programming beyond the conference.

How are speakers compensated for their participation?

Let us break this one down. This year, we created a framework to address this question, which lets us set expectations early and helps us understand the budgetary requirements as a breakeven event, for which PFC is actively seeking financial partnerships to make happen.

A guiding principle for this model is that we offer the option for each person and/or organization to self-select which contribution best fits their need, as required. Compensation options include:

Speaker Discounts

We do not expect to pay the full conference registration fees and costs for speakers that come from member foundations, other foundations/grantmakers, and those from the broader philanthropic sector (including non-profits, government, academia, emerging leaders, and students involved in the sector). There may be exceptional circumstances.

Speakers who are part of this audience and selected to contribute as a speaker at the conference will have the option to choose a % discount for registration of up to 30% to reflect their needs and capacity to pay. Based on an average ticket of $1000, this could be up to $300.

Cost Recovery

In the event an invited speaker does not intend to register for the full conference, we will consider paying for the costs of travel and accommodation as needed for the specific session they will lead.

Contributions (Honorariums)

In the event a speaker is invited to join the conference and does not fall under either of the categories above, and fits the criteria below, we will offer an honorarium:

Unemployed
Underemployed
Contract worker
From an organization that would benefit from receiving speaker fees (i.e small nonprofit)
Guest speakers invited to participate from outside of the sector or due to their professional expertise

Building on our first conference 2024 blog post, One Drum, which speaks about our interconnectedness, we continue to draw inspiration from Richard Wagamese. In the same book, he explains leadership through a story of the animals deciding who will lead them.

Ultimately, Wabooz the rabbit wins, because she takes her time to understand the landscape she lives in, helping other leaders along the way. After being nominated as the leader, she refuses the role because she believes everyone has a role to lead in our collective journey.

With that sentiment, we believe everyone participating in the conference has a role to lead and support each other. Beyond our formal programming, our goal is to leave lots of space for informal and facilitated networking, collaboration and encouraging us to work together. We are all leaders in shaping our future.