At MakeWay Foundation, climate is not a discrete program area or standalone strategy, and many of the initiatives they support do not define themselves as “climate projects.” Instead, climate is embedded across its work in food sovereignty, healthy lands and waters, cultural revitalization, and community wellbeing. 

This integration allows the organization to remain responsive to how communities themselves define their priorities. In moments of acute climate disruption, flexible funding can be mobilized quickly to meet immediate needs. At other times, the same flexibility supports leadership wellbeing, cultural continuity, and long‑term resilience, recognizing that burnout, loss, and cumulative stress are also climate impacts shaping communities’ capacity to respond. 

Starting with Relationships, Not Program Design 

MakeWay was built around a guiding question: “how can philanthropy contribute to a healthy planet and a just society?”  

Over more than two decades, MakeWay has pursued this question by working in deep partnership with communities, particularly Indigenous communities, across Canada. 

This approach has led to place‑based programs in British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and across the North. In many cases, programs emerged only after extended periods of learning and relationship‑building. The result is work that aligns with community priorities and adapts to local realities rather than advancing externally imposed philanthropic agendas.

Embracing Flexibility Is Key to Enabling Community Leadership 

Working by invitation requires embracing flexibility. MakeWay does not assume a fixed role when entering a community. Depending on context, it may provide grants, in-house charitable tools, network and partnership facilitation, learning opportunities, or other forms of support. MakeWay’s role may evolve as relationships deepen and community capacity strengthens. MakeWay staff, often hired locally, provide support that is responsive to community needs.

Grantmaking practices reflect this orientation. Reporting requirements are minimal or absent in many programs, and MakeWay staff frequently absorb administrative and compliance burdens so that community partners are not asked to carry them. Funding decisions are often consensus-based and embedded in ongoing relationships rather than transactional cycles.

Hosting and Supporting Community-Led Solutions

In addition to place-based grantmaking, MakeWay operates a shared platform that hosts over 40 unique initiatives working across social, environmental, and cultural domains. Many of these initiatives advance climate mitigation or adaptation in practice, even when climate is not their primary framing. This model allows MakeWay to offer administrative resources and expertise while also supporting learning across regions, enabling insights to travel without forcing uniform approaches.

Aligning Investments with Purpose

MakeWay’s integrated approach to climate action extends to how its financial assets are stewarded, including being among the first in Canada to have adopted a fossil-fuel-free investment approach.

Transparency is central to this work. MakeWay publishes its investment portfolio quarterly and is undertaking deeper analysis of individual holdings to better understand community and environmental impact impacts, framing this as accountability rather than compliance.

An Integrated Approach, Sustained Over Time

Taken together, MakeWay’s work reflects an approach to climate action that is relational, integrated, and long-term. By centering Indigenous self-determination, resisting siloed program design, and aligning grantmaking, investing, and organizational practice, MakeWay demonstrates how holistic climate action can take shape through partnership, rather than prescription.