This text is part of the special section Philanthropy
Recent events invite us more than ever to rethink living together. The call for a new normal that has been heard in the context of the pandemic is added to the demands for social justice – exacerbated by the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements – and respect for the environment. As for the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, it clearly demonstrates the fragility of the political balance between the great nations.
Philanthropy, in its modern form, has existed since the beginning of the 20th century.and century, the largest Canadian foundation, still in operation, having been created by the McConnell family in 1937. Over the decades, their number has continued to grow, accompanying and supporting the development of civil society. In 2021, there were just over 11,000 private and public foundations in Canada, including 191 community foundations, mobilizing approximately $100 billion in assets and enabling donations of just over $7 billion per year. year.
This modern philanthropy, as the work of the Institut Mallet and Imagine Canada has clearly demonstrated, is made up of different dynamic ecosystems, which are constantly growing in size and importance at both the federal and across provinces and territories. Other work, carried out by our Canadian Network for Partnership Research on Philanthropy (PhiLab), testifies to the incessant work carried out by a number of Canadian and Quebec foundations to redefine the framework of their interventions, but also to imagine another societal reality. .
The philanthropic sector is not immune to the need for repositioning that runs through society as a whole. Nowadays, two main lines of work are emerging: if the first intends to pursue and strengthen the developmentalist and modernizing approach, the second calls into question the merits of the race for ever more modernity. The latter explores the transition to a new normal, which would involve a social and ecological transition. Efforts to reimagine philanthropic action take both of these paths.
Four major trends
First of all, we observe a strengthening of the need to collaborate, to network, to pool forces between foundations, but also with other actors, like the Collective Impact Project in Montreal (PIC), or even with the setting up of foot of the Quebec COVID Consortium.
We then perceive a desire to make social and environmental causes less invisible, as demonstrated for example by the work carried out by an informal group of Montreal foundations aimed at setting up a tool to measure their impact in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
We also note a desire to review the bases of the Income Tax Act in relation to donations. On this point, note the submission of a brief, in the summer of 2021, by Philanthropic Foundations of Canada (PFC) to the federal government, which proposes in particular to raise the disbursement quota to 5%, and to make accessible philanthropic donations to organizations not qualified by the Canada Revenue Agency.
Finally, we see that local or community philanthropy is slowly making its way onto the Quebec philanthropic scene. A philanthropy that aims to be more respectful of the relationship established between donors and recipients. This translates into the possibility of giving organizations representing the populations concerned resources to act directly on the solutions to be developed. Examples include the Indigenous Resilient Fund and the Black Opportunity Fund in Toronto.
For a better world
These are efforts that need to be strengthened. Admittedly, they do not profoundly change the situation with regard to the great social and ecological crisis that affects us, but they open the way to work to reposition the postures of social actors in order to increase their ability to work together. for a better world.
Achieving this will require reimagining philanthropy and doing so in concert with other stakeholders in the major institutional systems of our societies. We will certainly have the opportunity, at the PhiLab virtual national symposium from April 19 to 22 — Reimagining philanthropy: issues, tensions and opportunities — to discuss ways of seeing how it will be possible to move in this direction.
* In addition to co-directing the PhiLab, Jean-Marc Fontan and Peter Elson are respectively a professor in the Department of Sociology at UQAM and a professor in the School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria.