Embracing Possibilities and Navigating Uncertainty:
The Role for Philanthropy in Advancing Sustainability
Date: June 5 to 7, 2017
Location: Delta Hotels, Fredericton, New Brunswick
Unceded territory of the Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) and Mi’kmaq peoples
Thanks to our generous conference sponsors
Keynote speakers
Bruce Anderson
Bruce Anderson is one of Canada’s most respected public opinion researchers and strategic communications advisors. He is chairman of Abacus Data and Summa Communications, and helped found Spark Advocacy which blends creative and media planning skills to build successful public affairs campaigns. Bruce spent four years as a member of the CBC’s popular At Issue panel and writes online columns for the Globe and Mail and occasionally for Maclean’s.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Sheila Watt-Cloutier is in the business of transforming public opinion into public policy. She speaks with passion and urgency on the issues of today—the environment, the economy, foreign policy, global health, and sustainability—not as separate concerns, but as a deeply interconnected whole. In 2007, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy work in showing the impact of global climate change on human rights
Join with CEGN members and other funders at our annual conference in Fredericton this June as we address philanthropy‘s role in advancing sustainability in light of both the uncertainties and the possibilities that comprise the backdrop for our work in 2017 and beyond.
These counterposing forces take many forms. One the one hand, positive sustainability actions abound. Most signatories to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement are hard at work implementing policies to honour their commitments; the drilling of oil has been halted in the Arctic; the production of renewable energy has never been stronger; and successful sustainability initiatives are now common place in small and large communities here at home and around the world. While the job of ensuring a more sustainable future remains enormous, this positive momentum both in Canada and abroad is encouraging.
On the other hand, the newly ensconced U.S. Administration threatens hard–won progress on climate protection and a range of other environmental issues with implications far beyond America’s borders. Multiple international conflicts, refugee crises, racial tensions and growing inequality around the world add to the uncertainty of our work and our psyches.
Our focus in June will be on Canada and how we as funders can ‘up our game’ in order to use the full suite of philanthropy’s tools to advance a more sustainable future here at home. Our focus on sustainability is a conscious one and springs from CEGN’s strategic plan which articulates our ultimate impact as “a sustainable Canada, valuing people, planet and place”.
Conference sessions will help funders better understand the current state of a range of environmental and sustainability issues in Canada and globally and will profile some of the most promising tools and practices for ramping up positive outcomes. A focus on skills needed by grantmakers and trustees, including partnership brokering; systems grantmaking; and grant evaluation will help build the tool kit we need for the work ahead.
We will also take advantage of our Atlantic Canada venue to connect with and learn from Indigenous, NGO, corporate and government leaders who are charting new sustainability pathways for eastern Canada. Field trip options both before and after the conference will provide the opportunity for attendees to explore this very special part of Canada during our 150th Anniversary.
We look forward to seeing you in Fredericton!
Reminder: The early bird registration deadline is May 5th.
All registrants will receive a copy of The Right to Be Cold: One Woman’s Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet, by Sheila Watt-Cloutier. The Right to Be Cold explores the parallels between safeguarding the Arctic and the survival of Inuit culture—and ultimately the world—in the face of past, present, and future environmental degradation. The book was picked for CBC’s Canada Reads in 2017.
Conference Co-Chairs
Burkhard Mausberg, Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation
Megan Tate, The Winnipeg Foundation
Conference Planning Committee
Wanda Brascoupe Peters, The Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada
Raissa Marks, New Brunswick Environmental Network
Carolyn Scotchmer, TD Friends of the Environment
Thea Silver, Ontario Trillium Foundation
Ana Skinner, Laidlaw Foundation
Sandy Thurber, Fundy Community Foundation
Jake Wildman-Sisk, The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation
Jack Wong, Real Estate Foundation of B.C.
Pegi, Dover, CEGN
Sandy Hoang, CEGN