Over the last five years, resilience in the Canadian charitable sector has been repeatedly tested, forcing a sector-wide reassessment of traditional operating models.
Most recently, a major political shift in the United States, led and exemplified through the electoral victory of Donald Trump and the rise of the Make America Great Again movement, has inspired a “transvaluation of all values” in American politics. This shift has subsequently destabilized Canada’s political and economic landscape, impacting traditional corporate funding, major donors’ abilities to give and government funding priorities.
Despite the existential challenge faced by our charitable sector in meeting this historical moment, little scholarship has been devoted to exploring the status of our sector’s political resilience and how charities can prepare for and mitigate the impacts of political change.
To begin to address this gap, Global Philanthropic Canada embarks upon a focused dive into the practices and perceptions of charitable leaders from across the country. We explore their attitudes, confidence, questions and concerns about their organization’s ability to adapt to political change. Through analysis of their successes, best practices, challenges and lessons learned, we seek to answer one of the most pressing questions of the day: “Are we prepared?”
