Hilary Pearson
Past, Present, and Philanthropy with Hilary Pearson
In Episode 6 (Season 2) of the PhilanthroThink Podcast (below), MPNL hosts Mandy Pui and Mekayla Dionne speak with , Director of the Clarus Foundation, about family, service and what gets passed down from one generation of givers to the next.
Hilary Pearson grew up in a family woven into Canadian public life
Her grandfather was Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, and her mother, Senator Landon Pearson, championed children鈥檚 rights — and her father, Geoffrey Pearson, was a diplomat. In the podcast, she remembers a childhood spent moving between France, Mexico, India and Ottawa, and watching her grandfather light the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill in 1967. Service, she says, was never something her family talked about. It was simply what they did. The quality she sees in all of them, and hopes she shares, is curiosity.
She explains how she and her husband, Michael Sabia, created the Clarus Foundation, named for the Latin word for light, and how it’s fed her own curiosity as much as it’s supported others. She also tells the story of a connection that goes back a generation: Michael鈥檚 mother, feminist leader Laura Sabia, famously vowed to march a million women on Ottawa unless Prime Minister Pearson created a Royal Commission on the Status of Women. Today, Hilary and Michael support young women at Brock University through the Laura Sabia Entrepreneurial Awards, and have long backed the Loran Scholars Foundation.
To close, Hilary leaves a challenge for the next guest and for every donor listening. With an enormous transfer of wealth under way, too much money is sitting in bequests and donor-advised funds (DAFs), instead of reaching organizations now. How, she asks, can we get past 鈥渟low philanthropy鈥 and accelerate giving over the next five years?
Hear or watch the podcast on , or listen on the “PhilanthroThink” podcast on or Apple Podcasts.
Thank you to IG Private Wealth Management for a grant to make the PhilanthroThink Podcast series possible.
00:00 Introduction to PhilanthroThink
01:53 Growing up with Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson and a family of service
04:08 Centennial year and seeing Canada from abroad
07:44 Family lessons beyond the titles
13:47 Curiosity as a family trait
15:25 When giving became personal
20:00 The story behind her Claris Foundation
24:09 Laura Sabia, Lester Pearson and a family connection
31:18 A gift that keeps on giving
32:51 Advertisement: A word from IG Private Wealth Management
34:49 What does a world that uses AI for good look like?
38:11 Slow philanthropy and accelerating giving