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Rebecca Murray, the Inaugural President, explains why the Alumni Association was started

Rebecca: It’s been almost 15 years since the MPNL program was created, and it’s about time that we have a formal Alumni Chapter. Thanks to the , I’m the Inaugural President for the next year. I’m working with and , who are from the 2016 cohort of students — and we’re close to 400 alumni and students right now.

I know alumni have been doing lots of work through the program, through the PANL Perspectives and MPNL websites, and many of them have been writing research pieces. So, how do we bring these and our alumni together? We’re canvassing people over the next year to find what they want their association to look like. Is it more social? Are they looking for professional development opportunities? Is it research and events?

You’re an alum as well?

�Ӱ�ԭ�� 15 years ago, I worked with Dr. Susan Phillips when she explored the idea of a graduate program in philanthropy and nonprofit leadership. I was able to help her get funding. She involved me in the programming as well, and asked, “If you were a student, what are the things you’d like to study?” I wasn’t a student in the program at the time, but when COVID hit, I thought, “Maybe now’s the time.” In 2022, I started the program that I’d helped to create, and oh my gosh, it was wonderful and hard. It was great for my brain, for my learning and for the charities I work for.

As alumni, we have so much value to offer collectively. United as a group, we have a voice that can help change the charitable sector.

What are you hoping to accomplish with the association?

You become very close with your cohort when you’re going through the MPNL program. That’s the way it’s designed, with all the group projects and the intense Summer Institute. And when you graduate, you just go back to your lives. The Alumni Association can reconnect people. There’s something unique about the students who went through this program. They’re chosen to help the charitable sector grow in their own way – with a charity, in government, in the private sector – and some of them continue to work with each other for years. We maybe want to facilitate that a bit more, maybe feed it a little, help it to grow.

Also, there’s a lot of expertise among alumni. They’ve led the way with directed studies on Donor-Advised Funds and working on DAF research with our academics, Advisory Council members and our community partners. DAFs have been exploding in popularity. And “Family offices” is another big thing that nobody really noticed about three or four years ago, and MPNL was on it. Now, Family Offices are everywhere.

Will there be professional development?

Personally, I’d love to have professional development offered, and somehow integrate people back into the MPNL program. Are the alumni interested in professional development? We’d have to ask. Like, if we were to design a one-day session every year, what kind of things would they like to see?

Rebecca Murray is on . For more information, please email us at panl@carleton.ca or sign up for the PANL Perspectives newsletter: .