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’s 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’s 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 “slow philanthropy” 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

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The MPNL program is happy to announce that the Benefaction Foundation will provide another $20,000 grant to its “Benefaction Foundation Travel Fund for the Summer Institute” for 2027.

“Their generous creation of the Fund in 2023 has increased access to the Summer Institute and made access for students more equitable,” said Dr. Anil Varughese, Graduate Supervisor of the MPNL program.

The Travel Fund assists full-time and part-time students accepted into the DPNL and MPNL programs, helping them with travel costs related to the program’s Summer Institute, a two-week, in-person series of courses and events at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University. Keith Sjögren, Chair of the MPNL program’s Advisory Council, worked closely with the Foundation to increase support for the program’s students. This past summer, 27 students from across Canada, including those in financial need, received support.

“For many of our students, the combined costs of travel, accommodation and time away from paid employment present a significant financial challenge,” Dr. Varughese added. “The Fund helped ease that burden, allowing recipients to participate more fully in the Summer Institute without the added stress of significant expenses. Last year, students’ financial pressures included job loss, reduced employment income and caregiving for children and elderly family members.”

The is a registered charity that helps Canadians and their advisors harness the advantages of strategic giving. It provides support for its Travel Fund, as well as for the “Benefaction Award for Philanthropic Leadership” ($5,000), which is awarded annually to an outstanding, full-time graduate student who’s entering the MPNL program, with preference given to racialized students. This year, both and received Leadership awards.

“I’m deeply honoured to receive the Benefaction Award for Philanthropic Leadership,” Yinka Ademuyiwa said. “The support enables me to focus fully on developing the knowledge, skills and leadership needed to create lasting impact in our communities. I’m grateful to Benefaction Foundation for its investment in students who are committed to advancing positive social change.”

“We’re grateful for the additional support of the Benefaction Foundation,” said Dr. Varughese. “It’s having a meaningful impact on students and the Summer Institute.”

Each year, the MPNL program and ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University offer graduate students a number of awards and scholarships.

The post Benefaction Foundation Renews Funding for MPNL appeared first on MPNL.

The MPNL program’s new Chair in Philanthropy, Dr. Jamie Levine Daniel, spoke to PANL Perspectives about her research specialties, how she started in the sector, and what attracted her to MPNL. Before this, was an Associate Professor in the School of Public Service, at NYU, following eight years at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, at Indiana University Indianapolis.

What attracted you to the MPNL program?

Dr. Levine Daniel:  The exciting thing about this position is how collaborative, integrated and responsive to the community it seems to be. What struck me is that the impetus and inspiration to create a Chair of Philanthropy came from the community. The position is collaboratively funded by a number of donors. The other thing that’s exciting is the focus on helping to inform the nonprofit sector, and there’s a lot of back and forth between academic work and practical work in the sector.

And I liked what I saw at the Summer Institute — how responsive key stakeholders seem to be to students and alumni. MPNL runs the Summer Institute really well, takes advantage of the two weeks to run courses, but also events for different stakeholders in the community. Being around the Celebration of Philanthropy event, the MPNL Alumni Association launch, Women in Philanthropy, the Advisory Council meetings and other events, I saw an excitement and understanding about the importance of the sector and the work that people do — and the importance of data, research and best practices to improve organizations.

How did you get started in the nonprofit sector?

Dr. Levine Daniel: I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland has a strong Jewish community, with a lot of Jewish institutions. We regularly gave in our home, and made donations. And I grew up with unnamed, just sort of in the background, Jewish values of , which often gets translated as ‘charity’ but is more connected to ‘righteousness’ and ‘justice,’ and , which means ‘doing good deeds’ and technically, means ‘commandment.’ It probably comes as no surprise that first I worked in the nonprofit sector, then studied the nonprofit sector — and studied questions of justice and equity in a nonprofit context.

What are your academic interests and research?

Dr. Levine Daniel:  My main focus is on . And I’ve started to look at questions of power and equity. I study community foundations — . As you may imagine, given current events, the contours of the project have changed shape and the questions that we’re able to ask and the access to information that we’re able to have, especially here in the United States, has been changing.

The second project is a cross-border philanthropy project. I study money flows, . It’s a longitudinal project that I’ve been doing with two scholars at Tel Aviv University for six or seven years. There’s a large Jewish diaspora, but Jewish communal organizations are not the only organizations sending money abroad. This type of study is generalizable or applicable to any sort of cross-border philanthropy, any diaspora philanthropy among different communities, and raises questions about transparency and accountability. That’s one thing I’m looking forward to replicating with Canadian data, both from a data availability question, but also from views of different contexts and cross-border trends.

Dr. Jamie Levine Daniel is on . Also, see for more details.

The post Interview with Our New Chair in Philanthropy appeared first on MPNL.

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Register above for our in-person PhilanthroTHINK on Oct. 1, 2026, in Ottawa:

Building the Foundations for Future Giving: Lessons from Australia, a Conversation with Krystian Seibert

10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (EDT)
Room 5302D in Richcraft Hall, ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University, Ottawa

(Attendance will be capped at 30 people.)

In 2024, Australia led a once-in-a-generation inquiry into the policy framework supporting philanthropy, and released a blueprint to help the country reach its national goal of doubling philanthropic giving by 2030. , a Commissioner for that inquiry, discusses lessons learned for enhancing giving and modernizing the regulatory framework for philanthropy and charities in Canada.

Seibert recently became a Member of the Advisory Board for the , appointed by the Australian government’s Assistant Minister for Charities. Also, he’s the Executive Director (Policy and Sector Development) of , a nonprofit organization of 800 trusts, foundations, donors and others who strengthen giving towards a more generous, just and sustainable future. Seibert leads work in shaping policy outcomes and driving strategic initiatives to grow giving and its impact.

The post Lessons from Australia: A Conversation with Krystian Seibert appeared first on MPNL.

By Calum Carmichael

How can we gauge a culture of philanthropy in Canada? As noted in the introduction to this series on PANL Perspectives, we use the term “culture of philanthropy” not as it’s been used elsewhere to describe fundraising potential or nonprofit work environments. Instead, we mean something much wider. Such a culture can be seen in a variety of ways, whether in our readiness to help, say by voluntarism or charitable donations, or in our readiness to understand and respect the priorities of others, despite not sharing those priorities. However, on both fronts – our readiness to help and our readiness to understand and respect – we see mixed signals in Canada.

Click here for the rest of Calum Carmichael’s thought piece on PANL Perspectives: “Why We Should Build a Stronger Culture of Philanthropy.”

Banner photo is courtesy of Samuel Cruz.

The post Why We Should Build a Stronger Culture of Philanthropy appeared first on MPNL.

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?

ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ 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?

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

The post New MPNL Alumni Association appeared first on MPNL.

A recording of our Celebrating Philanthropy event, “Philanthropy and Democracy,” on June 18, 2026, is available:

What is philanthropy’s role in democracy? How can philanthropy in Canada create, sustain or revive civic spaces that foster community connection and trust? Does philanthropy itself need to be democratized?

Panellists

The post “Philanthropy & Democracy” Event appeared first on MPNL.

Lisa is also Director of the . In the podcast, she shares how her path began with community work focused on families and children, and how that work grew through her board service and her family’s foundation. One idea has shaped much of her work: communities know what communities need. That shows up in her support for organizations overseas, as well as in her family’s support for arts access for young people at the , in Vancouver.

A key part of the conversation is the idea of “enoughness”: asking what wealthy families truly need, what they want to leave behind, and what capital they can move now. Lisa explains how that reflection can help open up more funding for organizations working on climate change, Indigenous-led solutions, women’s leadership, and community-led change, while also challenging funders to think differently about power, legacy, accountability and trust.

Get the podcast on or listen on or .

The post Lisa Wolverton on Philanthropy appeared first on MPNL.

Trust and Accountability in Canada’s Charitable, Philanthropic and Regulatory/Public Sectors

For focus groups for this study, we’re looking for individuals or employees from four sectors:

1) operating charities and/or nonprofit organizations
2) grant-making foundations
3) government agencies and/or regulatory bodies
4) members of the Canadian public with an interest in civil society and institutional accountability

Participation is voluntary and confidential, and all responses will be de-identified before analysis. Also, you may withdraw from the study at any time within one month after your session’s conclusion.

Focus groups

Single Audience Focus Groups (SAFG): structured peer discussions among representatives from the same sector (1.5 hours each).

Multi-Audience Focus Groups (MAFG): cross-sector, guided dialogues with representatives from four sectors: charities/nonprofits; foundations; government/regulatory; and the public (2.5 hours each).

As a token of appreciation, SAFG participants will each receive a $75 gift card per session and MAFG participants will each receive a $125 gift card per session.

Dates & times (2026)

All groups will take place at the Metcalfe Hotel (123 Metcalfe St., in Ottawa). Virtual groups will also be offered (see below, in “How to express your interest in participating”).

Monday June 22 (all times are EDT)
9:30-11:00 am: SAFG for charities/nonprofit representatives
1:00-2:30 pm: SAFG for government employees
3:00-4:30 pm: SAFG for foundation reps

Tuesday, June 23 (times are EDT)
11:00 am to 12:30 pm: SAFG for members of the general public
2:00-4:30 pm: MAFG session 1 for individuals from a mix of four sectors. Note, to maintain research integrity, participants who participate in this session must commit to participating in the next two sessions on July 27 and August 24.

Monday, July 27
2:00-4:30 pm: MAFG session 2

Monday, August 24
2:00-4:30 pm: MAFG session 3

This study has received ethics clearance (protocol #125374) from the ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University Research Ethics Board (CUREB).

How to express your interest in participating

In the subject line of an email to TAPCanada@cunet.carleton.ca, please indicate which of the following focus groups you wish to participate in: (1) SAFG Charities; (2) SAFG Foundations; (3) SAFG Government; (4) SAFG Public; or (5) MAFG. Also, provide a brief description of your involvement with the sector. A member of our research team will follow up with more information, including ethical considerations, and will confirm your interest before registering you in the study.

If you’re interested in attending virtually, rather than in person, please note this in your email. More information about virtual sessions will be provided.

We look forward to hearing from you, and thank you for supporting this important study.

Nathan Grasse, PhD
Principal Investigator,
School of Public Policy & Administration,
ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University

The post Call for Research Participants: Trust & Accountability in Canada’s Charitable, Philanthropic & Regulatory/Public Sectors appeared first on MPNL.

Another Way: Annabelle White on Inheritance and Putting Wealth to Work for Good

Annabelle White didn’t set out to work in finance or philanthropy. At 19, she became a beneficiary of her family’s wealth after her mother’s passing. As the PhilanthroThink Podcast hosts, Titilayo Adedeji and Jonathan Harline, spoke with her, they learned how she stepped into the responsibilities that come with inherited wealth — and how it wasn’t easy to find her place. She remembers sitting across from financial advisors and thinking, “There has to be another way.” She ended up moving in a new direction with her finances and her philanthropy.

In this episode, we explore how that shift led Annabelle to build Dragonfly Ventures, a family office focused on environmental health, human well-being and community-led solutions. She shares how her approach brings together impact investing, blended finance and trust-based philanthropy. From supporting community-led programs in the Arctic to rethinking how capital moves through systems, this conversation settles on one idea: money should be put to work in ways that support people and the places they live.

Watch the episode below, or listen on or .

Thank you to IG Private Wealth Management for a grant to make the “PhilanthroThink Podcast” series possible.

The post Annabelle White Reflects on Inheriting Wealth & Giving to Nonprofits appeared first on MPNL.