{"id":5365,"date":"2021-12-20T11:30:02","date_gmt":"2021-12-20T16:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panl\/?p=5365"},"modified":"2022-03-10T22:21:23","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T03:21:23","slug":"the-philanthropic-communitys-declaration-of-action-in-2015-whats-happened-since","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panl\/2021\/the-philanthropic-communitys-declaration-of-action-in-2015-whats-happened-since\/","title":{"rendered":"The Philanthropic Community\u2019s \u201cDeclaration of Action\u201d in 2015: What\u2019s Happened Since?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Victoria Grant and Bruce Lawson<\/p>\n

The challenge<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In many Indigenous worldviews, cultivation is part of the journey of life or, more commonly, the \u201cMedicine Wheel.\u201d Planting a seed today, with proper care and nourishment, can create a forest over time.<\/p>\n

In 2015, the Philanthropic Community\u2019s \u201cDeclaration of Action<\/a>\u201d came from seeds nourished through years of work by private, public and community foundations to build relationships with Indigenous leaders, as well as Indigenous-led and Indigenous-serving organizations, to better understand their needs and those of their beneficiaries. One of the earliest efforts dates back 13 years to the launch of the Aboriginal Grantmakers Network, which helped to lay the groundwork for The Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Declaration was born from a challenge laid down by Justice Murray Sinclair, Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission<\/a> (TRC). At a Philanthropic Foundations Canada<\/a> (PFC) conference in 2014, he challenged the philanthropic community to act in a meaningful way. By then, there was a receptive audience.<\/p>\n

\"Participants

The original team members who prepared the Philanthropic Community\u2019s “Declaration of Action” in June 2015.<\/p><\/div>\n

The two of us were part of the group that responded by drafting the Declaration. It came together through a collaborative process by a small group in the weeks leading up to the Closing Event of the TRC in June 2015. While it was an intense process both to write the Declaration and enlist organizations to sign it, the real work of the signatories lay ahead. How would we meaningfully integrate the Declaration into our work? How could we breathe life into it, so it didn\u2019t end up on a shelf like many Treaties and commissions of the past?<\/p>\n

By the time the Declaration was presented at the Closing Event, more than 30 foundations and networks had signed, signaling their desire to sustain the work of the TRC and the desire to implement the Declaration\u2019s principles into their own work. Since then, the number has grown substantially.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

What’s transpired since June 2015?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

We can speak only from our personal experiences, and out of them, offer anecdotal evidence that the Declaration has made a meaningful contribution in the philanthropic field:<\/p>\n