The 2024 Celebrating Philanthropy event, “Community Philanthropy: Canadian and International Innovations,” took place on June 27, 2024, at Carleton University — and was sponsored by TD Bank Group.
Panellists
Jennifer Brennan joined Mastercard Foundation in 2018 and serves as Director of Canada Programs. She leads a dedicated team engaged in collaborative programming across Canada involving multiple sectors with Indigenous youth and their communities. As part of the Mastercard Foundation’s Senior Leadership team, she engages with peers and teams throughout Africa in service of the Young Africa Works strategy and youth-led transformation. Before joining the Foundation, Brennan led public policy negotiations on behalf of Indigenous Nations, advancing key issues, including education and land rights. As a strategic advisor and facilitator, she worked within and for Indigenous communities and organizations throughout Canada for twenty years. She also served as Chief of Staff at the Assembly of First Nations.
Rebecca Darwent is a philanthropic advisor and an internationally recognized expert in philanthropy and community-led initiatives. She has led multimillion-dollar investments in equity, health and education — and is currently a Senior Advisor to Philanthropy Together, focussing on raising awareness of and funding for collaboratives, specifically those that are community-led. As a co-founder of the Foundation for Black Communities, she led fundraising, community engagement and advocacy that resulted in a historic $200 million commitment to Black philanthropy by the Canadian government, ensuring sustainable resources are available for Black communities to thrive, engage in solution-making and create lasting impact. Darwent is a dedicated volunteer currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Black Communities, The Philanthropy Workshop Canada, and Laidlaw Foundation.
Michael D. Layton joined the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy, at Grand Valley State University, in the US, in 2020, as the W.K. Kellogg Community Philanthropy Chair, the nation’s first endowed chair focused on community philanthropy. He brings a wealth of experience to this role, including his work as a researcher, teacher, director, advocate and consultant. He’s worked closely with a mix of community philanthropy organizations throughout the Americas, and brings to his position a nuanced understanding of the unique challenges and capacities of community philanthropy to act as a catalyst in promoting community-led development and in strengthening the local context for philanthropy. Layton began his career as the founder and director of the New Kensington Community Development Corporation, in the Philadelphia neighbourhood where he was born and raised — and founded and directed the Philanthropy and Civil Society Project at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), in Mexico City.
Kevin McCort is President and CEO of the Vancouver Foundation. With more than 30 years of service to the nonprofit sector in Canada and around the world, he puts community at the heart of his work. Since 2013, McCort has led Vancouver Foundation through a period of significant transformation, with a sharpened focus on donor service, community-inspired grant-making and world-class endowment management. Starting in 2015, he led his team in a transformation of the Foundation’s approach to community granting, with a new focus on seeking systemic change by addressing root causes of pressing social, cultural and environmental issues. McCort is a member of the MPNL program’s Advisory Council and is co-chair of the federal government’s Advisory Committee on the Charitable Sector.
Dr. Susan Phillips, the Interim Chief Advancement Officer at Carleton University and former Graduate Supervisor of the MPNL program and Professor in Carleton’s School of Public Policy & Administration, will moderate the panel. Her research focuses on comparative public policy for the third sector; philanthropy and nonprofits; and public management. She recently published a book, “Philanthropic Response to Disasters: Gifts, Givers and Consequences,” with Alexandra Williamson and Diana Leat. Her current research includes looking at justice-oriented models of philanthropy.
Banner photo is courtesy of Ugne Vasyliute.
