Foundations are committed to promoting the common good. Advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in our organizations and grantmaking helps us live up to our values and achieve greater impact.

Our constituencies, from the communities we serve to our partners in the business, government and nonprofit sectors, are becoming increasingly diverse. We need to understand and reflect this rich variety of perspectives in order to achieve greater impact.

Advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion is hard, but leaders in philanthropy have a track record of tackling many of our country’s toughest challenges—and we again have an opportunity to lead the way.

To meet this challenge, PFC is calling upon member organization to be a part of a growing movement in philanthropy to ensure that those who have been historically excluded—women, people of color, people with disabilities, and the LGBT community— are at the decision-making table and reflected in our portfolios.

This toolkit focuses on supporting foundations to achieve the following objectives:

• make the case for DEI;
• craft policy to systematize and sustain DEI efforts;
• implement DEI in operations;
• implement DEI in grantmaking/programmatic work; and
• monitor DEI efforts for accountability

By bringing new voices and expertise to the table, we have the potential to make our foundations more effective at advancing the common good. Diversity and inclusion can help our foundations better identify creative solutions to our internal challenges, and those faced by the communities we serve. And thinking about equity in our grantmaking can help us create opportunities for all communities to thrive.

To access the full toolkit, click here

Established in 1999, Philanthropic Foundations Canada (PFC) is a national member association of grantmaking foundations, charitable organizations and corporate giving programs. PFC seeks to promote the growth and development of effective and responsible foundations and organized philanthropy in Canada through provision of membership services, resources and advocacy. To learn more, visit: pfc.ca

PFC would like to thank Hanifa Kassam of Kassam Consulting and former Board Chair of the Laidlaw Foundation, for developing the content of this toolkit and Yael Landau from franklinHEAVY for the design. For questions about this toolkit, contact info@pfc.ca