7:45 am
NETWORKING BREAKFAST: BUILD COMMUNITY CONTACTS
- Start your day off right and connect with institutional investment leaders.
- Get to know your industry peers and colleagues over a delicious breakfast.
- Source practical tips, identify best practices, and prepare for the day ahead.
8:45 am
OPENING COMMENTS FROM YOUR HOST
Gain insight into today’s sessions so you can get the most out of your conference experience and maximize your value.
9:00 am
SPOTLIGHT PANEL:
EVOLVING INVESTMENT PRACTICES FOR HOSPITAL FOUNDATIONS
This session brings together senior decision-makers from Canadian hospital foundations to explore best practices, challenges, and opportunities in adopting sustainable investment practices to better align their investment practices with mission, climate resilience, and long-term financial stewardship.
Panelists will share lessons from their experience and from their involvement in the Healthy Capital initiative (funded by the Trottier Family Foundation and led by the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care), including strategies for integrating responsible investment into foundation governance and balancing financial performance with social and environmental impact.
9:45 am
C-SUITE POWER SESSION:
As donor interests evolve, your ability to be responsive to shifting interest, diligence and return on investment can position your organization uniquely in the philanthropic market. In this session we will dive into models of Strategic Philanthropy, Venture Philanthropy, Investment Management and Endowments to create lasting impact. Elevate your organization’s unrestricted revenue, increase mission-aligned impact, and leave a legacy of growth and resilience. Adopt best practices to:
- Align strategic leadership and governance to drive unified progress toward long-term objectives.
- Position your foundation as a catalyst for systemic change by fostering strategic partnerships and cross-sector alliances.
- Leverage the expertise of top-tier external investment managers to protect and grow purchasing power, ensuring financial resilience.
Amplify your team’s effectiveness and governance to drive mission-aligned impact, strengthen resilience, and secure a lasting legacy.
10:15 am
COFFE BREAK & EXHIBITOR LOUNGE: VISIT BOOTHS & SOURCE EXPERTISE
- Explore the latest institutional investment strategies with our industry-leading sponsors.
- Share your challenges with the biggest innovators in the business.
- Schedule one-to-one private meetings for personalized advice.
10:45 am
INDUSTRY EXPERT: WHERE ESG MEETS PERFORMANCE: THE CASE FOR MULTI-RESIDENTIAL INVESTING
How Investing In Housing Can Deliver Stable, Inflation-resilient Returns While Addressing Pressing Social and Environmental Challenges.
Foundations and endowments face the challenge of aligning mission with long-term financial sustainability. Multi-residential real estate offers a unique opportunity to do both. Adopt best practices to:
- Strengthening communities, improving housing quality, and reducing environmental impact without compromising portfolio performance with role of value-add multi-residential strategies in.
- Building active ownership, ESG integration, and disciplined investment processes support cash-flow stability and risk management
- Building scalable social impact, making multi-residential a compelling core allocation for mission-driven institutional investors.
11:15 am
ROUNDTABLES: DISCOVER THOUGHT-PROVOKING IDEAS
Roundtable 1: Assets Under Management of <$5M
Meet with your peers to understand how to mitigate the unique challenges you face, such as labour shortages, resource allocation, governance frameworks, due diligence, and more. Take away specific solutions to:
- Labour Shortages: Doing more with fewer people.
- Resource Constraints: Navigating financial markets while keeping costs down.
- Frameworks: Building structured plans to streamline due diligence.
Roundtable 2: Assets Under Management of $5M – $550M
As foundations get larger, increased engagement between your managers, OCIOs, RIAs, and investment committees is essential to ensure due diligence and risk management are carried out effectively. Join your colleagues to collaborate on solutions to these issues. Master the success factors to:
- Regulatory Compliance: Assess the new disbursement quotas.
- Investment Styles: Evaluate in-house vs. OCIO set-ups.
- ESG Investing: Review the latest sustainable investment trends.
Roundtable 3: Assets Under Management of $550M+
As larger foundations become more established, developing a sophisticated understanding of investments with your committees and staff is critical. Grasp the nature of each asset class so you can contribute to your foundation’s investment success. Walk away with an action plan on:
- Asset Allocation: Stress-test each asset class and your total portfolio.
- Wealth Preservation: Protect your investments against inflation.
- Risk Management: Identify previously hidden risks to safeguard your assets.
12:00 pm
FIRESIDE: REDEFINING FOUNDATION INVESTING FOR MISSION, IMPACT & LONG-TERM CHANGE
Reimagine Your Investment Strategies and Embrace a Truly Mission-First Mindset
Challenge the traditional divide between granting and investing. Use community loans, private debt and equity, ESG-driven public market strategies, and shareholder activism to create meaningful, measurable social change. Harness the full power of your endowments to generate both financial returns and community impact without compromise.
Beyond the 5% Rule: Why grant making alone can’t meet today’s social challenges and why mission-aligned investing matters now more than ever.
- The 100% Commitment: Align your entire portfolio with mission through impact investments and responsible investing.
- Catalytic Capital in Action: Generating transformative local impact through community loans, private debt, and equity investments.
- ESG With Teeth: How shareholder activism, exclusion policies, ESG analysis, and proxy voting amplify social impact in public markets.
Build an investment model for the future with governance, risk management, cultural change, and board engagement needed to make mission-aligned investing work.
12:30 pm
NETWORKING LUNCH: DELVE INTO INDUSTRY CONVERSATIONS
- Meet interesting speakers and pick their brains on the latest industry issues.
- Expand your network and make connections that last beyond the conference.
- Enjoy great food and service while engaging with your institutional investment colleagues.
1:30 pm
EXHIBITOR LOUNGE: VISIT BOOTHS & WIN PRIZES
- Browse through different sponsor booths and gain institutional investment expertise.
- Enter your name for a chance to win exciting prizes.
- Take advantage of event-specific offers and special content.
2:00 pm
INDUSTRY EXPERT:
Leveraging Alternatives to Achieve Your Organization’s Investment Objectives
With market volatility, elevated valuations, and inflationary pressures challenging traditional portfolios, endowments and foundations are increasingly turning to alternative investments to meet their financial goals. Align your alternatives with your organization’s risk tolerance, liquidity needs, and long-term vision by:
- Evaluating the strengths and limitations of private equity, real assets, hedge funds, and other alternative strategies.
- Understanding the two primary roles alternatives can play in a portfolio: return enhancement and risk reduction.
- Optimizing your asset mix by striking the right balance between traditional investments and alternatives.
Increase your portfolio’s impact and longevity by strategically integrating alternatives to support financial objectives.
2:30 pm
FIRESIDE: DISBURSEMENT QUOTA DEEP DIVE
In this session, you’ll hear the latest from Imagine Canada and the work that it does in understanding trends in the sector and what’s happening at a federal government level.
Specifically, takeaways from this session will include:
- The latest on data that examines the impact of the disbursement quota in anticipation of a 2027 Federal Government review
- The latest research and information from Imagine Canada in looking at areas affecting charities and non-profits
- Information on the long-term trend affecting wealth transfer and the changing demographics of the donors who have supported social good for decades.
3:00 pm
SPOTLIGHT SESSION: BRIDGING CAPITAL AND IMPACT FOR SUSTAINABLE CHANGE
Maximizing Mission, Managing Risk, and Mobilizing Capital for Change
Mission-aligned investing is no longer a niche strategy, it’s a necessity. As foundations and endowments increasingly seek to generate measurable social and environmental impact alongside financial returns, Transition from intention to execution in your impact investing journeys by:
- Design an Impact-Aligned Portfolio and aligning investment decisions with organizational values without sacrificing long-term performance.
- Activate Capital for Systems Change by advancing equity, climate action, Indigenous reconciliation, and other core mission goals.
- Build Cross-Sector Partnerships and collaborate with innovators, communities, and fund managers to amplify both impact and scale.
Develop a Strategic Framework by understanding the governance, metrics, and stakeholder engagement tools needed to embed purpose into every layer of your investment strategy.
3:30 pm
EXHIBITOR LOUNGE: CONSULT INDUSTRY EXPERTS
- Source invaluable insights and experience the next level of institutional investment innovation firsthand.
- Connect one-on-one with leading asset managers to overcome investment hurdles.
- Brainstorm solutions and gain new perspectives and ideas.
4:00 pm
CASE STUDY: ESG & IMPACT INVESTING MANDATES
How to Strategically Integrate ESG
The demand for foundation and endowment portfolios to incorporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria is growing, alongside the need for impact investing strategies that generate both financial returns and social and environmental benefits. Create a roadmap to:
- Integrate ESG and impact investments into portfolios without compromising returns by employing sophisticated analysis.
- Improve the quality and standardization of ESG metrics, addressing ongoing issues in data consistency.
- Enable trustees to navigate the challenges of balancing ESG priorities with fiduciary duties.
Improve the quality and consistency of ESG metrics to drive measurable social and environmental impact while maintaining strong financial performance.
4:30 pm
CLOSING KEYNOTE PANEL: MAXIMIZING RETURNS & MANAGING RISK
A Strategic Approach to Alternatives and Liquidity for Endowments and Foundations
As foundations and endowments increasingly allocate capital to alternative investments, such as private equity, venture capital, and real assets, the potential for enhanced returns grows. But so does the complexity of managing liquidity, transparency, and alignment with mission goals. Harness the upside of alternatives while protecting your organization’s financial flexibility. Source your plan of action by:
- Understanding how illiquidity can impact your ability to meet operational and grant-making obligations.
- Evaluating the risk-return profile of key alternative asset classes.
- Balancing long-term growth potential with short-term liquidity needs.
- Navigating capital lock-up periods and developing proactive liquidity planning strategies.
- Making informed, mission-aligned decisions in a complex investment environment.
Bolster your alternative allocations to maximize returns while safeguarding your foundation’s financial health and mission impact.
5:00 pm
CLOSING COMMENTS FROM YOUR HOST
Review the key solutions and takeaways from the conference. Source a summary of action points to implement in your work.
5:15 pm