Agenda - Day 2

Gain insight into today’s sessions so you can get the most out of your conference experience and maximize your value.

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.

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.

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.

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.

With market volatility and inflationary pressures challenging traditional portfolios, endowments and foundations are increasingly turning to alternative investments to meet their financial and mission-driven goals. Align your alternatives with your organization’s risk tolerance, liquidity needs, and long-term vision. Source practical tips to:

• Evaluate the strengths and limitations of private equity, real assets, hedge funds, and other alternative strategies.
• Optimize your asset mix by striking the right balance between traditional investments and alternatives.
• Build smarter partnerships with GPs and service providers to improve transparency, alignment, and outcomes.

Heighten your portfolio’s impact by strategically integrating alternatives to support both financial and mission-driven 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.

Recent updates to Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) regulations are reshaping how foundations approach their granting strategies. Navigate through current disbursement quota (DQ) rules, including increased minimum spending requirements, and explore opportunities and compliance risks related to granting to non-qualified donees. Take back to your office strategies to:

• Uncover what the latest CRA changes mean for your annual spending obligations and how they affect your overall endowment strategy.
• Gain clarity on new rules that allow granting to non-qualified donees, including due diligence requirements, documentation standards, and risk mitigation.
• Discover how smaller organizations can meet DQ requirements without overextending resources, including options for collaborative granting and policy updates.

Improve your foundation’s readiness by anticipating CRA developments and preparing for continued regulatory shifts in the charitable landscape.

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.

• 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.

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.

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.

Review the key solutions and takeaways from the conference. Source a summary of action points to implement in your work.