The 5th Annual Partnership Conference

Building the Trans Canada Trail: Unleashing the Power of Partnerships to Connect a Nation

During this insightful panel discussion, we will delve into the pivotal role partnerships have played and continue to play in the monumental achievement of the Trans Canada Trail—a remarkable 28,000 km trail spanning across Canada, connecting coast to coast to coast. This session will explore how approaching partnerships with a shared-value mindset has been crucial to the success of the Trans Canada Trail. By embracing the intersection of social impact and business interests, these partnerships have transcended traditional philanthropy, creating win-win scenarios for all involved.

Facilitated by Shelley Mayer, Cheryl Hanson of the Trans Canada Trail, and Joanna Marcovici of Manulife will dig into the transformative power of shared-value partnerships and what it takes to be successful. Join us to learn about the innovative strategies employed, the collaborative initiatives undertaken, and the remarkable outcomes achieved through this outstanding partnership.

Artificial Intelligence has been around since the 1940s, but generative AI has exploded on the scene with the popularity of ChatGPT and BingAI. In turn, generative AI has accelerated how individuals, nonprofits, and for-profits should think about the impact AI will make in the future. Let us help you harness the acceleration of AI by exploring the practical uses of AI for the social good today and in the future.

Purveyors of ‘purpose’ see it as a paradigm shift in the role of business in society. Leading, purpose-based companies are leaping ahead on market share, talent retention, and profits. This ‘fireside chat’ between two purpose-based CEOs will outline ten practices of purpose-based companies that you can implement to join ‘the purpose economy.’

How to win as an activist brand

In 2023 brands are increasingly expected to speak out on social and environmental issues. But it’s not for the faint of heart. With an increase in political polarization, consumer and regulatory scrutiny, and heightened employee and shareholder expectations, companies are struggling to figure out how and when to speak out on issues that are important to their business. In this session, you’ll witness a lively conversation moderated by Public’s Phil Haid with The Body Shop’s Hilary Lloyd and Tony Chocolonely’s Karin Campbell that showcases bold and creative approaches to tackling societal issues that have been proven both strategic and effective in creating impact and business benefit.

The Evolution of Purpose

Stakeholder expectations of companies to demonstrate a positive impact on society and the environment has never been greater and many companies are abandoning traditional CSR models to embrace an ESG mindset. At the same time, not for profits and charities have been pushing for greater reciprocity in partnership and trust based philanthropy. How are companies large and small re-evaluating what it means to be purpose led?

The Nuts and Bolts of Building Partnerships. Practical advice for corporations and charities

When it comes to building partnerships, Brad Offman has seen it all. In this session, he will share some practical (and candid) tips for individuals working in both the charitable and corporate sector. The goal of the session is to create a more favourable (and less hostile) environment for partnerships to take shape.

8 Steps to Build and Launch a Successful Charity Program Without Overextending Your Bandwidth or Budget

Consumer giving at register fell 26% in the last 24 months, yet it’s still one of the greatest sources of fundraising for companies and causes. Leveraging data, insights and industry case studies from Accelerist’s 2023 report, Checkout for Change: Exploring Point-of-Sale Giving Trends, you will learn how to build a point-of-sale strategy that works! One that:

• Attracts the right partners
• Cuts through the saturated market
• Converts a lot of consumers to donate
• Earns you lifelong donors for your mission
• Harnesses the power of emerging technologies and strategies to enhance campaign performance

Five Trends Shaping the Future of Corporate Purpose.

Today’s corporate purpose programs are looking different. There’s polarization in the workplace; a heightened desire for DEI; skepticism around ESG; and an emerging trend of “quiet giving” – all within the context of increasing stakeholder expectations and the need to deliver bottom line results during uncertain economic times. This presentation highlights the top trends shaping the future of corporate purpose and how companies are leaning into them to achieve both business and social impact.

Building trust and empowering change through the Truth and Reconciliation journey

In 2022, KPMG in Canada launched its Truth and Reconciliation Action Plan, formally answering the call to Action No. 92, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s call on corporate Canada “to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a reconciliation framework and to apply its principles, norms, and standards to corporate policy and core operational activities involving Indigenous Peoples and their lands and resources.”

Through this journey, KPMG is committed to co-creating strong, sustainable, and respectful relationships with Indigenous Peoples; by dedicating resources and making investments that advance knowledge; and by enabling empowerment and equal opportunity for Indigenous Peoples to build prosperity for current and future generations. KPMG people will be engaged to do their part through meaningful collaborations with Indigenous communities and organizations on this collective journey and shared responsibility towards Truth and Reconciliation.

Speakers on this panel will share how the Action Plan guides the firm’s strategy and actions to empower change within the firm and in the broader community.

C-Suite perspectives on trust in public commitments

Join this diverse panel of leaders for an executive level discussion on best practices (and lessons learned) on how to navigate the landscape of public commitments. How can effective stakeholder engagement inspire action to drive accountability? How do we know that a company is actually walking the talk and what do meaningful social impacts look and feel like? Most importantly…. What happens when commitments don’t translate into actions and things go wrong? Trust begins with all of us as leaders at the helm.

Employee Engagement with Charitable Impact: A turn-key solution for all. Win -Win-Win

Engaged Employees: Making impact to community and bottom line Introduce a turnkey solution to help instill pride in your teams by experiencing that “giving back makes good business sense!

Attract & Retain Top Talent and Optimize Limited HR Resources by Implementing a Proven Model that Creates Massive Local Impact
The combination of Covid-19 work from home edict and subsequently a preference for Millennials and Gen Z-ers to work remotely, has proven both a challenge and opportunity for innovative thinking to attract and motivate employees. Replicate the learning behind how the right employee engagement program can help improve your branding to be the employer of choice in your industry, while creating a spontaneous team of ambassadors among your current work force. Take back to senior management a program that can be easily, and cost effectively implemented to:

• Provide a solution for the post-Covid challenge of engaging employees: in person, virtually and hybrid – especially the under 30 group
• Mold to your needs – always actionable and scalable; for small and large groups from 5 to 5000, and in multi-locations across Canada and globally
• Maximize ROI and adjust to virtually any budget – annually or on a set timetable that is measurable for ease of C-suite buy in

Introduce a turnkey solution to help instill pride in your teams by experiencing that “giving back makes good business sense!”

Attention Charities/NFP’s! Outsource with impact! A proven model to engage your donor and volunteer groups to make impact for you. 

Canada’s Changing Demographics and the Impacts on Corporate Partnerships

The demographics of Canada have changed dramatically over the past several decades. With the release of the 2021 Census, this session will dive into Canada’s current and projected demographics and what these changes mean for charities and corporate partners alike.

From Zero to $1M: Lessons learned from a charity’s leap into video gaming

Discover how a charity achieved remarkable success, going “From Zero to $1M” in its launch into the video gaming space. Explore the intersection of philanthropy and gaming and learn valuable lessons from their journey on how to harness gaming communities for social impact, unlocking the potential of digital platforms, how new brands can penetrate this space, and more.

Beyond Intentions: Building Sustainable Partnerships for Tangible Impact on People & Planet

Proposed Session Description: Explore the groundbreaking collaboration between IKEA, Furniture Link, and Furniture Bank, showcasing how their partnership went beyond intentions to create tangible sustainability impacts for a community. Learn valuable insights on solving shared problems creatively, tracking quantifiable value, and achieving ongoing cost-neutral benefits for all parties involved.

This presentation will focus on the problems and inefficiencies in the current system and ways in which we can improve equity, efficiency and impact through a market that enables corporation to buy verified social outcomes.

Meridian is proud to support Breaking Bread Retreats, a program developed and supported by Rocklands Market with support from presenter Roger Mooking. Each Breaking Bread Retreat features three interactive workshops that focus on the basics of personal financial literacy as well as a hands on cooking class to help youth and entrepreneurs from equity deserving groups gain fundamental skills.

“The Breaking Bread Retreat seeks to introduce youth from under-serviced communities to two key fundamentals of living, feeding oneself and balancing a home budget, both foundational to personal and community success. As Roger points out, at every crossroad, food and finance are fundamental to building strong, successful individuals and communities.”

At Meridian, Our goal is to invest in local organizations, businesses and activities that make our communities stronger and more resilient. That’s why we support social impact programs such as Breaking Bread Retreats and change-makers like Roger Mooking to supporting the next generation to gain financial confidence and essential life skills to enable them live their best life.

Nudge the Good at Work

It turns out human beings are not always rational. In fact, it is now widely accepted that 90 – 95% of our daily decisions are not the result of any type of rational consideration. In his book Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist and economist, produced groundbreaking research showing our brains have two operating systems which he called system 1 (fast) and system 2 (slow). This research was so revolutionary in the field, that Kahneman became the first psychologist to win the Nobel prize (2002) in economics.
The newly emerging field of behavioral science seeks to explain how individuals commonly make decisions in ‘non-rational’ ways. Since most of our decisions are automatic (System 1), influenced by a range of contextual factors as well as cognitive biases or heuristics. In fact, humans use over 180 individual cognitive biases in decision making at the System 1 level.
We believe the current issues plaguing employee engagement in workplace giving and employee volunteering can be addressed by the formal application of behavioral science to the field of corporate citizenship. The objective is to develop a series of interventions, known commonly as ‘nudges’, to take “advantage of the biases of type 1 processes by changing the external environment (choice architecture) to help a person get to the socially optimal outcome.”
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Understand the basics of behavioral science and its potential role to help achieve corporate citizenship objectives
• Explore where and how nudge theory can be applied in employee volunteering and giving programs
• Hear examples of successes and future projects
• Leave with two practical nudges to try immediately 

Black charities in Canada get a fraction of the donations raised by their white-led peers. Canada’s biggest publicly traded companies have made numerous public statements, press releases and more when it comes to supporting Black-led and Black-serving groups across the country. A Future of Good investigation found that while some of Canada’s 50 largest publicly traded corporations have announced millions in donations to support Canada’s Black communities since 2020, nearly half have not publicly disclosed any donations. What does authentic engagement on anti-racism look like? 

(1) the unconventional methods we used to identify the need for this program,
(2) our approach to community engagement to ensure we maximized its impact, and
(3) our learnings from two years of running the initiative.