CONNECTING WITH THE NEXT GENERATION OF DONORS

The Foundation’s Donor Engagement team unveils new strategy

As we embrace the future and encourage Manitoba’s culture of generosity to grow, our vision at The Winnipeg Foundation is to ensure we are building “A Winnipeg where community life flourishes for all.” To commit to this vision, we are realigning our engagement strategies in community generosity with an inclusive “For All” lens.

We established the goal of ensuring community members feel reflected in the work we're doing, which led to a recognition that we need to collaborate and convene with others to gain a better understanding of current philanthropic perceptions, key issues, and gaps in community generosity.

Through this experience of reflection, we developed the “For All” strategy, which is focused on engaging with the next generation of community members, acknowledging the powerful breadth of BIPOC community philanthropy, and partnering with visionaries and strategists who are mobilizing movements across communities.

Under this strategy, we are currently implementing engagement methods to deepen our understanding of the next generation and their values of generosity, philanthropic habits, motivations and how that will influence their relationship with The Foundation and the community in coming years. The multi-year engagement strategy is rooted in listening, learning, and improving the ways we steward and engage those who believe in us, and our community. Through focus groups, surveys, and outreach meetings we are convening and elevating the voices and experiences of under-represented generosity stories to realign our work to better serve our community.

In April 2023, our Donor Engagment team had the opportunity to present the work we’re doing to connect with the next generation of donors, at the Canadian Association of Gift Planners National Conference in Vancouver, B.C.. Among the speakers were Nikki Sanchez, Decolonial Educator, and Djaka Blais, Co-Chair of the Foundation for Black Communities, who urged the philanthropic sector to reflect on our own living legacies and the impact we each want to leave behind in the work we do.

The intention of sharing our framework and research with leaders in the charitable sector is to collectively identify ways to address barriers to charitable giving, be more responsive and accountable, and work together to discover ways to expand possibilities that create accessible, equitable and inclusive philanthropic spaces and partnerships.