Advisor, Canada’s Collaborative Funding Initiative
The Opportunity
Canada’s philanthropic sector faces a critical gap: capital is siloed despite rising need. The Canada’s Collaborative Funding Initiative is building the infrastructure to align capital, strategy, and operations—moving from isolated grants to coordinated, systems-level impact. We are seeking a four strategic advisors to guide development of foundational deliverables as we move from concept to blueprint.
We are advancing four interconnected workstreams and need an advisor for each stream to provide strategic counsel, challenge assumptions, and synthesize insights to ensure our final roadmap is both ambitious and executable.
Mapping & Scaling What Works
Inventorying successful collaborative funding models.
Advisory Need: Guide analysis to identify replicable principles and ensure a pragmatic roadmap for funders.
The Mandate
Forging Shared Commitments
Aligning funders to reduce administrative burdens and synchronize cycles.
Advisory Need: Advise on Shared Standards and Formal Agreements that balance autonomy with collective efficiency.
Empowering Community-Led Proposals
Strengthening community capacity to present coordinated, ecosystem-level proposals.
Advisory Need: Help design a framework for funder coalitions to respond to community-driven proposals, shifting power to those closest to the issues.
Accelerating Through Collective Learning
Analyzing current strategies, intersectionality and successes/failures to avoid reinventing the wheel.
Advisory Need: Synthesize evidence to guide action toward proven patterns of success.
Who We Are Looking For
Four strategic leaders with a high-level view of the Canadian funding landscape. The ideal advisor brings:
• Experience in philanthropy, social finance, or non-profit or corporate strategy.
• A background in pooled funds, collaborative grantmaking, or systems change.
• Systems-thinking capacity and skill in navigating complex stakeholder dynamics.
The Desired Impact
The outcome will be a complete blueprint—including a playbook, shared standards, a communityled framework, and a synthesized knowledge base—that enables funders and community leaders to move from silos to shared ambition.
Time commitment
• Strategy development: 3.5 hours, three meetings with 30-minutes of review time
• Advocacy and Execution: 1.5 hours per quarter for a 2-year term