Many grassroots and community-based initiatives struggle to drive real-world change while managing the demands of a stand alone charity. And so, MakeWay launched the shared platform model in Canada, one of the first of its kind. It takes a lot of hard work to create positive and lasting change. The precious time and energy available to changemakers should be spent on making it happen. With the shared platform, more time and money goes towards achieving greater impact as projects benefit from sharing important administrative resources and expertise. We host over 60 projects on our shared platform, all across Canada. Over the next few months, we'll be sitting down with each of them to find out more about what they do and how they work. This week, we touched base with Jake Miller, Director of Project Neutral, an initiative...

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September 16, 2020 For Immediate Release Algonquin Anishinabe Nation / Ottawa, ON –Nicole McDonald will lead MakeWay’s national program strategy, connecting efforts across existing MakeWay programs in the Pacific, the North, and Manitoba, and pursuing emerging opportunities for MakeWay to build partnerships and solutions that enable nature and communities to thrive together. Based in Ottawa, she will also play a key role in federal government relations for MakeWay. “For some time, it has been clear that we need to increase our expertise in national policy and build on our strong foundation of support for Indigenous-led solutions. I am thrilled to welcome Nicole to MakeWay at such an exciting time of growth and exploration for our organization. She is a highly respected leader of immense skill and experience with values that are beautifully aligned.” said MakeWay CEO, Joanna Kerr. “I...

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Earlier this summer, we heard from Geraldine Cahill, Director of UpSocial Canada, about the initiative's work to collectively look after Toronto-based community organizations, and how that work has been shaped by COVID-19. As mid-September looms around the corner, she gives us an update on where UpSocial is at.   I'd be lying if I said I've had no doubts about the progress of our Caring Community Challenge over the last few months. When we launched the project back in March, COVID-19 was just revealing its menacing intent in Canada and the nonprofit sector was poised to spring into action to support those most affected by it. In my last article, I was candid about my internal battle with patience, knowing that the most important thing to do first in social project work is to build relationships. So, while I...

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Across the globe, we have all been forced to make changes in our lives, to pause and reflect. Many plagues have passed the earth, yet the COVID-19 pandemic is the first experienced by our generation, on such a grand scale. For inhabitants of the Canadian arctic, the health crisis has also created economic, social, and spiritual uncertainty. Just as Indigenous peoples have responded to many great changes in the past, what remains constant during this time is our grounding in our culture, language and land.  For our people, connection to the land, water, and ice is foundational to us. In our history, our migratory patterns, our sources for shelter, food and clothing, our times of renewal and celebration, were all dictated by the environment. Our connection to the land remains so intimate, that we conceive ourselves...

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Remember March 1, 2020? The world felt very different then. On that day, we officially launched our UpSocial Canada Caring Communities Challenge, extending an invitation to Toronto-based community organizations to join us in exploring how we might collectively look after each other better in the places where we are. In defining what we meant by "looking after each other", we used three prompts: How do we ensure people feel like active participants in their city; that people feel seen and heard? How do people make use of the spaces between our soaring towers to engage with each other and look out for one another? How do we respond to each other in a time of disruption - from transit cancellations to extreme weather events? Of course, disruption looks very different today. The global pandemic and the powerful movement...

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Today, we announce that Tides Canada has changed its name to MakeWay. A quiet leader in environmental and social justice philanthropy in Canada for the last 20 years, the new MakeWay name reflects the momentum of change that this organization stands for.

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As we adjust to the “new normal” that is the COVID-19 pandemic, we are starting to take note of how unique each community’s needs are in response to the effects of physical distancing, health care system strains, and closures of important services.

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This is the second blog post in an emerging series, highlighting how Tides Canada projects and programs are reacting and adapting to rapidly changing circumstances and limited resources amid an unprecedented global pandemic.

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Last month, Tides Canada’s CEO, Joanna Kerr gave a speech to a group of environmental funders asking this provocative question. Read on to understand her take on how we best achieve environmental, economic and social goals simultaneously.

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