Advisory Services

Solutions for social good
Today’s complex environmental and social landscape requires new and innovative approaches to create positive change.

Align your giving with your values

MakeWay reduces barriers and provides the expertise, experience, strategic partnerships, and deep community connections to ensure that your efforts go further.

In collaboration, we create custom solutions to help you achieve the change you want to see in the world. With 20 years of experience building and implementing a unique approach, MakeWay is a proven partner.

Because MakeWay is a leading national charity with a unique suite of tools, we can leverage a wide range of in-house expertise to create custom solutions:

  • Simplify giving with an advised fund, an efficient way to manage the administration of grants
  • Activate investment capital for social change with impact investing.
  • Seed a new charitable initiative on our shared platform that supports a healthy environment, social equity, and economic prosperity.

Partner With Us

MakeWay has spent the last two decades developing, deploying, and refining a customized approach for each partnership.

Align your personal values with your philanthropy

MakeWay helps connect you with the issues that are most important to you, discover and define your philanthropic focus, and create a tailored giving strategy.

Research & Scoping

Answer key questions and engage in exploration together.

  • Host an exploratory conversation to identify your values, intended legacy, and interest areas.
  • Conduct a landscape assessment of an issue or geography to understand how you can engage in a deep and impactful way.
  • Investigate new and exciting angles to your philanthropy.
  • Organize a gathering of different stakeholders to explore an issue or geography to inform an impact-driven strategy.

Strategy & Design

Create strategies to get from vision to action.

  • Design a new philanthropic strategy that reflects your unique vision for change, focus areas, and goals.
  • Coordinate a pooled fund to leverage the resources of multiple partners to support a specific issue or geography.
  • Address gaps in the sector by creating a new charitable initiative.
  • Identify and build community connections to inform strategies that will have a lasting impact.

Grants Management & Delivery

Effectively and efficiently deliver your grantmaking program.

  • Develop proposal and reporting templates that are designed to be effective and accessible to all grantees.
  • Promote your grantmaking plan to unique audiences across Canada.
  • Manage relationships with grantees on your behalf.
  • Manage the administration of grants to qualified donees.

Evaluation & Learning

Evaluate outcomes, share learnings, and revise as needed.

  • Develop an evaluation framework to track the impact of your philanthropic giving plan.
  • Develop a methodology to capture lessons learned in the design and implementation stages of the program in order to inform your future philanthropy.
  • Develop learning opportunities, such a field trips or webinars, to learn directly from grantees and engage with peers collaborating in the space.
  • Share learnings with the broader philanthropic and charitable community to enable the scaling and replication of successful strategies.

Amplify your impact

MakeWay helps connect you with the issues that are most important to you, discover and define your philanthropic focus, and create a tailored giving strategy.

Research & Scoping

Answer key questions and engage in exploration together.

  • Host an exploratory conversation to identify values, intended legacy, and interest areas of the Foundation.
  • Conduct a landscape assessment of an issue or geography to deepen your Foundation’s impact.
  • Investigate new and exciting angles to your existing work.
  • Organize a gathering of different stakeholders to explore an issue or geography to inform an impact-driven strategy.

Strategy & Design

Create strategies to get from vision to action.

  • Design a new grantmaking program that reflects your unique vision for change, focus areas, and goals.
  • Coordinate a pooled fund to leverage the resources of multiple partners to support a specific issue or geography.
  • Address gaps in sector support by creating a new charitable initiative.

Grants Management & Delivery

Effectively and efficiently deliver your grantmaking program.

  • Develop proposal and reporting templates that reflect your priority interests and desired outcomes, and are accessible to all grantees.
  • Promote your grantmaking program to unique audiences across Canada.
  • Manage relationships with grantees on your behalf.
  • Manage the administration of grants using a Donor Advised Fund.

Evaluation & Learning

Evaluate outcomes, share learnings, and revise as needed.

  • Develop an evaluation framework to track the impact of your grantmaking program.
  • Develop a methodology to capture lessons learned in the design and implementation stages of the program in order to inform your future grantmaking.
  • Develop learning opportunities, such a field trips or webinars, to learn directly from the grantees and engage with peers collaborating in the space.
  • Share learnings with the broader philanthropic and charitable community to enable the scaling and replication of successful strategies.

Complement your client relationship

Support your long-term client relationship by offering custom philanthropic solutions that align with their legacy plan. MakeWay helps you and your client move beyond making a charitable gift, to making philanthropic investments that align with their unique values.

Research & Scoping

Answer key questions and engage in exploration together.

  • Host an exploratory conversation to identify values, intended legacy, and interest areas.
  • Conduct a landscape assessment of an issue or geography to understand how your client can engage in a deep and impactful way.
  • Investigate new and exciting angles to your client’s existing philanthropy.

Strategy & Design

Create strategies to get from vision to action.

  • Design a new philanthropic giving strategy that reflects your client’s unique vision for change, focus areas,
    and goals.
  • Coordinate a pooled fund to leverage the resources of multiple philanthropists to support a specific issue
    or geography.
  • Address gaps in the sector by creating a new charitable initiative.
  • Identify and build community connections that have a lasting impact for both your client and the community.

Grants Management & Delivery

Effectively and efficiently deliver your grantmaking program.

  • Implement a strategic philanthropic program akin to an individual or family foundation through a donor advised fund. This eliminates the administrative burden of creating and managing a private family foundation.
  • Offer customized supports to meet the needs of your client, including:
    • Develop proposal and reporting template
    • Identify grantees that are a fit with the program mission and goals
    • Administer gifts and conduct financial reporting
    • Manage relationships with grantees

Evaluation & Learning

Evaluate outcomes, share learnings, and revise as needed.

  • Meet quarterly or annually with you and your client to report on the efficacy of the philanthropic strategy.
  • Evaluate the plan and revise as needed to ensure the individual or family mission is honoured.
  • Ensure that the philanthropic plan is informed by sector trends and responsive to emerging needs.

Define your corporate giving program

Support your long-term client relationship by offering custom philanthropic solutions that align with their legacy plan. MakeWay helps you and your client move beyond making a charitable gift, to making philanthropic investments that align with their unique values.

Research & Scoping

Answer key questions and engage in exploration together.

  • Host an exploratory conversation to identify your company’s values, business goals, and interest areas.
  • Conduct a landscape assessment of an issue or geography to understand how your team can engage in a deep and impactful way.
  • Investigate new and exciting angles to your current giving program.
  • Organize a gathering of various stakeholders to explore an issue or geography to inform an impact-driven strategy.

Strategy & Design

Create strategies to get from vision to action.

  • Design a new corporate giving program that identifies your company’s unique vision for change, focus areas, and goals.
  • Coordinate a pooled fund to leverage the resources of multiple like-minded partners to support a specific issue or geography.
  • Address funding gaps by creating a new charitable initiative.
  • Identify and build community connections to inform strategies that will have a lasting impact.

Grants Management & Delivery

Effectively and efficiently deliver your grantmaking program.

  • Develop proposal and reporting templates that are designed to be effective and accessible to all grantees.
  • Identify grantees who are doing exceptional work aligned with your corporate giving plan.
  • Manage relationships with grantees on your behalf.
  • Manage the administration of grants using a Donor Advised Fund.

Evaluation & Learning

Evaluate outcomes, share learnings, and revise as needed.

  • Develop an evaluation framework to track the impact of your corporate giving program.
  • Develop a methodology to capture lessons learned in the design and implementation stages of the program in order to inform your future giving.
  • Develop learning opportunities, such a field trips, employee engagement activities, or webinars, to learn directly from grantees and engage with peers collaborating in the space.