The Foundation currently runs a number of research and innovation design programs to help turn leadership and wellness knowledge into action. All of our programs utilize the Decision and Accountability Framework format when being planned and implemented.

Community Wellbeing Leadership (CWL)

How do we encourage and sustain a broad concept of enhanced leadership and wellbeing in our communities over time?

In the Foundation's view, the answer lies in developing and continuing to nourish a strong base of societal leaders who understand the complex components of community and organizational wellbeing, and whom are equipped to bring about effective change through sustained innovation.

The Foundation's emphasis on concepts of social innovation and active knowledge sharing (what we call Knowledge Transformation and Action, or KT&A) recognizes that simply replicating programs or activities in one community -- either a physical community, or a given community of practice -- quickly encounters limitations if the real sources of success or impact are misunderstood, or if an approach can't be scaled to meet evolving needs. In response, our approach is to emphasize building leadership capacity in our communities that can adapt approaches to changing circumstances.

At the moment, our Community Wellbeing Leadership research program has two primary lines of investigation:

Local Governance Innovation (LGI)

How do communities make informed and effective decisions about the future wellbeing of their communities and provide the required level of leadership when faced with the complexities of long-term economic development opportunities?

This question serves as the context for the Foundation’s research into the approaches, tools, and best practices that can support and guide community leaders when confronting the opportunity to turn economic growth into genuine progress for their communities. The LGI approach recognizes that the long-term impacts of such growth can have profound effects on the community’s current and future wellbeing if not considered carefully prior to implementation and then led effectively over time.

Community Leadership Innovation  (CLI)

With some 22 formal programs of community leadership active in Canada, and several thousand active in the United States and worldwide, how do these programs help to build community-level leadership capacity to improve wellbeing and impact societal progress?

The Foundation firmly believes that such programs are an essential component of building long-term community leadership capacity, and is researching how the Canadian programs have worked within their host communities and regions to accomplish this goal. In particular, our interest lies in exploring the tools and techniques that these programs have used, and how the societal leadership capacity of their alumni can best be focused on advancing the progress of local, regional, or national initiatives.

Environments + Communities + Organizations (E+C+O) Systems Framework

Leadership is an inter-dependent process, and doesn't occur in a vacuum. Accordingly, the Foundation’s Environments + Communities + Organizations (E+C+O) Systems Framework™ recognizes the complex range of issues and influences that an effective societal leader must contend with in leading for a greater degree of well-being in their environments, communities or organizations.

Our ongoing research into and use of the E+C+O Systems Framework provides a connecting context for much of our work. Above all, it allows us to maintain an important degree of perspective about the system-level context in which all of our related research and innovation design takes place.

For more, please visit the E+C+O Systems Framework page for further information.

Nature Accountability Leadership Program (NALP)

The Nature Accountability Leadership Program is a research-based initiative focusing on the interaction between wellbeing at a community or organizational level and the phenomenon of “nature deficit disorder”, a term coined by author Richard Louv in his book Last Child in the Woods.

Within the initiative, the Foundation is working to bring together a number of interested foundations, academic researchers, and other not-for-profit and charitable organizations to develop a framework program that builds long-term leadership capacity and effective, accountable nature appreciation and stewardship. In our view, this is best done through an active, experiential program of hands-on nature interaction and learning: changing the human-nature relationship.

Like many others, we firmly believe that interaction with the natural world is a fundamental part of what makes us human. Without it, we are at risk of losing an essential component that serves to support and influence our long-term wellbeing. At the same time, we recognize that our increasingly fragile natural world is at risk from the overwhelming scale of human interaction, particularly if we inappropriately view nature as an endless resource to be exploited, or something to be feared and overcome.

The Nature Accountability Leadership initiative seeks to find ways to restore an essential level of informed and deliberate nature interaction to support our personal, community and organizational wellness. It also strives to harness this new understanding in ways that benefit the natural environment through enhanced stewardship of resources and active programs to reduce the impact of large-scale environmental change.

For more information, visit the Nature Accountability Leadership program page.

Leaders Studio

The Leaders Studio initiative is a pilot project to engage selected charities and/or non-profit organizations in a highly intensive design and planning process to achieve breakthrough collaborations. This might mean finding a collaborative program approach to working on a major community issue, or radically redefining current organizational structures to achieve greater effectiveness, efficiency, and economy.

The Leaders Studio process includes expert convening and facilitation support from Foundation staff and associates, and expert resources from the governance, legal, finance, accounting, and management fields to help bring about the necessary structural and organizational changes.

Contact Jonathan Perkins for more information.

For more information on any of our programs, please contact us.