‘We’re at a moment where philanthropy can really step up’

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Canada’s philanthropic sector is on the cusp of transformation, and if anyone is qualified to make that call, it’s Lisa Wolverton. Co-owner of the British Columbia-based Pacific Investment Corp., her family’s third-generation investment firm, she has also inherited a profound dedication to charitable endeavours.

Wolverton has applied her energy and resources to multiple local and international causes. She founded her own charity in 2009, GenerationChild, which provided grants to grassroots organizations. She is also president of the Wolverton Foundation, a Vancouver-based charity dedicated to youth music programs.

And she is also the president of the Philanthropy Workshop (TPW), a San Francisco-based network of 400 philanthropists and social investors committed to solving the world’s most pressing social issues. An educational and networking organization, TPW is preparing to hold its largest annual gathering from March 3-6 in Toronto. “This is our introduction to Canada,” Wolverton says.

We asked her how the pieces of her career fit together and where she thinks the philanthropic sector is heading.

How did your family inspire such a deep interest in philanthropy?

My father was born in India, where his father was a missionary and ran a hospital and a leper colony. So at the family dinner table our conversations circled around business but also around supporting those who are disenfranchised, or philanthropy. And my parents practiced both.

My great uncle Fred bought the first seat in the Vancouver Stock Exchange in 1910 and opened the brokerage business Wolverton and Company. My dad came back from India in 1930 at the age of 13, and eventually went to UBC and started working for Fred. He took over the business, so our family office was incubated in that business.

My parents have been huge supporters of the arts in many different ways. In 2009, I formed the Wolverton Family Foundation; it’s a legacy for my mother.

You worked in the music industry with Sony Music Canada before you married, moved to England and started a family. How were you drawn back to Vancouver and the charitable sector?

When I came back to Vancouver after three years in England, I started working with Family Services of the North Shore. I sat on boards, raised a lot of money for the UNITE for Children, UNITE Against AIDS campaign and joined the UNICEF Canada board. Then around 2009, I put together my own foundation concurrent with working on the family foundation.

My mother said, “I would like to open up a foundation; could you do that for me?” I put together our mission and vision and cemented our partnership with the Sarah McLachlan School of Music. They were running a music program for 75 kids in the bottom of a church.

My grandparents got married and got on a boat and went to India and spent their life there. That long-term buy-in reflects how we do our philanthropy.

Our family is in the real estate business; we felt we could align what we do as a family, so we purchased a building and renovated 16,000 square feet on the second floor. We told them that we were going to be a long-term partner to provide stability and trust. Their success is our success. How can we as a partner support them in their journey?

At the same time, I had launched my own foundation, providing grants to grassroots organizations that were working with children in the Middle East. These small grants were having enormous impact in small communities and were based on local solutions. It was an interesting journey for me, and it was really this giant leap into philanthropy.

We’re hearing more about a growing movement toward “trust-based philanthropy,” which puts more power into the hands of the recipients of charitable support. How does this relate to your work?

It’s very much in discussion in Canada and the United States, rooted in trusted partnership. How do you trust and learn and listen to the needs of the organizations that you fund rather than what you perceive to be the solutions from afar? How do you make it easy for them to apply for capital?

My grandparents got married and got on a boat and went to India and spent their life there. That long-term buy-in reflects how we do our philanthropy.

Is this why the Philanthropy Workshop seeks to engage “humble” leaders?

We move about a billion dollars of philanthropy capital per year. Over 400 members globally are coming together not only with inquisitiveness, but also with a lot of humility. We don’t have all the answers. We’re here to learn; we’re here to do better. How do we collaborate? How do we get more capital to the people who need it? So when I talk about humility, that’s the culture of TPW internally.

Externally, TPW has traditionally been very much under the radar, but now we’re in the U.S. and the U.K., and we are opening officially in Canada in March with our Global Summit in Toronto. This is our introduction to Canada.

Is this is an important time for Canadian philanthropy?

The backbone of the Canadian economy is family businesses. I think we’re at a moment of transformation as we’re grappling with inequality, social justice, reconciliation and climate change. We’re at a moment where philanthropy can really step up. Now more than ever is a moment when it is crucial that the philanthropic sector really thinks strategically about both its philanthropic and investment capital.

The sector needs to get bolder in getting capital into communities and off the sidelines. Equally important is how we are investing our donor-advised funds and investment capital so that it aligns with our values on impact.

Even if you raise the disbursement quota, where is that money going? Very little has gone to BIPOC and Indigenous communities. TPW has the ability to connect globally. That’s our unique proposition: how do we pull together the local and the global? TPW and other networks and learning communities can help with getting outside of traditional donor networks.

In 2014, Canada had $4.4 billion in donor-advised funds; that is projected to grow to $6.5 billion in 2024. How is it being invested? Is it going to companies that are part of the problem rather than part of the solution?

What do you hope TPW can achieve in Canada?

I hope that TPW can not only inspire more giving but also assist Canadian donors in fostering a path to scalable social impact with proven models of best practice and peer collaboration.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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