Reconciliation

Our funding prioritizes partnering with Indigenous-led organizations and with Indigenous communities to advance the reconciliation economy. Our contributions aim to address – and redress – the socioeconomic gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples by building prosperity with and for Indigenous peoples. Our strategies focus on building prosperity through collaborative models with Indigenous-led organizations and Indigenous communities in a good way.

Thanks to the courage of Survivors of the residential school system, their families and their communities, and the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we can act for reconciliation. The significance or the reach of our work could only happen because of their courage. The living legacy of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its 94 Calls to Action, as well as the Philanthropic Community’s Declaration of Action, inform the McConnell Foundation’s work with partners and communities to contribute to a reconciliation economy in relationship with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.

Reconciliation is a personal, organizational and systemic journey. Our learnings are grounded in wise practices, ceremonies and Elders & Knowledge Keepers’ teachings, for which we thank our Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners.

We put a high value on how we engage with existing and potential partners. We aim to co-create a respectful path to build relationships, whether the outcome is funding or not.

Our guiding principles in how we meet potential partners, assess a project, initiate a partnership or build relationships are:

• Weaving Indigenous and Western knowledges.
• Healing by recognizing that trauma underlines many Indigenous peoples’ lived experiences.
• Ensuring that Indigenous cultures and values inform all aspects of an initiative or project.
• Facilitating Indigenous solutions and innovation.

We recognize that profound social, political and financial harms are deeply complex and have been enacted through systematic efforts to erase Indigenous peoples from these lands.

Our reconciliation funding is focused on the transition to a reconciliation economy, emphasizing the importance of building respectful relationships with partners and prioritizing Indigenous-led solutions. The purpose of these strategies is to build prosperity through prioritizing collaborative models with Indigenous-led organizations and Indigenous communities in a good way.

• Indigenous-led Collaborative Funding Models Efforts by Indigenous entities to access, pool and redistribute resources to implement solutions with and by Indigenous communities. Building on the belief that communities know what is best for them, Indigenous-led funding models ensure those making decisions about resource allocation work in culturally appropriate ways and help connect Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in a good way.
• Indigenous-led Solutions to Advance Economic Reconciliation We prioritize partnering with Indigenous-led initiatives that identify economic challenges that Indigenous peoples face and address systemic barriers at the local, regional or national scale. For this strategy, we avoid being prescriptive. We understand that these challenges can be new or persistent, and are impacted by factors such as rights, policies and legal frameworks, culture, and knowledge and skills. To get a sense of what these can be, past projects funded under this strategy have addressed amongst others: governance, land and resource management, housing, food security and sovereignty, or information technology.
• Financial Solutions Projects seek to redress barriers to financial independence, sovereignty and prosperity through tackling complex financial mechanisms. These projects point to, and remove, financial barriers in a meaningful way: Indigenous peoples access financial capital to achieve economic and social prosperity on their own terms.

To learn more about the questions and criteria for all three funding strategies, please read our Sample Application Form.