Partner Profile: Nicole McDonald, J.W. McConnell Family Foundation

The NWT On The Land Collaborative is a collective of partners from government, industry, philanthropy, and beyond, working together to support land-based programs and projects in the NWT. Each of these partner organizations has a representative that participates in quarterly meetings and annual funding decisions. This is the seventh in a series of profiles of the people and organizations that make the Collaborative possible. You can read the other profiles here.
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Nicole McDonald is unabashedly passionate about collaboratives: “I love collaborative funding models!” In addition to making it easier for recipients to access funds, Nicole has seen firsthand how collaboratives can support projects that need a little extra help: “One of the things I found while working with the Saskatoon Collaborative Funding Partnership was that we could see groups doing good work, but they weren’t successful in their funding applications because they weren’t good at writing proposals.” To address this, the Partnership hosted workshops for prospective grantees on proposal writing and budget development. Almost immediately, they saw improvements in the quality of applications being submitted.

Nicole, who is currently the Program Director for Indigenous Initiatives at the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, has become something of an expert in collaboratives. At present, she is working with a variety of partners on a number of funding collaboratives which include: {Re}conciliation and the Arts; the Indigenous Innovation Demonstration Fund; and now, the NWT On the Land Collaborative.

Collaboratives, Nicole believes, promote diversity by bringing different partners to the table and allow for a more efficient use of resources through shared administration. They can also serve as a gateway for people and organizations who might not have traditionally supported certain kinds of initiatives: “With the close of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we are seeing a growing number of organizations that want to fund Indigenous communities, but don’t know how to or where.” Enter initiatives like the NWT On The Land Collaborative: “Organizations are able to contribute as little or as much as they want, both in terms of  financial resources and level of engagement with the Collaborative. Because there are other partners already sitting at the table, funding is automatically leveraged. Also, the governance structure is already in place to ensure that funding is going directly to communities, and the adjudication process is done in collaboration by community members and the partners.” If done right, it is low risk and high reward.

The trajectory of the McConnell Foundation’s involvement in the NWT On The Land Collaborative is a case in point. When the opportunity to be involved as a partner in piloting the Collaborative, “it was kind of a no brainer,” Nicole admits. “Because it was a pilot, the initial level of funding was relatively low, so it wasn’t a huge risk.” More importantly, if it succeeded, it would have a significant impact. All the better that it fit nicely with one of the Foundation’s emerging priorities, reconciliation: “One of the ways in which we get at reconciliation is through reculturalization and being on the land is a huge part of that.” 

For her part, Nicole appreciates the flexibility of the collaborative funding model. Participants can be involved as much or as little as they want, something that appeals to her, given her current position. As the Program Director for Indigenous Initiatives, Nicole manages the McConnell Reconciliation Initiative, which currently has three priority areas: increasing the number of organizations and networks active in the reconciliation space; fostering innovative platforms for change; and supporting the use of social innovation and solutions finance tools in our Indigenous initiatives: “Right now, the McConnell Foundation has a large Indigenous portfolio with limited staffing. There are a lot of initiatives that we want to be supporting, so having the flexibility to have other partners step up and work with communities more directly is a bonus.” That the Foundation feels comfortable stepping back a little reflects the fact that they “trust the partners sitting at the table.”

Though Nicole has been working with funding collaboratives for approximately 10 years, she is relatively new to the world of philanthropy. Prior to joining the McConnell Foundation in 2015, she worked in the public service. She had a hand in implementing the Common Experience Payment as part of the Indian Residential School Resolution; she worked on programming and policy with the Urban Aboriginal Strategy; and she was involved in community safety planning as part of the Government of Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Initiative.

Nicole is Métis from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and has spent most of her life living on Treaty 6 Territory. In 2012, Nicole relocated from the prairies to Ottawa so that she could pursue new work opportunities. She never expected to work for a philanthropic organization, but she is glad that the opportunity presented itself: “It’s been the best two years!”

For Nicole, there is no separation between her work life and her home life. Both she and her husband work in the Indigenous space and their five children are very involved as well. Her three sons are active in the Moosehide Campaign, a grassroots initiative working to address violence against women and girls. Inspired by a meeting with Cindy Blackstock, her daughters started a letter-writing campaign asking the Prime Minister to accept the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal 2016 ruling which found that the Government of Canada is discriminating against First Nations children living on-reserve. Her eldest son is a member of the Steering Committee for 4Rs, a youth movement committed to creating spaces for cross-cultural dialogue with an eye to transforming the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. All of this in addition to a busy schedule of swimming, soccer, hockey and synchronized swimming.

One of their family traditions is to head back to Saskatchewan in the summer to spend time together on the land visiting with family, swimming, fishing, hiking and berry picking. Last summer they also had the opportunity to visit with Elder Maria Campbell at her traditional family’s homestead at Gabriel’s Crossing in Batoche. Nicole notes, “Being back home and on the land is important to our family as it helps to remind us of our identity, history, values and connection to mother earth.”

The NWT On The Land Collaborative depends on partners like J.W. McConnell Family Foundation to support land-based initiatives in the NWT. If your organization is interested in becoming a partner, please contact Steve Ellis ([email protected]).

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