A6-B6: Advocacy and Risk Management
November 10, 2011 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM
November 11, 2011 10:45 AM – 12:15 PM
More and more charities and other non-profit agencies are called upon to advocate with government and other decision and policy-makers on issues of importance to the communities with which they work and often represent. At the same time there is increasing scrutiny on the activities of charities by the public and others charged with holding these publicly funded agencies accountable. This seminar will explore some of the “rules of advocacy”, the tension that exists between activities promoting the Public Good and the appearance of political activism, as well as strategies in successfully managing the tension.
Sean Moore is Founder and Principal of Advocacy School and one of Canada’s most experienced practitioners, writers and teachers on public-policy advocacy. He has more than 30 years’ experience in public-policy and advocacy related to local, provincial/state and federal government affairs in Canada and the United States. He is a former Partner and Public-Policy Advisor withe national law firm Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP. Today, he advises corporations, NGOs and associations on their compliance with federal and provincial “rules” of lobbying and advocacy. Through Advocacy School, he also designs and conducts professional development training in advocacy for NGOs, as well as industry and professional associations. He has been a faculty member of the Maytree Foundation’s Public-Policy Training Institute and is an advocacy mentor to grantees and fellows of a number of Canadian foundations including the Social Innovation Generation (SiG) initiative, a collaboration of the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation of Montreal, the MaRS Discovery District of Toronto, the University of Waterloo and the PLAN Institute of Vancouver.
W. Laird Hunter is based in Edmonton where for more than 30 years he has carried out a significant national practice in charity and non-profit law. Laird acts as general counsel, providing tax and corporate advice on a variety of charity and non-profit issues. He advises on establishing charities and non-profit organizations and works with them to address their organizational and governance concerns. He is regularly called on to advise charities and non-profit organizations on compliance and taxation matters under the Income Tax Act (Canada), as well as other relevant provincial tax regulations. Well known for his work in the field, Laird has twice acted as intervenor counsel before the Supreme Court, on Vancouver Immigrant Women and later in the AYSA case. Amongst other reform initiatives, Laird was a member of the Working Together task force, and an advisor to the Regulatory table as part of Voluntary Sector Initiative. Laird is Treasurer of the Muttart Foundation.
