Mandate

The Inspirit Foundation is honoured to have Indigenous board or staff members from the Anishinaabe and Sahtu Dene First Nations, as well as of Inuit descent. Inspirit staff and board members are also made up of settlers, immigrants, descendants of immigrants, or a combination thereof. Our roots lie in all continents across the world, except Antarctica.  

We also acknowledge board or staff members of African descent whose ancestors were forcibly displaced as part of transatlantic slavery, brought against their will, and made to work on these lands. We believe that advancing Indigenous sovereignty and Black liberation are deeply and inextricably linked to one another and we remain committed to advancing both.  

The Inspirit office is located on the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. This territory is the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. We are privileged to support and work with nations and partners across Turtle Island.  

Inspirit is a public foundation focused on building a pluralist Canada. We do this by funding media and arts for social change and investing our capital in ways that align with our mission.  

We define pluralism as the energetic engagement with diversity, the active seeking of understanding across lines of difference, and a process of nurturing constructive dialogue that contributes to a deep sense of belonging.  

We believe equity is the foundation for building a pluralist society. Equity strives to create equal access and outcomes for all. It recognizes equal treatment for everyone does not always yield equal results due to systemic exclusion and discrimination. Equity work challenges unfair systems and practices and works towards the creation of fair access and outcomes.  

We also recognize the rights of Indigenous peoples to determine their own frameworks for equity. 

Inspirit is committed to ensuring that principles of equity are integrated into every aspect of our work in ways that will enable us to:

We believe equity is a reiterative process, and with this recognition, we are committed to reflecting on this statement every year to ensure we are advancing equity within our own organization. 

A pluralist society is one in which people of different beliefs and backgrounds can participate equally, coexist peacefully, and thrive together. Pluralism ensures that we all feel like we belong. It requires equitable access to funding so that people and systems can seek understanding across lines of difference, and challenge and change existing power structures.  

Pluralism is advanced when we see ourselves reflected in all our diversity and multiplicity. It suffers when the narratives and values that underpin our dominant social, cultural, and economic structures—the very structures that also dictate whose stories are funded and told—leave out or cause harm to those who belong to racialized, ethnic, and religious minority communities.  

We support communities and organizations that build narrative power and challenge the systemic barriers that have traditionally dictated whose voices count. We fund to enable greater participation and decision-making power in arts and media, as this is vital to pluralism. 

We are also committed to using our investments to further our vision of pluralism. Our investments need to generate returns and maximize stakeholder value. Through research, we identified four factors that increase the probability of inclusion and pluralism in a society: increased livelihoods, climate change solutions, community infrastructure, and increased access to arts, culture, and important services. We evaluate potential investments on their ability to contribute to the objectives and outcomes related to these societal conditions.