About Us
The Counselling Foundation of Canada is a private family foundation based in Toronto, ON (the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat, Petun, Haundenosaunee, Anishinaabe and Mississauga Anishinaabe of New Credit) that champions life-long learning and career development for people in Canada. We provide funding to support initiatives in Canada from coast to coast to coast that help young people with their career development.
Our Vision
A day when all people in Canada are able to contribute their skills and talents to help build a more prosperous, equitable and inclusive society.
Our Mission
The Counselling Foundation of Canada champions life-long learning and career development that empowers people in Canada to develop their skills and talents.
Our Values
We believe:
- One person can have a positive impact on many.
- Leaders who inspire action and achieve results can create change in their communities.
- Accessing career counselling and career development opportunities empowers people to make informed decisions.
- When people are able to pursue opportunities to utilize their skills and talents, they contribute to a prosperous, equitable and inclusive Canada.
Our Guiding Principles
- Be bold. Take smart risks and provide leadership to address complex and challenging issues.
- Collaborate. Build partnerships on trust and a shared commitment to learning.
- Foster systemic change. Work with and support partners and initiatives that have the potential to deliver significant change.
- Invest in leadership. Encourage and support visionary leaders.
- Be flexible and adaptive. Change takes time; acknowledge and plan for it.
- Demonstrate respect. Embrace traditions, heritages, and lived experiences of people in Canada.
Strategic plan
In 2019, the Foundation undertook a strategic review and reached out to many different stakeholders within its network to gather feedback and discuss priorities and emergent issues and opportunities in the years ahead. In addition to some internal priorities, the 2020 Strategic Plan includes three external areas of focus:
- The Relationship Between the Foundation and CERIC
- Career Development in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
- Supporting the Charitable and Philanthropic Sectors and Civil Society
While financial support may be the primary and most important way in which we can offer to support our funding recipients, there are other types of non-financial or low-cost supports we can provide, such as convening, policy development and advocacy, and making connections to other funders or to other organizations doing similar work across the country.
Career development, like the rest of Canadian society, is under pressure from external factors (such as demographic shifts, technological disruption, climate change, and human migration to name just a few) that are shaping the world around us. As we think of our work, we will seek to understand and be guided by how these external influences are at play and affect career development.
As a signatory of the Philanthropic Community’s Declaration of Action, which was presented in 2015 at the closing event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we also continue to be mindful that there will be no chance of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples in Canada without concerted and sustained action to back up that commitment.
The Foundation works with organizations and their leaders who have the vision and drive to make change happen not just today but for the years, even generations, ahead. This means accepting that even the best-sounding ideas come with risks, and success — however it is measured — is not guaranteed and may not be well-defined. The Foundation can and will make these decisions, learn from them and work with others to share this knowledge.