Spring Social with Mass Culture

May 7, 2025: The Creative Champions Network’s 2024-2025 Workshop Series season is coming to an end with a closing gathering on May 7 at Canada’s Theatre Museum, located within the historic Elgin & Winter Garden Theatres.

The Spring Social will be an opportunity for us to hear from arts leader Robin Sokoloski, Director of Programs & Research of Mass Culture, and celebrate a year of our commitment to tackling the many immediate challenges faced within the arts sector. 

Case study: Fringe Festival

March 18, 2025: Dive into a fascinating case study on the Toronto Fringe Festival, a grassroots champion of boundary-pushing artistic voices. This session will explore the Fringe’s groundbreaking partnership with Soulpepper Theatre—a collaboration designed to amplify opportunities and impact within the arts sector.

We’ll discuss:
– The motivations behind this partnership
– The risks and rewards of collaboration
– Structures that preserve the Fringe’s core mission

Don’t miss this in-person workshop and the chance to engage with experts Laura Paduch (Producer, Arts Administrator, and Advocate), Rachel Kennedy (Executive Director and Co-Lead of Toronto Fringe Festival), and Michelle Yeung (Lead of Creative Champions Network).

This event was hosted in-person at Humber College International Graduate School.

Case Study

The Future of Philanthropy

January 30, 2025: In this session we tackle current challenges in fundraising, from donor fatigue to economic uncertainty, and explore sustainable practices to help rebuild and adapt to the evolving landscape. We also look at the future of philanthropy and how we can innovate for lasting impact.

Panelists include:

Alicia Rose, Associate Vice President, Social Impact and Strategy, TD Bank

Paul Nazareth, Chief Connector, Connectworking Generosity Education

Aneil Gokhale, Director of Philanthrophy, Toronto Foundation

Welcome and Land Acknowledgement from Michelle Yeung, Creative Champions Lead and Moderated by Peter Kingstone Program Manager, Toronto Arts Council.

Get expert insights and practical strategies to navigate today’s fundraising landscape and drive meaningful change.

Revenue Diversification: What’s Possible?

November 26, 2024: In this one-hour session facilitated by Stephanie Jacobs, we’ll explore nine effective revenue diversification strategies tailored for nonprofits. Discover practical ways to broaden revenue streams, build organizational resilience, and foster a positive financial culture aligned with your goals. With real examples from the arts sector, this workshop offers actionable insights for fostering financial health.

Starting (or refining) HR & People Systems: How the heck can we do this?

October 8, 2024: Arts HR expert Jeanne LeSage of LeSage Arts Management will take attendees through an in-person interactive session with ideas and tools about how to start (or refine) your HR & People systems.  Attendees will be encouraged to workshop and brainstorm actionable ideas to take back to their arts organization to get started! 

LeSage CCN Workbook

advocacy in the arts

May 15, 2024: Too many arts leaders are juggling advocacy “off the side of their desks” while they are delivering core arts programming. Yet board members are key to advancing the cause. Guest speaker Kate Cornell guided us in activating and engaging in strategic government relations as a way to secure additional funding and to build your organization’s brand. Let’s learn how to make real change in our sector, together.

Resources

Advocating for the Arts: Cultural Policy and Municipal Leadership

Building the Charitable Sector’s Policy Muscle

Reflection on Why Bother?! Webinars from Mass Culture

Developing Effective Government Relations and Advocacy Strategies for Canadian Arts Organizations Micro-credential

ONN Advocacy Toolkit

Justice, Access, Inclusion, Diversity & Equity (JAIDE)

March 7, 2024: Explore an integrated approach to justice, access, inclusion, diversity and equity (JAIDE) and identify the inherent value and importance these areas hold in informing the arts. Investing in these values is not only the right thing to do, but imperative, and reflects the importance of removing barriers and addressing social justice issues that will enrich arts organizations to be better in every way. How do we ensure that all our governance and decision making is centered around JAIDE and towards better spaces for art-making?

This online session was hosted by Parul Pandya of Community Impact Consulting and Wendy Rading of Arts Etobicoke.

Case study: Canasian dance

January 30, 2024: Creative Champions Network’s (CCN)
presents a case study on Against the Grain Theatre, with information consolidated from the Ontario Not-for-profit Network (ONN), in collaboration with Ignite PS through their Reimaging Governance project. Utilizing this scenario and analyzing the issues presented, members will work together to answer their specific governance questions and apply their knowledge as a group to develop analytical skills they can later apply to their own organizations.

This session was hosted in-person at Adapativist’s Toronto offices.

Case Study

Case study: Against the Grain Theatre

November 22, 2023: Creative Champions Network’s (CCN)
presents a case study on Against the Grain Theatre, with information consolidated from the Ontario Not-for-profit Network (ONN), in collaboration with Ignite NPS through their Reimaging Governance project. Utilizing this scenario and analyzing the issues presented, members will work together to answer their specific governance questions and apply their knowledge as a group to develop analytical skills they can later apply to their own organizations.

This session was hosted in-person at Adapativist’s Toronto offices.

Case Study

All about ONCA

September 21, 2023: Ontario’s Not-for-profit Corporations Act (ONCA) was proclaimed on October 19th, 2021. Nonprofits have until October 18th, 2024 to update their bylaws and letters patent to comply with ONCA. This webinar, hosted by Benjamin Miller, will walk through what is new in the ONCA, steps nonprofits need to take to transition to the ONCA, and how Community Legal Education Ontario’s (CLEO’s) free resources can help you create ONCA compliant bylaws from scratch or adapt your current bylaws. To learn more about the ONCA visit nonprofitlaw.cleo.on.ca.

2023 End of Season Social

June 13, 2023: Our goal this past season was to create dialogue, to create a collaborative space for learning and unlearning together, and to bring board members and arts leaders together to move our missions forward, and to bring the learnings to life and into action. We’ve challenged our current governance model, questioned our organizational culture, explored ways to mitigate risk through holistic approaches to planning, and addressed a key board responsibility of leadership transitions and successions. Together, we have discovered that our work is unique and complex, and at times, it is difficult engage and navigate through economic, artistic, individual, and collective priorities. To overcome the many challenges our sector faces, we need to work collectively, think differently, and think deeply about, not only governance, but how we make good decisions together to move our organizations forward.

Join us for our final event of the season to hear about this work in action. Keynote speaker, Marjorie Chan, Artistic Director, Theatre Passe Muraille who will speak about TPM’s collaborative co-leadership model, board engagement and their organizational desire to shift towards a balanced and healthy environment for artists and staff. TMP is exemplary in tackling the challenges we all face in the sector and innovating their organization into the future.

This session was hosted in-person at Adapativist’s Toronto offices.

What Happens when People Leave

April 4, 2023: Planning for succession and leadership transition guarantees the stability and health of arts organizations, yet arts leaders and board members are not often prepared for what happens when people leave. Planning for transition not only ensures the continuity of an organization’s mission and work, but having a process and plan in place prevents institutional memory loss and reduces risk. If leadership transition requires an organizational change or shift, we must first look inwards to identify internal needs before engaging externally.

How are we preparing ourselves for this inevitable evolution? This interactive panel discussion, What happens when people leave? will focus on leadership succession – a key board responsibility. The session will feature speakers from three arts organizations that have recently undergone leadership change:

Generator is a mentoring, teaching, and innovation incubator that expands the skills, tools, and competencies of independent artists, producers and leaders.

Native Earth Performing Arts is Canada’s oldest professional Indigenous theatre company. Currently in its 40th year, they are dedicated to creating, developing and producing professional artistic expressions of the Indigenous experience in Canada.

Since its founding in 1972, The Toronto Consort has become internationally recognized for its excellence in the performance of medieval, renaissance and early baroque music.

We will explore these cases, dive into their successes and challenges, and learn of their journeys to inform and kick start our own organizational planning.

Resources

Five Good Ideas to enhance succession planning and leadership continuity in the non-profit sector, Maytree Foundation

An introduction to Generator’s ‘Charting Waters – Transitions in Arts Organizations’ blog series, which highlights our ongoing process of organizational growth and leadership transition—featuring a podcast interview with Work.Shouldn’t.Suck.

Generator’s 2021 Call for Leadership

Toronto Consort Creates New Leadership Model By Colin Eatock (Early Music America)

Announcing our new Interim Artistic Director Joelle Peters and Managing Director Himanshu Sitlani (Native Earth)

8 Strategies For Non-Profit Leadership Transitions by Jim Foster (Cause Leadership)

Unifying Your Company’s Old Guard and New Arrivals by Ron Carucci (HBR)

Is Bad Onboarding Stifling Your New Senior Leaders? by Ron Ashkenas (HBR)

Beware the Transition from an Iconic CEO by by Elena Lytkina Botelho, Shoma Chatterjee Hayden, and BJ Wright (HBR)

Planning for Organizational Health

February 7, 2023: Planning is essential to organizational health. Planning allows you to articulate goals, minimize uncertainty, innovate, be creative and build a cohesive and collaborative
environment to move your organization forward. From short-term planning to longer term strategic planning, there can be a plethora of challenges that come with the process including time and resources, buy-in and consensus, and ongoing reporting and evaluation. For many, planning is a daunting exercise. This interactive workshop, facilitated by Samantha Zimmerman (Change Management Consultant and Executive Director of the Guelph Youth Music Centre), Parul Pandya (Founder of Community Impact Consulting) and Michelle Yeung (Lead of Creative Champions Network), will simplify the planning process. We will address common challenges and help you more effectively build flexible and adaptable plans that focus on current priorities, ensuring that they do not end up in a drawer after the process.

This session was hosted in-person at Adaptavist’s Toronto offices.

Resources

Emerging Ideas on Arts Governance, Business/Arts

The Role of Strategic Planning in Arts Organizations, Lawrence Bennie

Failing to Plan: 8 Reasons Why Strategic Planning Fails, AMC Governance Solutions

Risk Management: An Essential Tool for Resilience, Jerry Smith and Heather Young

The Art of Rich Pictures, Open University

Some Damn Good Ideas On How To Build Back…Better

December 9, 2021: Featuring a few really good thinkers who will provide food for thought and perhaps some inspiration for arts board members as they begin to move into a post-pandemic era. A quickly moving session, with each speaker presenting some of their very best ideas – predictions, strategies, wise advice – followed by discussion and idea-sharing. Ending with a final toast to the coming year to celebrate and re-energize Creative Champions board stalwarts!

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Are You The Boss of Me? One Mission, Two Roles

May 17, 2021: Who IS the boss in an arts organization? Or does asking that question indicate a misinterpretation of governance and confusion about the mutual and separate roles and responsibilities of board and staff? No one in our stressed community has time for misunderstandings, or tensions, in the midst of a pandemic. Yet we know that the unhealthy power dynamics that sometimes pop up between board and staff haven’t disappeared during Covid. Our panel will explore the many benefits of mutually supportive and respectful collaboration – and the ideas and understandings that underlie them – in a webinar that tackles the foundational but perennially vexing topic of the role of arts boards in relation to staff.

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Board Recruitment: How Does Successful Succession Planning Work Today

March 30, 2021: It’s said that board composition is at the root of board effectiveness, and that succession planning is one of an arts board’s most important leadership roles – a role made immeasurably more challenging by the pandemic’s disruption to “business and usual” and by rapid and urgent changes in community expectations. Learn how to shift from a haphazard, last-minute scramble to a process that goes beyond filling current skills gaps to recruiting the right individuals to fill future needs, by: always recruiting new board prospects; watching for future leaders; identifying, cultivating and bringing forward new members; and taking deliberate action to develop and embed diversity on your board.

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When the Shift Hits the Fan

Februrary 22, 2021: It was a hard year, but Creative Champions’ first webinar of 2021 offers an opportunity to be inspired and re-energized. Hear what some inventive organizations have been doing to shift, adjust, pivot, evolve, and survive. Featuring creative leaders who’ve responded boldly to the shock of the pandemic – adapting and reshaping how they create, produce and present their art. Are we really going to return to “normal” some time soon? Or should we be learning and sharing ways to evolve in a transformed world?

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Governance Policies: Why, Which, When, How?

November 17, 2020: The past months have thrown a spotlight on the importance of having clear and current policies on matters including employment practices, non-discrimination, anti-racism, anti-harassment, financial oversight and more. Boards can play an essential role in defining practices, responsibility and accountability that advance the legitimacy and sustainability of an arts organization. Learn from seasoned board members Brett Ledger and Susan Pigott how to develop governance policies based on solid values, honest discussion, and commitment to collaborative working practices and organizational excellence.

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Guidance For Arts Boards Confronting a Pandemic: Creating Truly Decent Work – in Times of Crisis

September 29, 2020: Explore how the best boards have been responding, both before and during COVID, to the increasing urgency of ensuring that their organizations are supportive and equitable workplaces. What is the board’s role and responsibility in creating truly decent workplaces that meet today’s expectations and values? Explore how the definition and challenges of decent work have changed in the past six months, and how arts organizations are adjusting their human resources policies and practices in light of the transition to delayed openings and working from home. Presenters Lucy White, Nadia Bello and Lisa Marie DiLiberto imagine new ways to balance the financial needs of our organizations with the need to sustain the livelihoods of our most important resources: artists and arts-workers.

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Guidance For Arts Boards Confronting a Pandemic: Fundraising and Funding in the Time of COVID-19

June 22, 2020: How are boards fulfilling their fundraising role in the midst of a pandemic? If you’re wondering what has changed, what remains the same, and what outreach and type of appeal seem to be resonating most strongly, Brett Egan, who had a distinguished career leading major arts organizations in New York City and Santa Fe, will share his many experiences in providing planning and training to arts and culture organizations in the United States, Canada and around the world. Sandy Houston, CEO of the Metcalf Foundation, joins the discussion with his observations, from a funder’s perspective, on the type of transitions and funding decisions being made during the pandemic, and how Canadian foundations and philanthropists are responding to the crisis.

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Guidance For Arts Boards Confronting a Pandemic: The Board’s Role in Organizational Resilience

May 1, 2020: COVID-19 has hit our sector hard: arts organizations have had to cancel shows, events and seasons; artists’ income and livelihoods, always precarious, are now even more so. Yet many of our companies are drawing on deep reserves of resiliency: our stages may be dark, our exhibitions postponed, and our venues closed, but most of us are open and operating – often in radically new ways. Although few companies found themselves “ready” to deal with a pandemic, speakers Paul Nagpal and Owais Lightwala (Board Co-Chair and Managing Director Why Not Theatre) and Celia Smith (Co-founder Leadership Emergency Arts Network and incoming Interim CEO Luminato Festival) will explore the board’s important role in developing resilient organizations. What should board members be doing now to help their companies think clearly, act quickly, and innovate in ways that demonstrate strength and flexibility? How can they reinforce, or develop, practices and principles that take them through the current crisis and successfully into the future?

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Guidance For Arts Boards Confronting a Pandemic: 10 Principles for Navigating Through Critical Times

April 16, 2020: Arts organizations throughout the world are suddenly facing urgent and unprecedented challenges. What’s the best way for arts boards to assist as their organizations abruptly pivot from standard practice and programming? How does the board’s role change in a time of crisis? Senior arts leaders and experienced board members Robin Cardozo and Helen Burstyn offer 10 Principles for Navigating through Critical Times – the first in our series of three Creative Champions webinars providing Guidance for Arts Boards Confronting a Pandemic. We really are all in this together!

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