This new organization will investigate the power imbalance between Canadian funders and marginalized communities

Author Brennan Doherty
New Power Labs will work to accelerate access to capital for marginalized communities through research, advocacy, and hosting conversations within the sector.

Why It Matters

Canada’s social impact professionals routinely rely on U.S. data to demonstrate systemic racism within the sector, especially as it relates to inequitable grants, funding, and capital transfers. Changing that will require Canadian social impact professionals to gather their own data.

When it comes to detailed research on race, ethnicity, disability, or sexual orientation in social impact, Canada is a data desert. 

There simply isn’t a lot of disaggregated data — or data divided into subcategories, especially based on attributes like race, gender, or disability — to back up experiences of systemic racism among the staff of non-profits, charities, philanthropy, intermediaries, and impact investors, as well as the marginalized communities they serve. “We point to U.S. disaggregated data to make that argument in Canada,” says Narinder Dhami, managing partner at Marigold Capital and founding partner of New Power Labs. 

Set to launch in September, New Power Labs will try to identify and address systemic financial inequities through workshops, a forthcoming curriculum, and acting as a matchmaker service of sorts for organizations

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