Canadian Sacred CommonsFoundation
A forested headland reflected in still water

ABOUT

Born from questions and a deep belief in the power of Love.

This is the story of how we began: the questions we carried, the people and places we listened to, and what we learned along the way.

Follow the journey

CHAPTER I · THE JOURNEY

THE QUESTIONS WE CARRY

Eleven questions that started this.

From why Love feels taboo in our most powerful systems, to what it means to Love those we will never meet. Turn over the questions at the heart of our work.

Explore the questions

A RELATIONAL SENSEMAKING JOURNEY

From December 2025 to September 2026, we listened and learned.

We travelled by car to learn from people, community events, national and international learning spaces, and more-than-human friends (like trees, mountains, ocean, bison, and birds)!

200+

People we listened and learned alongside

107

one-to-one dialogues

11

Community Sharing Circles

8

Provinces travelled by car

In each circle, we asked:

  • What does Sacred Love, as action, mean?
  • Where does it show up in our communities and systems?
  • If Sacred Love were our organizing principle 10 years from now, what would community look, sound, smell, taste and feel like?
  • What should the principles and practices of a pooled fund for Sacred Love be?

Circles were gathered in:

  • Toronto
  • Edmonton
  • Calgary
  • Lethbridge
  • Saskatoon
  • St. John’s
  • Kentville
  • Charlottetown
  • Souris
  • Twice virtually

We learned from activists, artists, teachers, social workers, scientists, faith and spiritual leaders, entrepreneurs, policy leaders, philanthropic and financial advisors, foundation executives, high-net-worth-individuals, and many more.

Tsyécelcten, Mount Robson, snow-capped above a forest and open meadow
“I asked the great mountain, Tsyécelcten, ‘What does it take to move mountains?’
They replied, ‘Move your Self.’”
The Because of Her exhibition by Adrianne Williams: colourful portraits of women hung along a gallery wall, reflected in a polished floor
“The ‘Because of Her’ exhibition by Adrianne Williams at the Medicine Hat Museum was a beautiful invitation to consider the women who have shaped my own life—and a reminder of the many Black women whose lives, labour, and love have formed so much of the foundation of our society. I’m reminded of the words of Martin Luther King Jr.: ‘Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.’”
Burned trees standing over new growth in Jasper National Park after the wildfire, beneath a grey sky
“Nature moves with its own sacred wisdom. Had we listened, respected, and learned, perhaps the fires in Jasper National Park would not have been so devastating. And yet, the fire’s aftermath is birthing something newer and healthier in the forest. There is purpose, even in this darkness.”
Round red boulders scattered across the pale badlands of Red Rock Coulee beneath a wide sky
“There are moments when something, upon first glance, seems absurdly odd, and yet you can’t help but become so awestruck that it quickly becomes something absurdly wondrous. Standing at Red Rock Coulee was certainly one of those moments.”

WHAT WE HEARD

Eight themes from 200+ conversations
and communing with Nature

  1. Many are doing spiritual work, but much of it remains fragmented, invisible, and under-resourced.
  2. There are push-and-pull factors in naming Love and the sacred.
  3. Understandings of Love are contracted by dominant norms, and expanded through dialogue.
  4. Embedding Love for systems change in philanthropy needs to be intentional.
  5. Reclaiming who is, and who can be, a philanthropist is essential for justice and liberation.
  6. Philanthropy must embody and practice the values it seeks to cultivate.
  7. There is appetite for Love and the sacred in the sector.
  8. Nature is a teacher for the philanthropic sector.

CHAPTER II · WHAT WE MEAN BY LOVE

WHAT WE MEAN BY LOVE

We mean Sacred Love.

Sacred Love reminds us that we are part of something greater than ourselves, and moves us to more deeply show up for our self, one another, and the Earth. Here, Love is not simply a feeling or sentiment. Love is intention and action. It is humanity’s most powerful and generative force.

Some call Sacred Love a spiritual force; others call it a force of justice, morality,
or creativity. However we name it, this Love calls on us to recognize the inherent dignity, interdependence, and sacredness of all. From there, we can transform our selves, relationships, systems, and world—even across differences, amidst complexity and paradox, and in suffering.

THREE IDEAS WE WORK WITH

The words beneath our work

Sacred worldview

Weaves together scientific, societal, and spiritual ways of knowing, being, and doing. Sacred Love acts at the center.

Spiritual solutions

Spiritual, religious, cultural, and secular practices that foster shared meaning, purpose, and action.

Flourishing

A collective process between human and more-than-human beings toward living well.

CHAPTER III · WHY IT MATTERS

WHY THIS MATTERS

When our worldview changes, our choices change; when our choices change, our systems transform.

META-CHALLENGE

Fear-based orientation

Today’s overlapping social, economic, ecological, political, and technological challenges persist because the systems responding to them are often oriented around fear, fatigue, extraction, and loss of shared meaning.

THE ROOT

It begins with us

The essence of all systems is us—and our relationships with ourselves, one another, and the Earth. When those relationships rupture, our systems rupture. When those relationships are nurtured, our systems are nurtured.

META-SOLUTION

Love-based orientation

Spiritual solutions help us nurture those relationships, so that we can act from Love to: shift our values, narratives, and actions that govern our system; and create the conditions for imagination and innovation within our systems.

PHILANTHROPIC INVESTMENT

In Fear-based systems

When philanthropic investment flows into systems rooted in Fear, it produces:

  • cycles of inefficiency—massive funds dissipated without durable change, and interventions repeated without lasting resolution
  • harm to people, who move through these systems without experiencing holistic and long-term relief
  • harm to the Earth, whose ecological limits are repeatedly exceeded.

PHILANTHROPIC INVESTMENT

In Love-based systems

When philanthropic investment flows into choices and systems rooted in Love, it produces:

  • cycles of regeneration—funds that seed change and grow deep roots over time
  • care for people, who move through these systems feeling experiencing holistic and long-term flourishing
  • care for the Earth, whose ecological limits are honoured, and whose abundance is restored.
Looking up through a broad green leaf, its veins lit by the sun

WHY PHILANTHROPY, WHY NOW

We need a new philanthropic collaborative.

Amid Canada’s historic $1-trillion intergenerational wealth transfer, there is a unique opportunity to cultivate a sacred worldview across the philanthropic field—both in what we fund and how we fund it.

GO DEEPER

This page is a beginning. The full picture lives in our position paper.

Our paper holds the full glossary of terms, rationale and evidence for spiritual solutions, why Canada’s ready, methods, findings, a model for investing in Love, local and national organizations who do Love-based work, and 14 recommendations for embedding Love into the philanthropic sector for systems change.