In December, we were excited to bring together corporate CSR leaders, nonprofit partners, and sector innovators at the Museum of Vancouver for the Community Impact Exchange - a full day focused on strengthening how we can better conduct, communicate, and collaborate on impact measurement.

This event was made possible with the support of our Community Sponsor, YourCause from Blackbaud, and our Workshop Sponsor, True Impact. Our partners strengthened both the day's programming and the cross-sector dialogue at the heart of this exchange.

Setting the Foundation

To start the day, Elder Seislom of the Lilwat Nation grounded the gathering with a traditional prayer and song, offering a moment of reflection that set a thoughtful tone for the day ahead. Following this greeting, keynote speaker Narinder Dhami of New Power Labs got straight to the point with a question that resonated across the room: How do we actually know if we're making progress towards addressing the challenges facing underrepresented communities?

Narinder helped us unpack the concrete barriers we face to collecting disaggregated data and consider examples for how we can overcome these challenges. She argued that pairing data transparency with lived experience is what strengthens our narratives, informs better strategy, and ultimately influences how money flows in Canada.

Five Quick Takes on Where We're Headed

Next came the Impact Talks moderated by Michael McKnight of United Way BC. He opened the session by naming something everyone in the room was feeling: social impact teams are stretched impossibly thin, yet the pressure to measure meaningfully keeps growing.

Five speakers tackled this tension from different angles:

• Bryn Sadownik from VanCity Community Foundation walked through practical ways to make measurement actually useful for nonprofits, not just funders.
• Lisa Paull highlighted why Indigenous-led and community-driven approaches matter and how they live these practices at New Relationship Trust.
• Jodene Baker from Imagine Canada asked tough questions about what we measure versus what we ignore when we reduce impact to outputs rather than outcomes.
• Joyce Lin explored sector-wide data collection, drawing on Vantage Point's eye-opening "Stretched Thin" research.
• Andrew J. Troup from YourCause from Blackbaud wrapped up by looking at how measurement fits across the PEACE framework, connecting technology, inclusion, and purpose.

These talks were short but packed a punch. The conversations they sparked continued well into lunchtime.

Getting Practical

After lunch, we got hands-on. True Impact led a workshop that mixed people across tables to tackle real challenges: reporting burden, mismatched expectations between funders and nonprofits, and frameworks that focus too much on outputs instead of outcomes. The session introduced accessible, partnership-centred tools like logic models, measurement roadmaps, and frameworks designed to clarify what matters without creating unnecessary complexity. The workshop's "Golden Reporting Rules" to keep reporting simple, timely, uniform, and supportive resonated particularly strongly, offering both funders and nonprofits a shared set of principles for more transparent, respectful, and aligned reporting practices.

What We're Taking Away

As the day wound down and we shifted into networking mode, the conversations kept going. What became clear across all the sessions: we're ready to move beyond impact measurement as a box-checking exercise to a collaborative practice built on trust, clarity, and real accountability to communities.

The Community Impact Exchange showed us what's possible when we make space to learn together across sectors. It was an energizing reminder that Canada's impact infrastructure is still being built, and we all have a hand in shaping it.

The PRISM Community Impact Company Network is Canada's leading community of companies committed to reimagining corporate-nonprofit partnerships, contributing nearly $1 billion in community investment annually. Learn more about joining the PRISM Network and sign up for the PRISM Viewpoints newsletter to stay up to date with our PRISM Network Learning Series events in 2026.