Supporting NxG Philanthropy

Listen to François de Gaspé Beaubien recount an anecdote of supporting the next generation in philanthropy. It is important to encourage to the next generation to engage in philanthropic activities by allowing them to choose a cause that they are truly passionate about. The more passionate the next generation is about the cause, the more they will immerse the family business in the given cause.

My parents are very big on giving back. And every generation identifies particular causes that they want to help support. And so we asked the generation behind us, you know, what’s the cause that you would like to support? And we had thought, as a family, we were trying to lead them towards bees. Why bees? Because, as you probably know, there’s a huge crisis going on, and the pollination and people take it lightly but, so we thought we could get our hands around that, we could help, we can help with a whole bunch of variety of issues. They came back and they said no we don’t like bees; we would like to focus on water. And my reaction was you’re kidding, right? I mean, water? That’s like, I would like to focus on air, right, it’s just so big of a challenge, how could you get your hands around it? And to their credit, they stuck by their guns, and now we’re focusing on water and we’re starting les Rivieres des Outaouais which is the Ottawa River, and I won’t go through the details of this because it’s a separate topic but the point being that they identified something that they were passionate about and it became their calling. And I have to tell you, I’ve become passionate about it now.