Tamarack's 2024 Annual Report

About the Tamarack Institute

The Tamarack Institute exists to end poverty in all its forms.

Poverty is multifaceted. It is systemic. It is experienced by people. Ending it requires changing the systems that shape our experiences of education, health, loneliness, income, wealth, and access to food, water, shelter, culture, and digital infrastructure.

Tamarack Institute Member Communities: A Map of Canada with dots representing the location of the Tamarack Institute’s almost 200 member communities

At Tamarack, we partner with 37,000 learners and - through our four Networks for Change - over 180 communities. We link people to build skills and practices to collaborate for systems change. We guide communities to work together in place around community-defined dimensions of poverty. We bring communities’ wisdom to inform public policy and perception.

Skills for Change: Referencing seven Skills For Change (S4C), the Tamarack Learning Centre provides webinars, workshops, courses, cohorts, and 1-on-1 coaching to provide practical skills and increase the capacity of changemakers. Our Consulting Directors partner with community organizations, public foundations, universities, and government programs to affect community and systems change. The skills for change are: Asset-Based Community Development, Community Engagement, Collaboration, Evaluating Impact, Community Innovation, Collective Leadership and Equity.

Land Acknowledgement

Turtle Island (North America) is the ancestral homeland of Indigenous Peoples of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit descent. We recognize that, across this land, Indigenous rights holders continue to endure systematic oppression and inequities that have resulted from widespread colonialist systems and ideologies. We recognize the contributions of Indigenous people and support their ongoing struggle for self-determination and sovereignty. We work to understand the history of the lands upon which we are guests and to contribute to justice for all Indigenous Peoples

African Ancestral Acknowledgement

We also wish to acknowledge those who came to Turtle Island – as migrants either in this generation or in generations past – involuntarily, particularly those brought to these lands as a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery. Tamarack pays tribute to those ancestors of African origin and descent and thanks them for their contributions toward transforming systems in ways that promote everyone’s sense of belonging and safety. At Tamarack, we are taking action that allows us to be aware of, recognize, and address the systemic ways in which anti-Black racism manifests.

Black and Indigenous communities demonstrate that we can work together in solidarity toward peace and equity as we use collective wisdom, knowledge, and gifts that promote healing within our communities.

Reconciliation Commitment

Recognizing the importance of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit perspectives, knowledge, and sovereignty, we commit to building intention, respect, reciprocity, collaboration, and cultural humility into the relationships we hold with First Nation, Métis, and Inuit rights holders. We seek to create opportunities for shared learning, co-creation, and collective action that honour First Nation, Métis and Inuit values, traditions, and aspirations and promote reconciliation.

Support members and learners to take action to close community-identified equity gaps.

Foster a team and culture that supports team wellbeing and personal and professional growth

Build reciprocal relationships with equity-denied communities

Implement accessibility measures that support equitable participation in all parts of the network

Use our public policy, learning and communications platforms to further advance equity and reconciliation

Foster supportive and inclusive governance structures

Support systems change and equitable outcomes in community by promoting a culture of transparency, accountability, collaboration, and psychological safety between Tamarack and network members.

In an April 2023 gathering of our board, we were in conversation on how to open Seeds of Transformation: A Loving Framework for Equity, Belonging and Reconciliation. One of our board members, Sunshine Chen, told a story of building community that ended with these words: there are no small projects.

We write this note in bleak times. Across the world and in our local communities, we experience widening disparity gaps, decreased civic engagement, and the erosion of principles that underpin equity, empathy, community, and a sense of belonging.

But we experience something else as well. Local changemakers and communities across the world are creating a different reality, one characterized by abundance, connection, and collective action.

Our network is seizing this moment. We are a powerful network of 40,000 changemakers and 180 local communities reaching from coast to coast to coast, into the US and across the world. Behind these numbers is work that is intentional, impactful, imaginative, and often local but never small.

We are connecting changemakers – including people with lived/living experience of the inequities we must address – and local place-based collaboratives with large-scale work on policy and perception. When local, regional, and national approaches are in relationship with each other (and responsive to each others’ realities, assets, and innovations), we enable systemic change.

The network we have built together catalyzes leaders to hold powerful responsibilities – and structures work to strengthen and support one another.

Our network leaves us more whole. Whether it’s through local and national collaboratives where we’re working together, learning experiences where we’re imagining new ways of thinking and being, or communities of practice where we’re forging strong bonds, we are pursuing opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach. We are engaging the principled forms of dialogue that leave those involved feeling more seen, heard, and essential. We are leveraging collective strengths, knowledge, resources, and influence to drive equitable outcomes.

We’re buoyed by your leadership – rooted in place, reaching beyond, and shaping not just what is, but what’s possible. Grounded in our shared commitments to equity, justice, and action, we are weaving a community of belonging, strength, and bold imagination. You are turning local innovations into national blueprints.

The Tamarack Institute 2024 Annual Report offers stories, learnings, experiences, and signs of progress about how people are coming together to end poverty in all of its forms. See how people are re-envisioning and transforming the places where they live and work and offering insight into how connectivity across multiple scales – the local, the national, and everything in between – will drive us toward a more equitable future.

At the end of last year, we bid a fond farewell to Liz Weaver, who retired after an extraordinary 15-year career with Tamarack. Liz’s leadership and vision were instrumental in shaping Tamarack’s impact and supporting thousands of communities worldwide. We invite you to revisit and celebrate Liz’s remarkable contributions.

There are no small projects. Our work today builds on generations of work before and moves us toward a world where community is our norm.

Thank you.

Nation Cheong (he/him), Chair

Ana Gonzalez Guerrero (she/her), Vice Chair

Danya Pastuszek (she/her), President & CEO

Our principles – connection and belonging, place, strength and optimism, equity and justice, courage and learning, and action and impact – guide our work with communities and our organization.

Here is a small snapshot of internal work that enabled our impact:

Resource activation. We hosted conversations with more than 30 corporate, philanthropic, and government funders to explore a framework for why funding in place is hard – but essential. Insights from one of those gatherings is here.

People and culture. Led by our People and Culture team and supported by our partner Power of Discourse, we reviewed and updated all of our internal policies through an inclusion and equity lens.

Communications. Stewarded by our communications team, we fully implementing a framework for safer virtual spaces, which clarifies our expectations for how we show up in virtual spaces and offers clarity on how we will support presenters and participants if something goes wrong.

Public policy. Based on guidance from our board, we transitioned how we determine our public policy positions from having it be a board-driven decision to taking a more community-centred approach.
Budgeting, community compensation, and gratitude. We designed and launched a community compensation and gratitude policy.

Shanese Green, Senior Community Animator, Equity and Reconciliation, says:

It’s about supporting leaders in communities by making sure they’re valued and appreciated for who they are and what they bring. It makes sure that people, especially those who’ve been left out in the past, can participate, without worrying about money getting in the way. It recognizes that people’s real-life experiences are as important as anything else, and it gives them the space to share their voices and ideas in a way that makes a difference. At its core, this guide is not just a set of rules, and it’s not just about paying people. It’s a way to create real connections and trust with people.

In late 2024 and early 2025, we revisited our 2030 Plan, its principles, its commitment to ending poverty in all of its forms, and its three core strategies: people, places, and policy and perception.

Systems change relies upon so many things. One is deep, durable collaboration, held with care and creativity by many, many people over the long term.

This timeline shares the roots and evolution of Tamarack since its origins in 2001. It describes a network designed to bring together the many assets that already exist in places, with the ambition to end poverty (and, more recently, to end poverty in multiple, interconnected forms). It describes how a unique type of collaboration in 13 initial places has catalyzed

community-wide impact in hundreds of places,
a joining up of communities to work on levers of change that can't be addressed locally, and
a culture of collaborative learning that connects local learnings to larger-than-local approaches.

Here’s a summary of what’s next for us, with a detailed overview here:

People

Creating offerings to help a global community of learners build skills, relationships, and capacities to create communities where everyone can thrive. We hope you’ll join an upcoming webinar or workshop or consider what skills you’d like to build next via a new self-assessment tool.

Surrounding changemakers and communities with tools, case studies, and other resources that can spark imagination, impact, and progress on equitable outcomes.

Implementing year 1 of the action plan included in Seeds of Transformation: A Loving Framework for Equity, Belonging, and Reconciliation.

Places

Providing flexible options for member communities that are working on poverty or one of its related symptoms or causes. Our new membership offering aims to acknowledge the different needs and aspirations that different communities have.

Prototyping a Community Pathways journey map that shows the milestones that communities prioritize as they move toward equitable, community-wide outcomes and systems change.

Deepening our tools and resources to support municipalities in partnering with community organizations and residents. This will include working alongside local climate partnerships to advance collaborative and equity-centred climate adaptation and resilience projects.

Connecting communities to funding, finance, and compensation that honours their contributions and meets the scale of their vision.

Policy & Perception

Deepening our exploration of how to sustainably fund systemic change in place (and the ecosystems that must support local, place-based efforts).

Advancing a member-driven public policy agenda. We will advance work for a Canada-Wide Strategy for Belonging and for permanent, widescale approaches to guaranteed livable incomes and financial inclusion, and the essential role of local, place-based collaboration as a component of any strategy for systemic change.

Amplifying stories of learning, progress, and impact.

Continue to deeply align with other national partners who hold shared goals and complementary roles (or assets).

Tamarack entered 2024 with strong financial reserves, including $3.53 million in our Sustainability Reserve and $1.13 million in unrestricted funds. With Board approval, we strategically invested $557,000 from reserves to support and seed long-term priorities and operational capacity.

While the audited Statement of Operations shows a $496,000 deficit, our actual operating position reflects a net surplus of $61,000. This is due to accounting rules that exclude reserve use as revenue. For the full Audited Statements, click here.

A pie chart showing our 2024 expenses.The expenses are as follows: Communications: $237,485 or 3%. Member Community Funds: $1,791,199 or 23%. Operations: $149,266 or 2%. Program: $759,157 or 10%. Staff: $4,537,677 or 59%. Travel: $177,748 or 2%. The total expenses are $7,652,442.

At Tamarack, we are deeply grateful for the community of changemakers who support our mission—our donors, members, partners, sponsors, and collaborators. Your contributions, whether through financial support, strategic partnerships, active participation in workshops, or membership in our Networks for Change, are essential to the work we do.

Your generosity enables us to drive meaningful change—helping communities reduce poverty, strengthen social connections, uplift youth voices, and advance equitable climate transitions. Every donation, every partnership, and every act of collaboration brings us closer to a more just, sustainable, and equitable world.

Reflecting on the past year, we are proud of all that we've accomplished together.

We extend our sincere gratitude to the individuals, organizations, and foundations who make this work possible. A special thanks to our funders, whose support continues to fuel our shared vision for stronger, more vibrant communities.

From all of us at Tamarack, and on behalf of the communities we serve—thank you. Your belief in our mission is both inspiring and essential, and we are honoured to work alongside you in shaping a better future.

Reaffirmed our shared commitment to reducing poverty in Canada, with a target to reduce Canada’s poverty rate to 5% by 2030.

Launched the 2024 Changemaker Experience, engaging 95 participants, and offering scholarships to ensure accessibility for all.

Offered a total of 39 scholarships through our Be a Light Scholarship and Paul Born Lived Experience Expert Scholarship.

Introduced the third cohort of the Climate Transitions Program, expanding to 24 additional communities and releasing the Guide for Advancing Climate Equity Through Place-Based Collaboration in both French and English.

Secured over 1000+ signatures supporting a National Plan on Belonging and released a guide to help communities combat loneliness through discussions on belonging.

Continued to prioritize the voices of lived experience experts, compensating them for their vital contributions to publications, events, and learning communities.

Hosted our inaugural Engagefest Event, gathering nearly 400 changemakers to celebrate the Power of People and Place supporting learners with barrier free rates where possible.

Developed practical tools for action, such as the tool for Conflict Navigation, to help communities drive lasting change.

In this report, you'll find:

About the Tamarack Institute

community acknowledgmEnts

Land Acknowledgement

African Ancestral Acknowledgement

Reconciliation Commitment

Our Commitment to equity, reconciliation and belonging

Introduction

Our 2024 Impacts

INTERNAL SUPPORTS THAT ENABLED OUR IMPACT

What's Next

Where we are headed.

People

Places

Policy & Perception

Our Financials

A Heartfelt Thank You to Our Supporters

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