Colette Murphy is the Chief Executive Officer of the Atkinson Foundation. She sent this letter to Atkinson’s extended community today — her last working day for 2025. You can subscribe to receive her occasional updates here.
Friends,
I’ve been looking at the world through the lens of a new iPhone camera a lot this year. My collection of photos reveal what slows me down and gives me pause. Always my kids and garden. Often public art like street murals and graffiti with raw wisdom like “Fear. Less. Care. More.” and “The World Survives on Hope”. And occasionally, breathtaking encounters with nature in every season. I’ve chosen a few images taken in the Yukon, Québec, and Ontario for this letter in the hope they will give you a moment or two of peace at a chaotic time.
2025 marks the end of one decade and the start of another for the Atkinson Foundation. In June, we completed a rigorous year-long strategic priority renewal process that deepened our resolve to help build movement power for decent work. It committed us to “moving minds, money and markets” in tangible ways. And it answered the question “what is the best contribution Atkinson can make now to the future we want?”— our long view.
You can read a top-line summary of our organizational strategy for 2025 to 2035 on our website. But more importantly, you can already see it in action.
We marked this turning point with the Good Fight Prize and the launch of an annual public awareness campaign about decent work this fall. It kicked off with a 60-second manifesto video, a series of eight full-page ads in the Saturday Star, and related content on digital platforms. In late November, we gathered with many of you to celebrate the 2025 winner, The Worth More! Campaign for Child Care Workers, and the other finalists, The Investors for a Fair Economy Campaign, and The Youth Climate Corps Campaign.
A month earlier, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation Community Trust’s Mark Sevestre and I rang the bell at the opening of the Toronto Stock Exchange to commemorate the TMX Group’s first Reconciliation Action Plan — a promise made at the 2022 Annual General Meeting with the acceptance of Atkinson’s shareholder proposal. At The Circle’s All Members Gathering in Vancouver in that same week, I had the chance to talk with Indigenous leaders and other settler philanthropists about our collaboration with the Reconciliation and Responsible Investment Institute and the Shareholder Association for Research and Education. There, I also told the story of how Atkinson has been “living into the spirit” of The Philanthropic Declaration since the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 10 years ago.
Looking ahead, we’ve started to lay the groundwork to transfer a portion of our endowment to one or more Indigenous-led entities, and to renew the Atkinson Decent Work Fund in 2026. Both strategies for moving money prioritize the durability of existing movement infrastructure and the creativity of cross-movement advocacy related to climate change, responsible investing, and Indigenous and racial justice. I appreciated the opportunity to spend time with Environmental Funders Canada this spring in Whitehorse where I could learn and think aloud within a community of like-minded funders and advisors.
Marking time this way — in years and decades but also in moments and seasons, with awards and bells, and with quiet, daily acts of solidarity — has transformed Atkinson into the foundation we are today. Now well into our eighties, we’re old enough to know justice is a generational struggle and can never be reduced to the outcome of a logic model or strategic plan. But we’re still young enough to dream big and take necessary risks.
I’m particularly grateful to our Board and staff members, and how we work within a wider inter-generational community and with each other, for their individual contributions to our collective justice-seeking efforts this year. The unique voices of the Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers Armine Yalnizyan and the Atkinson Artist Rollie Pemberton (aka Cadence Weapon) could be heard regularly through mass media. All of the movement builders we support have kept a broad range of issues — from wage theft to private equity in the care economy to nonprofit workforce challenges — in the headlines and on the public policy agenda. We’re proud to be their partner for the long haul.
Earlier this week, I learned about Mended Cups, an art project in the Kintsugi tradition by Yoko Ono. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing cracked pottery and finding beauty in imperfection. Each cup and saucer commemorates a historic tragedy — six since 1937. Ono says these cups speak to humanity’s resilience and respect its scars. The collection is completed by an unbroken cup inscribed with this message: “This cup will never be broken as it will be under your protection,” symbolizing hope for a future without breaks or fissures.
My wish for you, and for the communities at the centre of your life, is this kind of hope. A hope that seeks to protect and repair, marks time intentionally, and comes from patient and active democratic engagement with the world as it is and can or should be.
With gratitude and in solidarity,
Colette Murphy
Chief Executive Officer
ATKINSON FOUNDATION
December 19, 2025
