Helen Burstyn
Helen Burstyn-O.C- has had a storied career in government, business, academia, broadcasting and community service. She serves on numerous Boards in the Nonprofit Sector including The Pecaut Centre for Social Impact Koffler Centre Canadian Opera Company Luminato amongst many others. She is also the winner of the Carol Shields Prize for women fiction writers.
1. Your career has spanned diverse sectors of the economy including: academia, entrepreneurial government broadcasting/media philanthropic and social impact to name but a few arenas. Your achievements are iconic
Please share the achievements that you cherish the most.
When I look back on my career, I can’t believe how lucky I’ve been to have enjoyed such a diverse, interesting and satisfying career.
I started out as an editor at Coles Publishing and was responsible for the Shakespeare Notes that helped so many students pass their exams. I still see those trademark black and yellow covers in bookstores or on personal bookshelves.
I usually held down two, sometimes three jobs at the same time, so while I was with Coles I was also teaching English to Engineers at U of T and communications in the Business Department at Seneca College. Later, I would land a position at what was then Ryerson University (now TMU) mentoring social entrepreneurs in the Social Ventures Zone.
People used to predict that my English degrees would limit my job prospects and I’d end up teaching. But my MA in English served me well in landing my entry job into government. I was hired by the Legislative Research Service of the Ontario Legislature because all they required was one post-graduate degree and it didn’t matter what it was in. Though I had no financial background, I was given the coveted opportunity to staff the Public Accounts Committee where, working with the Office of the Auditor General, I learned about the workings of government, the legislative process, value-for-money audits and how to follow the money — all very important, useful skills that served me well throughout my career.
There followed many interesting positions in government: Deputy Secretary of the Ontario Premier’s Council in the David Peterson government, Executive Lead for Communications and Marketing for the Bob Rae Government and, after a seven year hiatus in business, a return to government in the office of Premier Dalton McGuinty as his Senior Advisor. But perhaps the most [personally rewarding position in government was serving as Chair of the Ontario Trillium Foundation. That’s where I learned the importance of community-based organizations and the many challenges facing non-profit enterprises.
Since then, I had the chance to return to broadcasting as the co-host of Toronto Files, a Rogers community TV program about the people and issues that matter to Toronto. I’ve been a provincial candidate in the riding of Beaches-East York and started a communications/marketing business with one of my daughters and supported or advised all of my children in pursuing their own successful businesses or careers. And I’ve served on many boards, which gives me the opportunity to support various ventures in the arts, in the social services, and in community economic development.
Though it’s not a job, what also keeps me very fulfilled these days is being a grandmother to five beautiful granddaughters.
2. Can you identify some of the key challenges you have faced and how you addressed them?
There were many challenges along the way, but there were two I often encountered and usually managed to overcome. One was being under-estimated because I came across as “too nice” perhaps or not tough enough or simply because I was a woman in some cases. The other was the reluctance to try something new or challenge conventional approaches. Many of the projects or enterprises I started were seen as “sure failures” at the outset and surprised a lot of people (sometimes even me!) by succeeding. That was the story of Gilda’s Club, a cancer support community that I co-founded with three friends 30 years ago, and it was also what I experienced in co-creating the first Office for Social Enterprise in the Ontario Government, and in Canada. I was told over and over that it was a nice idea, but it would never happen. Well, it was a great idea and it did happen. And I hope it still exists!
3. Helen, we are witnessing in the US a slow but steady erosion of civic norms and values that have been commonly held for millenia. There are many implications for us. What can we do as a society to ensure our young people continue to believe in the value of social good/civic engagement.
As a public servant, I found the steady erosion in trust of public servants over the years to be very challenging and at times demoralizing. Unlike in the US, when there is a change of government in Canada, the public service remains largely intact to serve the government of the day and their expertise, experience is highly valued. That’s not as true as it used to be, though, and we’ve lost some great talent in the public service as a result. Many former bureaucrats have found new challenges and fulfilment in the non-profit sector, so government’s loss is sometimes the community’s gain.
4. The Nonprofit/Charitable Sector is facing major resource issues-be it donations from individuals/attracting and retaining talent/volunteers. How do the leaders of the Sector need to change their thinking/efforts to thrive in the next 20-30 years? Are mergers and acquisitions a key component of the survival of the Sector?
The sector has always faced major financial and people challenges. But so many resourceful, innovative and community-minded nonprofits do manage to succeed. Sometimes joining forces with a comparable and compatible organization is the key to strengthening both organizations. When I was at Trillium, we would sometimes suggest that applicant organizations consider working together and, though we were careful about invoking the “merger” word, we would work with them to find shared goals and better outcomes that could result from working together to achieve impact.
5. The Nonprofit Sector has struggled to be recognized by Canadians as an economic as well as a social force contributing to their well being. Many of us have endeavoured to motivate print and digital media to spotlight the vast Sector and its achievements-with limited success. How do we motivate varied media to profile our Sector and the stories of our heroic frontliners?
My simple answer to that not-so-simple question is position nonprofits and social enterprises as powerful, often-successful and very substantial businesses. That’s what they are, and when they succeed, the benefits to communities, individuals and adjacent social enterprises is huge. Whether it’s nonprofit or for profit entity, it’s the capacity for impact that makes social enterprises powerful organizations capable of delivering effective and workable solutions for many challenges in our society and economy.