From Roundtable to Funded Pilot

Written By Quinten Sheriff

Quebec's English-language arts and culture sector is facing a quiet but urgent problem: a succession crisis. Over the next ten years, up to 80% of senior directors in Canadian nonprofits will begin to retire or move on, and the sector has no reliable pipeline behind them. Entry- and mid-level employees lack the skills and institutional exposure needed to step into management roles, and candidates from the for-profit sector, while capable, typically didn't understand the specific needs of the English-speaking community or the operating realities of nonprofits.

In response, the Education and Skills Table for Arts & Culture Workers — a roundtable formed under the Arts & Culture Working Group — was convened to design a solution. The table was chaired by Lori Schubert (then Executive Director, Quebec Writers' Federation), with a steering committee including Deborah Forde (then Director of Operations, ELAN) and independent consultant Quinten Sheriff. For this initiative, Quinten facilitated roundtable discussions, coordinated meetings and co-wrote the successful grant! 

The Mandate

The table's objective was direct: develop, fund, and find a fiduciary home for a program that would give arts and culture organizations ongoing access to professional skills-development sessions and follow-up coaching; specifically aimed at preparing entry- and mid-level workers for advancement into management. A secondary, equally valued goal was cohort-building: giving participants a peer network they could draw on for information-sharing and partnerships throughout their careers.

This program has become the Arts & Culture Leadership Program (ACLP).

The Design Process

Between November 2024 and July 2025, the steering committee and full table met seven times to move the concept from idea to a fundable proposal. Key milestones included:

  • January 2025 — Initial steering committee scoping sessions

  • February 2025 — A meeting to explore YES Montreal as a potential fiduciary

  • March & June 2025 — Steering committee refinement of the working model

  • July 2025 — Full-table review and sign-off on the model ahead of grant preparation

The Program Model

The table settled on a working model built around a 2- to 3-year grant covering design, implementation, delivery, and evaluation, targeting a first cohort of up to 14 mid-level arts and culture workers, each nominated by their home organization.

The Curriculum, based directly on community survey results, spanned 12 topic areas — nonprofit board development, non-government fundraising, partnership building, project management, grant writing, public speaking/media training, HR basics, change management, EDI, government compliance, financial literacy, and a "life skills" module covering communication, stress management, time management, conflict resolution, and cross-cultural sensitivity. 

The full slate totaled roughly 92.5 hours, with coaching layered on top. Where possible, sessions were designed to be delivered by experienced managers from within the sector itself (ELAN, YES, QDF, BTW, QWF, Montreal Fringe, and others), with in-kind delivery exchanged for a cohort seat.

Securing the Fiduciary and Funding

Two structural pieces had to come together before the program could launch:

  1. A fiduciary organization (YES Montreal) to legally and financially house the program

  2. Grant Application for Funding sufficient to cover a full pilot cycle, through Canadian Heritage Strategic Fund.

The table also mapped a clear list of government stakeholders to engage, spanning both federal and provincial levels: Service Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada, Canadian Heritage's Official Languages branch, Centre Jeunesse Emploi, the Secrétariat aux relations avec les Québécois d'expression anglaise, the Canada Council for the Arts, Quebec's Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale and Ministère du Travail, and relevant distance-education departments.

The Grant Was Awarded!

The work paid off and will begin in Autumn 2026. The Arts & Culture Leadership Program proposal was successful, securing two years of funding through Canadian Heritage's (PCH) Strategic Fund. 

Grounding the program design in direct community and provider survey data, building a realistic and costed delivery model before approaching funders, and proactively engaging the right slate of federal and provincial stakeholders including PCH itself, made this approach a success.

What's Next

With funding secured, the table's priorities shift from proposal-building to implementation:

  • Confirming provider contracts based on the responses gathered through the fall provider-intake process

  • Setting logistics for the first in-person Montreal cohort, including the nomination process for the pilot's 14 participant seats

  • Standing up the systems needed to track coaching delivery, evaluation, and outcomes across the 2- to 3-year grant term

The interested organizations that signed onto the new program include: 

Key Takeaway

The Arts & Culture Leadership Program shows how a sector-wide succession risk was addressed through a shared, cross-organizational table rather than individual, duplicated efforts. By pairing survey-driven design with sustained, multi-month coordination across steering committee and full-table meetings, the Education and Skills Table turned a diagnosed gap in leadership pipeline into a funded, structured program ready to serve its first cohort of mid-level arts and culture leaders across Quebec's English-language sector.

Quinten Sheriff
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Building a Grant System Around Equity