Knowledge Exchange
Build better judgment alongside Canada's leading impact investment practitioners.
Every impact fund eventually encounters decisions that have no obvious answer.
Knowledge Exchange brings together senior practitioners in carefully curated peer circles to work through those moments together—drawing on real experience, thoughtful challenge, and trusted relationships built over time.
Whether you’re raising your next fund, refining your investment approach, responding to LP feedback, or navigating operational complexity, Knowledge Exchange provides an ongoing place to develop the judgment your practice requires.
Applications for the next intake are now open.
Why Practitioners Need Knowledge Exchange
Impact investing has matured rapidly over the past decade, but the practice itself is still evolving.
There is no established playbook for many of the decisions fund managers face.
Practitioners are designing investment structures, governance models, blended finance approaches, and impact measurement systems in real time, often with few precedents to draw on.
The questions are rarely technical. Rather, they’re questions of judgment.
- Is the challenge we’re facing unique—or have others encountered it before?
- Should we adapt the structure or stay true to the original thesis?
- Is this LP feedback an isolated concern or an early signal?
- What does responsible growth look like for our next fund?
- How are other managers balancing financial performance with impact integrity?
The answers usually aren’t found in reports or presentations.
They’re found through conversations with people who’ve faced similar decisions, made difficult trade-offs, and learned from the experience.
Knowledge Exchange exists to make those conversations possible.
Why Knowledge Exchange Exists
There are many ways to learn. Each serves a different purpose.
Eventually, every practitioner encounters questions that training programs and published resources cannot answer.
Not because the information doesn’t exist. Because the answer depends on judgment.
- Should we stay the course or adapt our strategy?
- Is this market signal temporary or structural?
- How are other fund managers thinking about similar challenges?
These decisions are shaped by experience, context, and thoughtful dialogue with peers who understand the work.
Knowledge Exchange exists to support that stage of professional practice.
It provides an ongoing, confidential practitioner forum where practitioners work through live challenges together, strengthening the quality of their judgment over time.
What You'll Gain
Knowledge Exchange is designed to strengthen judgment over time.
Better Decisions Today
Bring live challenges to peers who understand the realities of managing impact investment funds.
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Test assumptions before committing.
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Learn from analogous experiences instead of repeating avoidable mistakes.
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Access practical perspectives from practitioners, legal experts, policy specialists, and operational leaders.
Stronger Practice Tomorrow
Develop relationships with peers who continue to grow alongside your organization.
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Build reference points before you need them.
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Access practical tools, templates, and emerging practices drawn from across the Canadian ecosystem.
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Gain a broader national perspective across sectors, geographies, and investment strategies.
A Stronger Field
The conversations within Knowledge Exchange do more than support individual organizations.
Across hundreds of practitioner conversations, recurring themes begin to emerge.
TIIP synthesizes these patterns into practical resources, sector insights, and policy recommendations that strengthen Canada's impact investing ecosystem.
Members don't join to create research. They join to make better decisions.
The research is a by-product of practitioners helping one another.
Why Knowledge Exchange is Different
Knowledge Exchange is not built around a fixed curriculum. It is built around practice.
Every Fund Manager Circle brings different questions, different market conditions, and different opportunities.
Rather than asking practitioners to work through predetermined content, each session begins with the decisions members are actually facing.
That means the conversations remain relevant as markets evolve, regulation changes, and funds mature.
Carefully curated fund manager circles
Better Peers. Better Conversations.
Members are placed into small circles of five to seven practitioners based on stage, strategy, relationships, and market dynamics.
The goal is simple:
- Close enough to understand your work.
- Different enough to avoid competitive friction.
Ongoing, Not One-Time
Because your fund keeps evolving
Professional judgment develops over years, not over a weekend.
Knowledge Exchange provides an ongoing place to return as your fund evolves and new challenges emerge.
Built on contribution and trust
Confidentiality and reciprocity
Members are expected to contribute their own experience, participate actively, and maintain strict confidentiality.
The quality of the program depends on the quality of the relationships within it.
Traditional Programs
- Fixed curriculum
Defined beginning/end
Learn from instructors
Focus on knowledge
Membership Includes
As a member of Knowledge Exchange, you’ll participate in an integrated learning ecosystem designed around real-world practice.
Your Fund Manager Circle
A carefully curated peer group that meets monthly
Strategy Rooms
Facilitated deep dives into complex practitioner challenges.
Expert Series
Practical conversations with leaders in specialized fields.
Dossier TIIP
Member-access only to curated resources, frameworks, templates, and practitioner intelligence.
Member Chat Channel
Always-on online community for timely questions, introductions, and shared learning between sessions.
What the Experience Feels Like
Every Fund Manager Circle session begins with a real challenge brought forward by one of the participants.
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An LP has raised concerns | A blended finance structure isn’t landing | An investment committee is wrestling with a difficult decision.
Rather than offering generic advice, peers draw on analogous experiences, lessons learned, practical frameworks, and thoughtful questions that help clarify the path forward.
Members leave not with a prescribed answer, but with stronger judgment and a clearer understanding of the options before them.
Knowledge Exchange isn’t about finding someone to tell you what to do. It’s about surrounding yourself with people who help you think better.
Knowledge Exchange isn’t about finding someone to tell you what to do. It’s about surrounding yourself with people who help you think better.
What Practitioners Say
Propel Impact
The most valuable program I’ve participated in as an impact investing fund manager—an incredibly thoughtful blend of trusted advice, deep dives with experts, and relationship building.
Keshiv Kaushal, Chief Investment Officer
Fair Finance Fund
Think of it as a room full of passionate people rolling up their sleeves and openly sharing experiences, challenges, and successes. The real value comes from the conversations, connections, and collective wisdom in the room.
Justin Abbiss, Executive Director
New Market Funds
A thoughtfully coordinated and facilitated opportunity to speak candidly among peers.
Garth Davis, Managing Partner
Winnipeg Community Foundation
A great resource for a newer fund manager to connect with the broader social finance ecosystem, learning from best practices and lessons learned in the field.
Kalen Taylor, Manager, Social Impact Investing
Who It's For
Knowledge Exchange is designed for practitioners in senior leadership positions actively building or managing impact investment vehicles in Canada.
You may be a good fit if:
- Your organization or fund is based in Canada.
- You are actively raising, structuring, deploying, or managing impact investment capital.
- You make or materially influence fund-level strategic decisions.
- You are prepared to contribute your own experience as well as learn from others.
- You value confidentiality and thoughtful peer exchange.
Knowledge Exchange is intentionally designed for practitioners.
It is not a networking group, a fundraising forum, or an introductory training program.
Fees
Annual membership fees are based on your organization’s operating budget.
Membership includes participation in Knowledge Exchange programming and access to TIIP member resources.
Under $100,000
$100
$100,000–299,999
$500
$300,000–499,999
$1,500
$500,000–749,999
$3,000
$750,000–999,999
$4,000
Over $1,000,000
$5,000
Frequently Asked Questions
Knowledge Exchange welcomes new members through scheduled intake periods. After submitting an application, you’ll meet with the TIIP team to discuss your practice, current priorities, and circle fit.
Once your membership is confirmed, you’ll have immediate access to Knowledge Exchange programming, member resources, and the broader practitioner community. Fund Manager Circles are launched twice each year, allowing TIIP to thoughtfully curate each group based on practitioners’ stage, strategy, relationships, and market dynamics.
Circles are intentionally curated based on practitioner stage, investment strategy, existing relationships, and competitive dynamics.
Each circle intentionally brings together practitioners at different stages of development, creating opportunities for mutual learning. Rather than grouping organizations solely by maturity, circles are designed to bring together diverse lived experience, perspectives, and approaches to building and managing impact investment funds.
No. Circle composition is designed to maximize relevance while minimizing competitive overlap.
Fund Manager Circles meet monthly. To help establish trust and relationships, members are expected to attend their first two circle meetings. After that, participation is flexible—you join when your schedule and current challenges make it most valuable.
In addition, members are invited to a monthly virtual gathering of the broader Knowledge Exchange community to explore cross-cutting topics and connect across circles. Participation is optional.
Yes. Confidentiality is a foundational expectation for all members.
Knowledge Exchange is designed for senior decision-makers (Managing Partner, Managing Director, Executive Director, Chief Investment Officer) actively responsible for strategic and investment decisions.
Each organization may designate up to two senior decision-makers to participate in Fund Manager Circles. This ensures discussions remain candid, peer-to-peer, and focused on the complex decisions facing organizational leaders.
On occasion, TIIP may invite additional team members to participate in specific sessions where broader organizational perspectives would be valuable.
Yes. Knowledge Exchange includes opportunities to learn from experienced practitioners and subject matter experts through the Expert Series. Rather than following a fixed curriculum, members help shape the topics and experts invited throughout the year based on emerging challenges and areas of interest.
That’s expected. Because Knowledge Exchange is standing infrastructure rather than a time-limited program, members engage differently as their organizations evolve. Some come seeking advice on fund design or fundraising, while others return later to tackle governance, portfolio management, exits, or organizational growth.
No. Fund Manager Circles are designed for busy practitioners. Members are expected to attend their first two meetings to build trust within the group. After that, participation is flexible. The community is there when you need it, not another obligation on your calendar.
Absolutely. Members are encouraged to bring real decisions, opportunities, and challenges from their own practice. The most valuable conversations are grounded in current work rather than hypothetical case studies.
Each circle determines its own priorities. Conversations often explore fund strategy, fundraising, governance, investment decision-making, portfolio management, team leadership, impact measurement, partnerships, organizational sustainability, and emerging opportunities. The agenda evolves with members’ needs rather than following a fixed curriculum.
While conversations within Fund Manager Circles remain confidential, the learning doesn’t stay within each circle.
TIIP identifies recurring themes, emerging challenges, and promising approaches across the Knowledge Exchange community and translates them into anonymized State of Practice Briefs, implementation guides, and other practitioner resources available to members.
Together, these publications create a growing library of Canadian practice that members can draw on throughout the life of their fund, allowing you to benefit from the collective experience of the broader community while preserving the trust and confidentiality of individual circles.
Build Better Judgment.
The challenges shaping Canada’s impact investing field will not be solved by any one organization.
They will be solved by practitioners learning from one another, recognizing patterns together, and strengthening the field over time.
Join a community designed for the conversations that matter most.