Next gen on how 7 kids, 14 grandkids plus dad work together

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There is no one path for rising generations in enterprising families. In this series we talk to members of next generations, whether they take on a role in the family business, its foundation or its wealth stewardship, or to carve their own path.

When Jordie Burton’s father, James A. Burton, exited his business PPI Management Inc., the elder Burton said he felt that a “higher purpose” was driving him to a philanthropic endeavour.

Taking a generous portion of the proceeds from his business sale, Burton, with his seven children – including Jordie Burton – and 14 grandchildren in mind, invested in building a multi-generational family legacy through the Ottawa-based James A. Burton and Family Foundation.

The foundation’s work includes helping raise more than $1.28 million for Lighthouse Community Services in Orillia, Ont., which provides a homeless shelter, supportive housing and community services. Other projects include feeding school children, education supports, support people through the arts and housing for vulnerable people. The foundation’s assets sit at about $30 million.

Here, Jordie, a director with the foundation, reflects on the ways next-generations’ involvement in an initiative like a family foundation can mean shifting family relations, strengthening family bonds through collaboration and the need for personal accountability.

How did the family foundation come to be?

“Our family foundation was formally created by my father, James Burton, after he sold his own business and made the decision to endow a private foundation.

To arrive at this point it is relevant to know that Jim dedicated his career to entrepreneurial endeavours, including founding several of his own businesses that he grew and fostered throughout his life. Along the way, Jim learned many things about building a successful business in Canada, but the main enterprise was not structured with the family.

Upon exiting his most prominent business, PPI, Jim set out to take many of his learned lessons and create something with his family. The James A. Burton and Family Foundation was created as a family enterprise from the beginning.

The endeavour launched with Jim and his children (6 of us now) sitting at the table together, working to understand our shared values and vision of what we might be able to accomplish together. Philanthropy has always been important to Jim throughout his career and the development of a foundation was something he often spoke of. When the time was right, he made the choice to shift his own work from the business to the foundation.

When he did this, he also used it as a launching point to create a family enterprise, a project that we could all be a part of.”

How did your father’s experience shape your own work ethic?

“My dad’s experiences had a major impact on my own work ethic. He demonstrated that success can be the result of hard work, but far more of what he shaped was the idea of how and why to work.

The ideas that my dad shared with us were always about working with purpose, and if that purpose rang true, how you went about it became an opportunity for creative approaches and innovative solutions.

Doing something because it has always been done that way is not good enough.

Growing up and knowing that my dad worked every day to grow and craft a company he built had a huge impact on me. It certainly showed me that it’s possible to pursue a dream and make it happen, and we learned by seeing it first-hand that it is not always easy.

Something that was always clear was how much my dad felt his work really mattered. It had little to do with paychecks or outcomes and had a lot to do with why showing up every day made a difference.”

What was it like growing up in a family business and family foundation environment?

“Our family foundation is something that we are building together as a family, as adults. It is really different than growing up with siblings in a business environment that you might play a role in.

One of the aspects that has been the most interesting is learning to come to the table and be open to having new perspectives with each other.

Growing up it is easy to understand your parents and your siblings in a particular way. I might have certain expectations of what one of my brothers will do or be like, or an assumption on what my dad might want to hear.

We have been working hard, as adults, to re-write the scripts that we hold and allow each other an opportunity to engage as we are now. It is refreshing and challenging.

While we are working in this start-up foundation to build something together, I am also becoming very aware of what this may mean to the next generation. I have two young sons myself, and many nephews and nieces.

Our generation is undergoing our own learning process to not only build the foundation but also to recognize where we can become better at working together. It is really interesting to think about creating the space for the next generation to engage and have their voice as part of the family enterprise, as well.”

What support did you get to pursue your interests, whether part of the family enterprise or outside of it?

“In our family we were always supported to pursue the things in life that we felt drawn towards. This is another iteration of a family value of finding purpose. In this sense, I was always very supported in my career choices.

For me this meant pursuing work as an educator. I chose to find ways to share my passions with kids in the classroom, as well as take on community projects along the way. It was work that meant a lot to me, and my family was always very supportive.

Throughout the years, my dad has been a great supporter and instigator to remind me to take risks in my work, and life.

My wife Heather was an early influence on community impact work that I would pursue.

While we were in our early 20s Heather brought me to Kenya with her to help create an art exchange program and volunteer in rural schools. This was an amazing adventure and one of the largest impacts that would shape decisions later on.

This was years before we would create a foundation, but my family were great supporters of the projects we were taking on, and my dad, in particular, saw the spark and passion of what we were doing.

There was always a sense in our family that we had the freedom to choose these paths for ourselves. I recognize that this was a luxury afforded to us through the hard work of our parents.”

What role did your education take in your career trajectory?

“In my own education I was always encouraged to find programs and pathways that aligned with my own passions. My undergraduate degrees are in English, Studio Arts and Education. I recall my family being very proud of the pursuits I was following and feeling that it made a lot of sense.

Later in my career, I went back to school, and made the choice to study in England, where I received an MA in Applied Imagination.

The intersection of my own career and our family work has really come in my pursuit of social impact through innovation and design. The timing of our family foundation has been wonderful for me personally, as it really is a place for me to engage many of my own passions and pursuits in an arena built with my family.

In terms of evolution, now that we are running a family foundation, I continue to pursue educational opportunities but knowing that there is a way to take my own interests and skill sets and apply them to the needs of our organization presents a new lens to see the value in continuing education.”

What experiences outside formal education helped you in your current work?

“The family foundation was created when the founding member, and the second generation were all adults. Because of where we are in life, one of the greatest things we bring in terms of training is our diverse life and career experiences.

We are developing several partnerships that support youth programming and work with people facing hardships with housing and mental-health issues.

My career as a public educator has offered me countless opportunities to learn first-hand what so many families are struggling with on a daily basis. What I really learned from teaching was to be open-minded and empathic first, and then find a way to work with people second.

I am a big supporter of creating programming that is human centred in its approach, which is to say that the people we are trying to support need to have a voice in our understanding of the work we are trying to accomplish. I have spent a lot of time formally studying these approaches, but the most learning has come from seeing it in action.”

Did you turn to advisors for help along the way?

“Our family foundation was created from the ground up with the support of external advisors. Before the foundation was created, Jim was an early supporter of CAFE (Canadian Association of Family Enterprise) and then has been a major supporter of the development of FEC (Family Enterprise Canada).

His own work in insurance, helping clients with family-owned business, made it clear how valuable it can be working with professionals that understand business, but specifically the complex nature of family dynamics.

When we launched JABFF we did so very consciously with the support of FEA advisors. This has been one of the most successful elements of our pursuit.

We have a brilliant father and six siblings, known to have strong opinions, sitting around the table to begin with. We have every interest in creating opportunities to engage significant others, and the third generation of the family.

Our advisors have been instrumental in helping us craft good governance practices as well as leading us through sometimes difficult conversations as we learn to work together as a family.

There are two advisors that we work with consistently and they have become a wonderful extension of what we are trying to do as family. They bring their own wealth of knowledge and experiences and have really been instrumental as our own family learns to take on new roles with each other.”

Are there pressures on the next generation in a successful family enterprise?

“As a second generation in the family enterprise there is a tangible sense of responsibility. On one hand there is a sense of stewardship that comes with the role. My father worked very hard to create the opportunity to do the work we have the privilege to be undertaking. He is making a big decision trusting us to take leadership roles in the legacy of his name and our family foundation.

The other element is that an inherent family value is about risk-taking and dreaming big. I feel a responsibility to not just steward the foundation but to aim to do something impactful with it. I don’t want it to just succeed, I believe we can be spectacular.

To take on these responsibilities there have been a few elements that have been helpful.

One is having the opportunity to work alongside my dad. As we venture into this as a family, I am able to have conversations that I never had before. My dad is becoming a mentor, a sounding board, and a peer as much as being a leader. In this way, there are projects that we are starting to take on together, sharing ideas and really making the space for a variety of perspectives, including our own.

These shared projects feel more collaborative in their nature and as such it is much more of creating something that hasn’t existed before, and no one is sure what to expect of it. That is in contrast to a more traditional idea of needing to do work that lives up to certain expectations. We are learning together how to do new work, and by creating a whole new lane it allows us to pursue great things while taking ownership of them in new ways.

In regard to trying to get things right, the best approach we have developed to date is learning to work with external advisors. In honouring our family values there is a recognition that things will not always be perfect. We learned from our dad that the world of entrepreneurial pursuits involves risks, and not always coming up on top.

As a family, and as a second generation we are learning to balance the mental weight of pursuing excellence and mitigating risks by connecting with the right people to work with.”

Do you have any advice for next generations considering a role in a family foundation?

“Taking on a role within a family foundation can be very rewarding and challenging.

The rewards of working in a foundation are huge. The role creates so many opportunities to support organizations that are on the ground doing really good work. You can build relationships with people that will teach you all about elements of life that you had no idea about, and in turn you get to play a role in making a difference in the world around you.

The family part is equally rewarding. In our own family we have all taken different career paths and built lives with our families around the country. The creation of the family foundation is an opportunity to do something together.

My advice for taking on a role with a family foundation is to have patience. Have patience for yourself and for your family; building a family foundation is about looking far down the road.

I would also recommend taking the time to build good governance practices. Creating a transparent understanding of what is happening through good communication is a wonderful starting point for solving problems. Good governance in the family foundation also allows for internal accountability among family members.

If you have a clear understanding of what is expected of you, it is much easier to support each other in rising to the occasion.”

Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.

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