Protecting precious water

Water is one of the most essential and precious resources -- for humans, animals, anything that grows. For all life, to put it succinctly!

In Canada, we have grown up with the belief that we are living in the land of plentiful natural resources, including fresh water. It may be a residual concept from the idea that we are in the frontier, the land where there is unlimited space and everything that one needs to live a good life. In truth, we are very lucky in Canada, but it is time for us to be much more careful in protecting our natural resources for now and for the future.

That is why Community Foundations of Canada has spearheaded an initiative to coordinate foundations across the Prairies to work collaboratively on the Lake Winnipeg Watershed Initiative.

In conjunction with private foundations – the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, J.W. McConnell Family Foundation and the Thomas Sill Foundation – The Winnipeg Foundation and the Edmonton Community Foundation have joined forces to create the position I currently hold, coordinator of the Lake Winnipeg Watershed Initiative.

The goal is to encourage foundations across the Prairies to get involved in protecting our fresh water and restoring the health of the Lake Winnipeg Watershed, which has gained the reputation of being the sickest lake in Canada due to its massive toxic algae blooms .

The Foundations in the Lake Winnipeg Watershed Initiative started about 20 months ago as a result of area community foundations realizing we need to start thinking like a watershed. We are all upstream from someone else and our actions have an impact on all of those downstream. The watershed’s problems are man-made (PDF) which means we, as citizens, can help solve them.

The initial stages of this initiative involve simply raising awareness amongst the more than 50 community foundations in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba about the urgency of the need to protect water. My mission is to meet with foundations and provide a simple overview of water concerns, as well as some basic ideas about how everyone can get involved in solutions.

In 2010, we hope to involve even more foundations in water issues in their local communities. There are many ways foundations can help, from making grants to convening public meetings to raising awareness. Download our tip sheet to get started.

As well, Dr. Jim Byrne’s documentary, Choking Lake Winnipeg will be released in late spring and we encourage foundations to promote local screenings.

The most important message we want to convey at this point is that all of us hold the key to change. The more individuals we can convince to pay attention, the more likely there will be community and political action. If we choose to protect our precious water, there are numerous simple ways that every one of us can make a difference.

Just start by picking one thing -- together, we can do it!

Vicki Burns is coordinator of Foundations in the Lake Winnipeg Watershed Initiative, and an advocate for the environment and sustainable practices in Manitoba.

Wishing communities a happier New Year

Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. – African poverb

There’s no doubt that charities around the world were happy to see the last of 2009 – waving an eager farewell to a year that put communities through a turbulent time full of anxiety and duress.

And although the signs are looking better for 2010, it’s clear that the recovery  is going to require endurance and optimism. We rode out the storm, but setting a new course is going to take time and patience.

But before we turn our attention to the journey ahead, it’s important to look back. Did we become more skillful sailors in the downturn’s rough seas? Did we learn more about our community and the people who call it home? Did we open our eyes to new possibilities and partners?

As I look back over the past year I can find many examples of individuals and organizations that rose to the challenge. I think of the donor in Guelph who walked up to the community foundation’s executive director with a cheque, saying “Use this where it’s most needed.” Or the businesspeople in Kelowna who helped raise more than $100,000 to support urgent priorities. There are countless examples of donors who stepped forward to help communities across the country weather the economic storm.

Most foundations continued to grant, albeit at reduced levels, and that made our movement even more conscious of the need to grant for impact. Niagara just announced $100,000 for poverty, Toronto partnered on a new after-school program , Victoria focused on homelessness, and Newfoundland and Labrador reached out to rural and coastal communities, to name but a few.

Then there are the stories about how communities came together to support each other: how The Winnipeg Foundation used its regular ad space to encourage people to support their favourite charity at a time when that support was needed the most. Community foundations in Hamilton and Vancouver surveyed local non-profits to determine key issues and priorities so existing funding could be used as strategically as possible. The Calgary Foundation hosted a Sustainability Summit bringing government, the corporate and charitable sectors together to find collaborative solutions to the issues facing charities.

Throughout the year I encountered many examples of determination and perseverance – tales of communities that refused to stop dreaming and doing, even in the face of shrinking dollars. I think of the Fundy Community Foundation’s efforts to reduce poverty in the rural communities of Charlotte County, New Brunswick and how they, and other community foundations, were key partners in the province’s first comprehensive poverty reduction strategy.

At Community Foundations of Canada, the membership association for Canada’s 170+ community foundations, we did what we could to bring our members together to encourage and augment local, regional and national impact. Together, we released 16 Vital Signs reports shining a spotlight on national and local issues and success stories. We continued our collaborative work in the Lake Winnipeg Watershed and started a new partnership with the Ontario Land Trust Association. We also worked with our members to explore new ways to better align the investment of our assets with our mission and values.

The waters were not smooth in 2009, but the journey was rewarding all the same. We know the sailing will not be easy in 2010 either, but I think we’ve become more skillful sailors and are ready for what’s ahead.

Monica Patten is President and CEO of Community Foundations of Canada.

Jed Emerson discusses blended value at Toronto's MaRS Discovery District

Betsy Martin, Senior Advisor to Community Foundations of Canada and head of its Responsible Investment Pilot Project, listened in on Janice Stein's interview (video) of Jed Emerson, the pioneer of blended value, at MaRS Discovery District in Toronto last night.

Some initial take-aways from what was a rich interview followed by lots of good discussion with a large crowd at MaRS.

Jed has been a proponent of what he calls blended value for years.  It is looking at the return on investments as a blend of financial returns and social and/or environmental impact.  It’s not having three bottom lines.  And it's less like a soup and more like a salad in which you can still taste the individual ingredients.

Jed's personal story is really interesting.  He started out as a social worker and now works for a hedge fund in NY.  After years as a social worker and running non-profits, he ended up burnt out and cynical about the non-profit world and the fact that how most non-profit organizations get funded has nothing to do what they really accomplish.  He now works to make the case to direct capital to companies and organizations that deliver the best blended value.

Jed has a real challenge to the traditional approach to philanthropy. 

After he left his last non-profit organization, he started to work with a philantropist who, like Jed, was really bothered by the fact that there is no logic to the capital structure in the non-profit sector.  As a friend of his described it, the philanthropy funding model is to “let a thousand flowers wither” because we have no model for growing the funding for ideas and organizations that are making a difference.  Good ideas may get initial funding, but there is no structure like there is in business financing to move up the investment ladder to be able to attract greater investment as you prove that you have a successful model.

So they started to apply an impact investment model to working on homelessness and they came up with a couple of sets of indices to track whether or not they were making a difference.  One set was on the business performance and one set was on the social outcomes over time of the homeless organizations they worked with.  And they also gathered stories about the people the organizations helped find the way out of homelessness.  All of that was the blended value of the foundation’s investment in homelessness and they could tell which organizations they were funding had the greatest impact and direct further investments accordingly.  And those investments were not just grants – they included loans, mortgages and other investments that allowed successful organizations to grow, plan for the future and diversify their own funding. 

As the whole area of impact investing has grown in recent years, there are more and more metrics becoming available to track environmental and social impacts to help foundations and others figure out where their investments can make the most difference.

Which brings me to his other message to foundations:  that the grants made by foundations are just one relatively small tool in the toolbox.   As Jed described it -  If you were trying to get me to invest in your company and said that you'd use 5 cents of every dollar I invest for your business and put 95 cents in the bank, I'd think you were crazy.  But that's been the standard foundation model.  It's changing and it's fascinating to see how foundations are rethinking this model and how to use more of their assets to invest in making real impact on our social and environmental challenges.

More on how that’s changing later…

Additional Resources

• www.blendedvalue.org 
• Impact Investing - the Rockefeller Foundation
• Socialfinance.ca
  

A vibrant city needs vital information to thrive

Eva Friesen is the President & CEO of The Calgary Foundation. This piece originally appeared in The Calgary Herald on October 29, 2009

Relative to many other cities in the world, Calgary is a dynamic young city that has seen a very high rate of growth, surging to over one million in just over a century. We pride ourselves on our 'can do' attitude, high level of education, employment opportunities, increasing cultural diversity, willingness to volunteer, and access to great parks and pathways. Others think of us as an economic powerhouse and globally, we rate very high for safety and livability.

Yet, in a recent survey, Calgarians gave their quality of life a "B" grade. While not a bad grade, the question remains, how can Calgary do better?

Earlier this month the Calgary Foundation released Calgary's VitalSigns, our 2009 Citizens' Report Card. Over 1,700 citizens and community partners contributed towards developing a snapshot of quality of life in Calgary. Unlike many report cards, not only does VitalSigns provide up to date statistics covering 12 key areas of quality of life in our city, but citizens are invited to grade these areas so that we can take the pulse of our city based on both the facts and perceptions of Calgarians.

Coming as it did in the middle of the worst economic downturn in 80 years, one might be excused for thinking that Calgarians were feeling less than bullish about their city this year.

Not so. Despite the tough economic times, citizen perception of the way things are did not drop in any of the report's categories from last year's scores. While this perhaps speaks to the genuine pride most Calgarians have in their city, as well as an undeniable drive to "tough things out", it also speaks to the need to have solid information and continued citizen engagement about the results.

After all, while it is good that the grades were no worse this year, it should matter that we have seen sense of community belonging drop sharply, voter turnout continue to decline, charitable donations fall, and emergency room wait times increase.

Similarly, while Calgary's unemployment rate remains one of the lowest in the country, it has doubled over the past year, resulting in higher food bank usage, more homelessness, a rise in personal bankruptcies and more high-risk calls to Distress Centre Calgary. Of course, the bad news is tempered by many areas that merit applause--assets to build upon as we look for ways to improve our overall performance.

This year these included the curbside recycling program, which will double the volume of material diverted from landfills; water conservation efforts that are on target to meet the city's sustainable water use target by 2033; a violent crime rate that is much lower than the national average; high library usage; the highest score in the country for lifelong learning; and a 10-year plan to end homelessness that is on track to add 891 units of affordable housing by 2011.

These results speak to a pervasive need to have a different kind of conversation about what is really happening in our city. We need to ensure our actions are informed by the best information available, both factual and perceptual. Systems scientists call this feedback, and it should underpin any conversation about the real pulse of Calgary.

The power of good feedback is remarkable. For example, in a housing development in the Netherlands, electric meters were accidentally installed in the basements of some houses and in the front halls of otherwise identical houses. Electricity use in the houses where the meters were easily visible was 30 per cent more efficient than in the houses where the meters were out of sight. The only difference was the ability to effectively monitor what was going on. So, how can Calgary do better?

As we reflect on the vitality of our city--and the social, cultural, economic and environmental conditions that support or erode resilience-- one response is to continue to improve the breadth and sophistication of how we monitor and celebrate our progress and how we work together to change course when necessary. Community engagement is vital to this process.

Two good upcoming examples are Bowness VitalSigns (PDF) and Youth VitalSigns (Spring 2010). These focused reports will seed conversations and increase our city's capacity to address issues and celebrate success--and hopefully they will be role models for further innovation.

Early in the new year, The Calgary Foundation, in partnership with community partners, will be hosting Vital Conversations (PDF), dynamic community forums inviting citizen engagement around the results of the 2009 report and input toward development of the 2010 report.

Our ability to improve how we monitor our progress and measure what matters also rests on the availability of credible and relevant indicators. This can be a major barrier to telling the full story of quality of life in our city. For this reason, we are calling for opportunities to work collaboratively to identify and develop new and compelling indicators that will enhance our collective capacity to keep a keen eye on our performance.

While getting an "A" for quality of life may remain elusive for a while yet, The Calgary Foundation is committed to continuing to work with community partners to ensure we earn high marks for our combined efforts to monitor and respond to both the good news and challenges affecting quality in life in Calgary.

Our city deserves nothing less; a vital city needs vital information to thrive.

Poverty Reduction Key to Canada’s Economic Recovery

Campaign 2000 is a cross-Canada public education movement to build Canadian awareness and support for the 1989 all-party House of Commons resolution to end child poverty in Canada by the year 2000. Jacquie Maund is the Coordinator for the Ontario Campaign 2000.


Canada’s economic recovery hinges on federal leadership to pull recession victims out of the poor house and prevent Canadians from plunging into deeper poverty, hunger and homelessness, says Campaign 2000’s new report card on child and family poverty.

Keep the Promise: Make Canada Poverty-Free looks at the nation’s most recent child and family after-tax poverty rate compared to 20 years ago, when Parliament unanimously resolved to end child poverty by 2000, and finds today’s after-tax rate is 9.5 per cent, a slight budge from 11.9 per cent in 1989.

“If Canada were a student, she would be in danger of dropping out,” says Campaign 2000’s Laurel Rothman. “Following an unprecedented period of growth since 1998, the small change in the rate of child and family poverty is shocking.

“As Canada develops strategies to foster economic growth and recovery, the most strategic decision the federal government could make would be to take leadership and set a target to lower the poverty rate.”

The report card’s key findings, available at www.campaign2000.ca, show Canada has far to go to prevent and reduce poverty:

·         One in 10 children still live in poverty in Canada today. It’s worse for children living in First Nation’s communities: one in four grow up in poverty;

• There are more working poor: 40 per cent of low-income children live in families where at least one parent works full-time year round, up dramatically from 33 per cent in the 1990s;
• Child poverty is persistent across Canada: rates of child and family poverty (LICO before-tax) are in the double digits in most provinces.
• The gap between rich and poor has widened:  On average, for every dollar the families in the poorest 10 per cent had, families in the richest 10 per cent had almost 12 times as much ($11.84) in 2007.

“Canada could succeed if our federal government used public policy resources to improve labour market options and make our tax system more progressive,” says Ed Broadbent, the former New Democratic Party leader who moved the 1989 motion to end child poverty by the year 2000.

“All Canadians will benefit from less poverty,” says Peggy Taillon, President of the Canadian Council on Social Development. “As a society we either share the collective responsibility to prevent child and family poverty or we face rising costs in health care services, criminal justice and education.”

“Now that seven out of 10 provinces have committed to poverty reduction, it’s time for the federal government to exercise leadership and develop a clear plan with targets and timetables,” says Sid Frankel, Social Planning Council of Winnipeg.

Making Guelph a better place

Jim Reid recently joined the Guelph Community Foundation as a volunteer. This piece was published in the Nov 13, 2009 edition of the Guelph Tribune.

Is Guelph “the most caring community in Canada”? Last year Maclean’s magazine gave our city this honour because we have more community volunteers per capita than any other city in the country.

I was surprised by this news, and then thankful that I live in a community where volunteers, churches, foundations and unsung heroes work to make Guelph a better place. 
 
Guelph Community Foundation is one of these groups. Since its inception in 2000, the foundation has directed $1.3 million to community organizations that are working to make Guelph a better place to live. The foundation’s current assets are $6.4 million.

The Tribune reported in August that the foundation helped out to the tune of $127,000 in 2009. The Guelph Community Foundation provided these grants to 47 local charitable organizations in our city and Wellington County. The grants ranged from $500 to $40,961. The foundation also awarded an additional $50,000 as part of its Building Vital Communities, and poverty-related grants in September.

The Guelph Community Foundation is one of many community foundations across Canada that disburse hundreds of millions of dollars to worthy causes in the communities they serve.

The advantage of a community foundation is that it centralizes the administration, management, awarding and receipting of multiple grants from multiple donors to multiple recipients. The foundation’s board of directors in each community is drawn from community leaders and volunteers. The grants committee of the Guelph Community Foundation reviews and recommends the awarding of local grants. The grants are primarily awarded in these general categories: Arts and Culture, Children and Youth, Education, Environment, Health, Social Services, and Research and Development.

Guelph Community Foundation grants this year have helped out familiar groups such as Wyndham House and the Guelph Humane Society. They also assisted environmental organizations such as the Guelph Field Naturalists and the Grand River Conservation Foundation. The foundation placed grants from anonymous donors with the charity of their choice.

The Guelph Community Foundation also regularly circulates an online Vital Signs questionnaire to hundreds of Guelph and Wellington residents. The questions concern approximately 11 local issues such as poverty, education, crime and health.

The answers are collated into a report card format to provide a snapshot of the quality of life in Guelph, and the areas for improvement.

In conjunction with other charitable organizations, the foundation works toward making Guelph a better place over the course of the next year.

Late last month, the Canadian government declared Nov. 15 to be National Philanthropy Day. Locally, philanthropy means giving to make Guelph and Wellington a better place.

The Philanthropy Day celebration falls on Sunday this weekend. Wherever you are this Sunday, whether with friends, family or with someone you are helping through a difficult time, it may be a good day to be thankful.

Thankful that we live in Guelph, one of many caring communities in Canada.

Charitable donations dropped 5.3% in 2008: StatsCan

The Canadian Press

Reported charitable donations surpassed $8.1 billion in 2008, down 5.3% from 2007. But Statistics Canada says, based on tax returns, the number of donors increased 1.7% to just under 5.8 million.


The agency says the median donation was $250 in 2008, meaning half of the donors gave more and half less -- unchanged from 2007.


Donors in Nunavut reported a median donation of $500, tops in the nation for the ninth straight year.

Donors in Prince Edward Island had the second highest median at $370, followed by those in Alberta with $360.

Donors in Abbotsford-Mission, B.C., had by far the highest median donation among cities at $600, the sixth straight year they have led the way.

Kelowna, B.C., followed with a median of $380, slightly ahead of Calgary with $360.