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PFC - Philanthropic Foundations Canada

February 2011 E-newsletter

December 2009

Letter from the President

In this first newsletter of the year, we wish a happy 2011 to all of our members and readers.  This will be a year of interesting developments and growth for Canadian philanthropy. Confidence is being regained in the foundation sector as the economy improves, according to the sampling of opinion reported by Imagine Canada (cited in this newsletter). At provincial and city levels, there are new efforts at cross-sectoral collaboration between public and private funders. Ontario is reviewing its relationship with the voluntary sector, as have British Columbia and some of the Atlantic provinces. There is evidence of greater collaborative activity between foundation and corporate partners across many sectors such as protection of the environment, youth development, aboriginal community development and poverty reduction.

How do we know this? Because of the ideas and session proposals that we have been reviewing for our October conference in Toronto This is shaping up to be our best conference yet, with many speakers from different parts of the grantmaking spectrum.  We will be showcasing the extraordinary work being done in the region of greater Toronto with support from many funders. We will also have the chance to hear from some wise and passionate speakers from Canada and from beyond our borders.   We have launched our conference web site (see later in this letter) and we will be adding more details about our program and speakers as we get closer to registration in May. Stay tuned!

Earlier this month the PFC Board met in Calgary for a day of strategic reflection on new directions for PFC as we look ahead to the next three years.   We have an ambitious vision for ourselves as we seek to become a more interactive and value-adding hub of knowledge about organized philanthropy in Canada.  We plan to invest in our infrastructure to foster learning and to support our members in their efforts to have more impact. And we plan to lead in growing the field for organized philanthropy in Canada.  Our new strategic objectives and priorities will be shared with the membership as soon as we have finished drafting our Action Plan for 2011-2014.

I am feeling optimistic as I think about our opportunities in 2011.  This may be a year of politics and of surprises, whether related to the weather or to unexpected global political developments. But within Canada, it feels very much as if philanthropy has a new élan and energy from which we will all benefit.

Hilary Pearson
hpearson@pfc.ca

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Grantmakers Roundup

The Voluntary Sector and Foundations: Increasing Confidence?

Imagine Canada has completed the third in its new and very useful series of surveys of  voluntary sector leaders, including foundation leaders.  The results of this survey, available on the Imagine Canada site, indicate that as the economy improves, the confidence of charities has slightly increased, although their revenues remain stagnant and expenditures on services are increasing. In the foundation sector (which includes public foundations), the mood is more optimistic, and on average their expenditures (which include grants to charities) have risen 9.8% from 2009 to 2010. Foundation leaders are more confident that their organization will be better able to carry out its mission in 12 months. Just over a quarter predict stronger performance in three to four months and over half predict that they will be stronger in performing their mission in twelve months.  This is an encouraging trend, even though Imagine notes that the evidence of recovery for charities is still mixed.  The series of three completed surveys (all available on the Imagine site) provides some interesting trend lines for those tracking the current environment for the sector in Canada.

 

Philanthropy Worldwide: A Comparison

The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI) in Boston has put together a pathbreaking new research report on the growth of organized philanthropy throughout the world. Global Institutional Philanthropy: A Preliminary Status Report was written by Paula Johnson, Director of the Center for Global Philanthropy at TPI, for the global organization Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support (WINGS). This unprecedented report profiles philanthropy by global region, and is based on the information provided by grantmaker associations in these regions who are members of WINGS (including PFC).

With some caveats about the lack of good data, Ms. Johnson comments on what she sees as global trends, including the following:

There is much more in the report that will be of interest to donors and leaders of Canadian foundations who are interested in the development of philanthropy world-wide.

 

On Community Change

For funders engaged in community change, the national initiative Vibrant Communities Canada has researched evaluation tools used to measure such change: less poverty, more vibrant communities, more collaboration and more citizen engagement. It has consolidated the research and content of four previously published papers on these aspects of community change into Approaches to Measuring: Community Change Indicators, a thorough compendium of the various tools, strategies and approaches which have been used in communities across Canada and beyond to track and measure change.

 

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Interesting Reading 

According to the article When You’ve Made Enough to Make a Difference by Susan Wolf Ditkoff and William Foster in the current issue of Harvard Business Review (January/February 2011), “donations from the foundations and the ultra-wealthy account for only 6% of the total revenue that America’s nonprofits receive in a year. So ambitious philanthropists need an approach that creates many dollars’ worth of results for each dollar invested….[but donors] don’t pay nearly enough attention to defining their “investment model” – what it takes to create change.” Ditkoff and Foster suggest that “effective philanthropists merge smart program ideas with the pragmatic techniques it takes to make change happen – and learn to identify and support grantees in both dimensions.” They go on to define and discuss four different methods of change and then three elements particularly important to organizing a funder’s approach (role, resources, relationships).

In the same issue of the HBR, you can find a thoughtful article aimed at the corporate funder audience. The Big Idea: Creating Shared Value, by Michael E. Porter and Mark Kramer, urges leaders to recognize that “shared value is not social responsibility, philanthropy, or even sustainability, but a new way to achieve economic success”. In their view, creating shared value will drive the next wave of innovation and growth in the global economy. Porter and Kramer say, “shared value will also reshape capitalism and its relationship to society. Perhaps most important of all, learning how to create shared value is our best chance to legitimize business again.”

A new case study from the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), Lessons from the Field: From Understanding to Impact, provides an in-depth look at how three foundations try to understand the fields in which they fund, and then turn that understanding into more effective grantmaking.  The three foundations – the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, the Energy Foundation and the Wilburforce Foundation – work in very different fields (social justice, environmental pollution in China, rainforest protection). CEP outlines the approaches that each foundation has taken to understanding the field (building staff capacity to lead, developing relationships with experts, deepening relationships with local people). This is a useful set of stories with some suggested discussion questions proposed by CEP to make this a good resource to use in staff and board conversations.

In January, CEP also published a new commentary from its ongoing surveys of the relationship between foundations and grantees. This report Grantees Report Back: Helpful Reporting and Evaluation Processes looks at how grantees experience reporting and evaluation, and makes the point that has been made before: that the extent to which funders actually talk to their grantees about the evaluation processes and outcomes is critical to whether the grantees find it helpful or negative to engage in evaluation. Many funders don’t, and this can be discouraging indeed to grantees.

 

A Look Back and A Look Forward at the Philanthropic Future

In January, looking back at the first decade of the 21st century, Lucy Bernholz, a well-known philanthropy consultant and blogger, commented on the philanthropy buzzwords that defined the decade, among them prize philanthropy, philanthrocapitalism, impact investing, microfinance and social entrepreneurs. She concludes with a few predictions for things to come in the decade ahead.  An iconoclastic but certainly intriguing view!

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PFC Family News and Events

Welcome New Members

PFC welcomed a new member during the month of December: The Larry and Cookie Rossy Family Foundation (Montreal).  The association ended 2010 at 107 members, a testimonial to the growing engagement of organized philanthropy in Canada.

 

Upcoming PFC Events

Sign up now for a PFC member webinar on investment strategies for 2011. Have you registered yet for our member-only teleconference discussion on investment and disbursement strategies in 2011?  The date is Thursday February 24 at 1 pm eastern.  Join moderator Peter Warrian of the Lupina Foundation as he hosts a conversation with Donald Coxe of Coxe Advisors, an investment advisory firm based in Chicago. Donald Coxe was CEO of a major Canadian investment counseling firm, Research Director and Strategist for Canada’s leading institutional dealer, a strategist on Wall Street, and CEO and Chief Investment Officer for Harris Investment Management Inc., an investment management firm specializing in pension and mutual funds.  We will also hear from some members of PFC who will share their perspectives on the financial markets and their own foundation’s investment choices. Register now for this free 90-minute webinar which will be of unique value to foundation board members, investment committee members and staff leaders. 

 

PFC Publications

 

News about Members

The MasterCard Foundation and Equity Group Foundation announced a $50 million partnership that will provide secondary education scholarships and leadership development to 5,600 students in Kenya. The scholarships will cover tuition, books, uniforms and stipends for students who are academically gifted yet economically disadvantaged, enabling them to complete their secondary education.

The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation has released the second in its new series of electronic newsletters. You can access their newest publications and read about other interesting events and reports. The Foundation has also launched a new online application process.

The Rozsa Foundation of Calgary has announced a call for nominations for the 2011 Rozsa Award for Excellence in Arts Management. Unique in Canada, this prestigious Award recognizes, celebrates and promotes outstanding business practices in the arts sector. 


Comings and Goings

The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation has announced that Mr. Tim Brodhead, President and CEO, will be retiring in the summer of 2011. The Board has appointed Stephen Huddart as the next President and CEO, to take effect upon Tim’s retirement. Stephen is currently the Vice-President and COO and joined the Foundation in 2003.

Gale Berkowitz has been named Director, Evaluation and Learning at The MasterCard Foundation. Prior to joining The MasterCard Foundation, Gale served as Evaluation Director at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and also created the evaluation function at the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation. 

 

PFC on the Web

New in the member area! During 2011, PFC members are offered a unique opportunity to have free access to Philanthropy In/Sight, from the Foundation Center in the United States. This is a one-of-a-kind data visualization tool designed to help grantmakers find funding partners, identify potential grantees, assess funding needs, and visualize philanthropy’s impact both locally and globally. It contains data on over 2.2 million grants made around the world. Canadian funders have the opportunity to upload data on their own grants to add to this growing database. Visit the member area to learn more! This will only be available to PFC members for a year so don’t delay.

Forgot your password? Contact info@pfc.ca.
 

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Other News and Events

GrantCraft is moving from its long-time base at the Ford Foundation to a new base jointly supported by the Foundation Center in New York and the European Foundation Centre in Brussels. This should give Grantcraft a new more global platform for its tried tradition of collecting knowledge directly from grantmakers and sharing their insights with other grantmakers. The web site address remains the same although leadership will shift to New York and Brussels.

Upcoming Conferences

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