Home    Contact    Members    
PFC - Philanthropic Foundations Canada

May 2011 E-newsletter

December 2009

Letter from the President

The theme of funder collaboration keeps on coming up in my conversations with members. Many more are adopting the practice of structured collaboration with other funders as they work on the big and complicated social and environmental problems of today. This has changed greatly in the last five years.  As we plan our next national conference for Toronto in October, I am struck by how much discussion and energy will be devoted in our program to collaborative activity. Funders are working together regionally, cross-sectorally, by issue and by approach.  There will be many more sessions featuring collaborative stories at the Toronto conference than we saw the last time we held our conference in Toronto, in 2005. I am very excited about the depth of the conference program and the quality of our speakers.  This month, we are opening registration and you will see much more detail on our conference site about the sessions that we are planning.  Information about new speakers will be added regularly as we confirm our sessions.

On the topic of collaboration, PFC itself is working actively with other funder associations to build more opportunities for learning and connection. We are continuing our work with Community Foundations of Canada around mission-related investing, and will be co-sponsoring a workshop on this topic in May in Vancouver at the CFC national conference and at our own conference in Toronto in October. We are planning a joint event with Canadian Environmental Grantmakers network in Montreal in June. And we will look for opportunities to co-sponsor surveys and publications, as well as future events this year.

I want to salute Monica Patten, the Chief Executive of Community Foundations of Canada, who retired this month after many years of leadership.  Monica made a very significant contribution to the growth of community foundations in Canada and to the leadership of the Canadian voluntary sector through the Voluntary Sector Initiative and the Voluntary Sector Forum. We thank you and wish you well Monica in your new activities. I am also pleased to welcome Ian Bird, the new CEO, who comes to CFC from the sports movement in Canada, and who is enthusiastic about for exploring more collaborative activities with PFC in the coming months.

Finally, I welcome all members to our Annual General Meeting on Tuesday May 31 in Montreal. We will be hearing from guest speaker Andre Picard, the Globe and mail journalist who recently won an award from the Public Policy Forum for his outstanding contribution to public policy in journalism.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Hilary Pearson
hpearson@pfc.ca

Top

 

Grantmakers Roundup

Family Foundation Governance

Family foundations are the largest single group within the PFC membership.  These foundations have many questions as they search for a model of governance that suits their particular configuration, levels of engagement and stages of development. In an effort to provide some information and assistance to members in discussing these challenges, PFC recently conducted a benchmark survey of its family foundation members to draw a portrait of their current governance practices and policies. 

The report on this survey (available to all members in the Member Area on the PFC web site) concludes that many family foundations in PFC currently have governance structures that are relatively informal.  This is not uncommon and is often a function of the relatively young age of many foundations still at the early stage of being controlled by the first generation principal donors.  About a quarter of the family foundations in the sample who have been in existence for over 30 years and who have moved to the next generation have also become more structured in their governance practices.  Governance structures do evolve, particularly as families grapple with the challenge of moving to the next generation for trustees or directors. The survey indicated a particular interest on the part of the respondents for more information about succession planning and family trustee development. 

Our webinar on family foundation governance on May 3 featured a discussion of these issues by Alice Buhl of the National Center for Family Philanthropy. For a copy of the presentation on this topic, go to the Member Area of the PFC website. Forgot your password? Contact info@pfc.ca. 

Another timely contribution to the discussion of family foundation governance appeared in Family Giving News (from the National Center for Family Philanthropy) this month. A Place at the Table for Nonfamily Trustees? by Joseph Foote, comments that a family foundation board may see no immediate need to bring in individuals who are not related to the donor family. The family itself is the board’s first and greatest resource. Over time however, circumstances may arise where family members are not sufficient to meet the board’s expectations or goals for governance. Foote asks: “What are the signs that your board might benefit from adding a community leader to bring new energy and a fresh voice to board deliberations and decisions?  And if your board decides to look outside the family, what are the questions and factors you should consider in making your choice?”

 

The Essentials of Impact Assessment

Funders are interested in impact, that is the impact of their own grants and the impact of the organizations that they fund. The trick is how to make that assessment both simple and meaningful. One foundation that has contributed its helpful thinking on this question to the field is the Bernard Van Leer Foundation of The Hague. Van Leer works in the area of early childhood and children’s rights. In 2010, the executive director, Lisa Jordan, co-wrote a short article The Essentials of Impact Assessment. We encourage you to read this short and lucid article for yourself but here is a relevant excerpt:

“Our key message is that you have to take control of your own evaluation and not give over control to an external evaluator who doesn’t necessarily understand your problem. You have to empower yourself. Ah yes, but how? Obviously, it’s your choice, but we have set out four principal characteristics that may help you develop a system to deliver evaluation (with the acronym OURS):

  1. Owned – People who use the evaluation feel that the system is theirs, rather than being imposed on them. The  system is integrated with their day-to-day work.
  2. Useful – Results are relevant, and can be applied in day-to-day work to promote learning. 
  3. Robust – Results are valid and reliable. The system needs to be sensitive to the complexity of what is likely to be  involved in shifting the deep-seated issues being worked on.
  4. Simple – The system works smoothly and easily without the need to have high technical knowledge. Note, however, that simple does not mean simplistic. Things should be as simple as possible but no simpler.” 

Lisa Jordan also wrote a playlet (13 minutes) that illustrates even more effectively the evaluation dilemmas facing foundation decision makers. Lisa will also be joining Joanne Duhl in a PFC webinar on June 7 to discuss some of her lessons learned in thinking about impact assessment. 

 

Mission-Related Investing: Advice from Europe

We have seen much useful information and advice emerging for the United States in the last five years on the subject of mission-related investing (or socially responsible investing, SRI). Now a recently published report from Europe gives us new evidence and advice from a European perspective. 

360 Degrees for Mission was produced by Mistra, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research, and explores the approach of eight European foundations who are SRI investors. The report suggests that even though they should not hastily embrace it, it is time for foundations to extend a friendly hand to SRI. The belief that sustainable and responsible investing (SRI) lowers returns is losing ground. A number of foundations have shown that, if carefully implemented, the returns can be as high and the risks no greater than with traditional investment. At the same time, there is a younger generation both of foundation staff and of those setting up foundations that is more in tune with the idea of SRI. If it’s not as hard as it looks, what is holding foundations back? The report’s authors, David Imbert and Ivo Knoepfel of onValues Ltd, cite a combination of financial concerns (many still believe that financial returns will be affected, while investment managers are reluctant to consider SRI), lack of information, institutional incapacity and simple conservatism – a reluctance to change a long-held investment policy, for instance. 

Without making light of the challenges facing those who might be willing to dip a toe in the water, the report suggests that there are enough approaches to suit any foundation. It counsels newcomers to take a step-by-step approach to introducing SRI. Foundations can start with a modest approach, ‘which considerably lowers initial barriers. Learn by doing, but also be patient.’ 

 

Top

 

Interesting Reading 

On the Theme of Funder Collaboration: Two Takes

Take One: Corporate Philanthropy and Private Philanthropy

A thought piece by Lucy de Las Casas of New Philanthropy Capital in Alliance Magazine this month asks the question: why is corporate philanthropy left out? 

“I find it striking (she says) how rarely corporate philanthropy is talked about within the wider funding community. In discussions about funders working together – whether this is collaboration, co-funding or knowledge-sharing – companies are hardly mentioned. Corporate philanthropy representatives are few and far between at funding events, and many are unaware of the available funding literature and resources. In other areas, traditional divides between groups of funders are being crossed: government is engaging with trusts and foundations; trusts and foundations are considering how they can work with philanthropists. So why is corporate philanthropy being left out?

I suspect it’s because it is multi-faceted, going beyond giving financially to include giving time through employee volunteering and other in-kind giving. It often has multiple objectives – not only delivering charitable benefit, but also engaging employees, ensuring the business is seen as a good corporate citizen, even marketing and branding. My hunch is that this means other funders are suspicious of corporate philanthropy, unclear of its motives and not sure what to make of it.”

Las Casas argues that “the wider funding community should consider if there could be value in integrating companies rather than accepting their current separation. For instance, companies have a range of resources at their disposal that other funders do not, and frequently look for skilled volunteering opportunities for employees. Many foundations have a good understanding of the weaknesses and needs of their grantees. Perhaps foundations and businesses could work together to help match these, and provide charities with access to a pool of skilled resources, for example in IT, HR or property management…perhaps there are opportunities for co-funding – the company commits to one year of funding and the foundation to a second. Or a foundation could underwrite the commitment to further funding should the company be unable to meet it.

It won’t be an easy win, but productive relationships can spring not from thinking ‘who is like me?’ but ‘who is unlike me?’”

Take Two: Private Foundations and Individual Philanthropists

A 2009 research report Achieving More Together: Foundations and New Philanthropists, by Padraic Brick & Eleanor Stringer, addresses the potential for more collaboration between foundations and individual philanthropists. The most famous such collaboration of course is between Warren Buffett and the Gates Foundation. While we do not have a similarly prominent collaboration to cite in Canada yet, the number of individual philanthropists who are actively engaging in strategic philanthropy suggests that the time will come soon.  Indeed, foundations could actively seek out such collaboration, if they are prepared for it. Achieving More Together looks at the interest among philanthropists for collaborating with foundations, and how this compares to other options available to them. It examines different models for how foundations and new philanthropists can work together and the implications and risks. It also discusses the barriers to further collaboration and proposes how these might be overcome.

 

Top

 

PFC Family News and Events 

Upcoming PFC Events

 

PFC Publications

 

News about Members

Congratulations to Julie Toskan Casale of the Toskan Casale Foundation who recently received the Premier’s Award for Philanthropy in Education. This award, a new category within the Premier’s Awards for Teaching Excellence, is in recognition of Julie’s philanthropic passion  and dedication in the founding and development of the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI). 

 

Nominations are sought for the 2011 Dr. Rogers Prize for Excellence in Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The $250,000 Prize is an initiative of the Lotte and John Hecht Memorial Foundation of Vancouver and will be awarded Friday, September 23rd, 2011 at a gala dinner in Vancouver. The nomination deadline for the 2011 competition is May 31, 2011. 

 

The Rozsa Foundation will be announcing the winners of the 2011 Rozsa Awards in Arts Management at the EPCOR Centre for Performing Arts in Calgary, Alberta on June 13, 5:30-7:00pm.

 

The J. W. McConnell Family Foundation is funding a new Graduate Diploma in Social Innovation at the University of Waterloo. The first offering of the Graduate Diploma in Social Innovation will focus on the issues of mental health, aging, and newcomers to Canada. 

 

ALLIES, supported by Maytree and the McConnell Foundation, held a Mentoring Conference in Calgary to showcase innovative practices on mentoring from immigrant employment councils, employers and service delivery agencies from over 15 cities across Canada. 

 

The MasterCard Foundation has announced the launch of the Anzisha Prize, the premier award for Africa’s young entrepreneurial leaders. The $70,000 USD Prize seeks to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship among African youth. 

 

The de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation of Montreal has launched a new website  along with its new logo. The foundation is now also on Facebook where you can keep up to date on their various projects.

 

Comings and Goings

The Trustees of the Lyle S. Hallman Foundation have announced the appointment of Laura Manning as their new Executive Director. Laura Manning comes to the Foundation from her recent role as Director of Advancement at the Health Sciences Campus & School of Pharmacy at the University of Waterloo. The appointment will take effect June 20, 2011 when the current Executive Director, Hulene Montgomery, retires. 

 

Top

 

Other News and Events

Canadian Index of Wellbeing

The CIW, initially funded by the Atkinson Charitable Foundation, now has a new home at the University of Waterloo. The CIW is a national initiative supported by an independent group of researchers, organizations and citizens to measure wellbeing in the country. The CIW was publicly launched in 2009, partly funded by the Atkinson Foundation, and last year, the network began searching for a permanent, physical home. The CIW will be housed in the faculty of applied health sciences at UW, with Bryan Smale, professor of recreation and leisure studies, named as director. 

 

Top 10 Lessons from Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy

Christine Reeves from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy lists the top themes and take-away points from the recent Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy conference in Philadelphia. The conference, which is aimed at philanthropic professionals under 40, “honed in on ways of achieving practical, high-impact philanthropy that fosters meaningful careers and (more importantly) creates and advocates for solutions to help communities in need.” 

 

Upcoming Conferences

 

Top