Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/398704
Vancouver Foundation Milestone p a g e 8 I V a n c o u v e r F o u n d a t i o n l F a l l 2 0 1 4 ese grants are made possible through Vancouver Foundation's endowment. It all started in 1943 when Alice MacKay had saved $1,000 from her secretarial job and wanted to help impoverished women in Vancouver by establishing an endowment. Ten promi- nent Vancouverites were moved by the gesture and added $10,000 each to the endowment, bringing the total to $101,000. Over the years, the endowment has grown to a significant enough sum to enable Vancouver Foundation to earn preferable interest rates. "Our five-year rates of return on the endowment are in excess of 10 per cent," says McCort. In addition to its role as a community grant maker to charitable agencies, the Foundation offers services to smaller charities and other community foun- dations to help them maximize their own endowments and donations. He explains, "Most charities, if they've got even $1 million on the side that they don't need for their oper- ations, the only thing they are going to do is invest that in GICs and treasury bills, and they might earn one or two per cent." e increased earning power gained by consoli- dating with Vancouver Foundation's fund makes a significant impact on the level of work a charity can do in the community. McCort adds, "It's something that charities simply cannot do on their own." This consolidated investing service not only helps organizations earn more from their existing endowments, but it also helps them attract new donors (either directly or through Vancouver Foundation) since donors can see that their gift is going to grow at a rate that can really make a difference. "We want to make sure that any charity in the province, really, has the capacity to capture or accept an endowed gift," says McCort. Vancouver Foundation offers this same service to community foundations around the province. In fact, many of these founda- tions got their start with a little help from an initiative that Vancouver Foundation ran from 1999 to 2007. "We recognized that there would be many donors across the province who may want to endow a gift in their own community as opposed to endowing a gift to Vancouver Foundation," says McCort. The startup support program was twofold. Vancouver Foundation provided funds to match donations raised by local community foundations. It also provided some funding to allow the new foundations to make immediate grants. is created the initial momentum to attract more donations to the endowment. "We felt that those startup community foundations would be caught in a chicken-and-egg dynamic," explains McCort. "ey have an endowment but it's too small to generate income, and if it's not generating income then no one is going to see the granting and the results of that." e support efforts worked. ere are now 51 community foun- dations in B.C. (out of a total 191 in Canada) and Vancouver Foundation manages the endowment capital for 34 of them. By working with these foundations, and by following its own mandate to serve the entire province, Vancouver Foundation sup- ports a wide variety of charitable organizations, geographically speaking. Seventy per cent of its discretionary granting goes to organizations in the Lower Mainland while the remaining 30 per cent is spread out around the province, including projects from Haida Gwaii to Smithers to Nelson. It's not just distance that showcases the breadth of giving from the Foundation. ere is also a vast variety in the size of grants given. Vancouver Foundation supports proj- ects that require as much as $80,000 a year over a three-year period or a one-time grant of as little as $100 to set up a lending library or put on a neighbourhood workshop. Each granted project comes from a need identified by the community. McCort says, "We have the systems that enable us to do what we call 'grassroots granting' or 'micro-granting' that are very cost-effective because they rely on volunteers and they rely on advisory commit- tees. at helps us do small-scale granting." Continued commitments to assessing community needs, prudent fiscal manage- ment, and working with new and existing donors are what will lead to the next mile- stone in Vancouver Foundation's future. McCort would like to see the community foundation startup support reinstated: "I think that was a good idea that we started and we think that there is a great opportu- nity going forward to really work with community foundations across the province." McCort is also excited by the fresh, progressive programs and projects that Vancouver Foundation is seeing. "It's an exciting time to be in philanthropy in B.C. ere are a lot of fantastic charities doing really interesting work," he says. McCort shares that Alice MacKay's original endowment is still at work to support women living in poverty. "We would like to be able to say we can no longer fulfil the wishes of this donor because the problem has been solved. at's something that we wish would happen more often." at's why, despite the celebrations, Vancouver Foundation doesn't see the "$1 billion granted" milestone as "mission complete." "ere is no question that if we've given only $1 billion, we're going to be giving away another. We don't know how long it's going to take but it'll happen," he says. "And a community foundation is a great vehicle to make sure that money lands in meaningful areas and is managed by competent and effective organizations." If you would like to help Vancouver Foundation continue its goal of creating healthy, vibrant and livable communities in British Columbia, please call Calvin in Development & Donor Services at 604.629.5357, or visit vancouverfoundation.ca/give There are about 500 charities benefiting from adjudicated grants annually and approximately 1,200 charitable organizations that receive funding because they have been specifically named by donors