COURTESy
OF
BOSA
FAMiLy
FOUNDATiON
Vancouver and Victoria.
The foundations also donate
jointly to causes ranging from
BC Children's Hospital and
Free the Children–Adopt a
Village to Lunch2Go, a meal
program for school children,
and BabyGoRound, which
provides necessities for fami-
lies with young children.
The foundations' guiding
principles are to bring many
di€erent levels and resources
in a community together to
solve problems, and to be
part of solutions. "So there
is a much deeper strategic
thought process behind
the giving as
opposed to ad
hoc, which is what it was
before," Bosa explains. Plan-
ning approval for a project
can take several years, dur-
ing which the companies are
in an open conversation with
the community about what
it needs.
What Bosa ‰nds most valu-
able is to dig deep to under-
stand root causes and the real
reasons behind the issues in
a community. "It gives you a
much better understanding
and empathy and compassion
for the people that are going
through it, but also it allows
you to then start thinking
strategically about
where are the
changes that we can make
when you really understand
systemically what's going on,"
she says. "It extends our com-
mitment to that community in
the way that we designate the
funding to those grassroots
organizations."
g i v i n g a D v i C e : Bosa points
out that in the slow-moving
philanthropic world, it's
important to be respectful
of the communities where
you're working. "You can't
go in imposing your ideas or
'This is what we should do'
on anyone," she cautions. "It
really is an open conversa-
tion, and it's about listening
more than anything. It takes
time, and I think the value of
it comes over time and the
relationships we're building
in the communities where
we're working. It's been a very
rewarding experience."
"You can't go in imposing your
ideas or this is what we should do
on anyone. It really is an open
conversation"
—Sylvia Bosa
hAPPY DAYS
Holiday Safe Place cares for
kids at Strathcona Community
Centre over Christmas break
philanthropy
uvic.ca / vital-impact
