Building on a foundation

The following was a speech delivered by HCF President & CEO Rudi Wallace at the Foundation’s 2024 annual general meeting.

Rudi Wallace

Good afternoon,

Thanks for making the time to be here with us today, as we close out this past year, and look to the next.

I’m going to start with a bit about me so folks who don’t know me can get a better sense of who I am and those things in my life that have shaped me and my worldview and give you greater insight into what will shape my time as President and CEO of Hamilton Community Foundation. I’ll then speak about my sense of where Hamilton is, both the strengths and opportunities ahead as well as the significant challenges our city faces. I’ll close by painting a picture of the trajectory that Hamilton Community Foundation is on, the questions we are wrestling with, and a shared vision and mission for the future that centres our values of Equity, Reconciliation, Courage, Relevance, Accountability and Collaboration.

Becoming “Rudi Wallace”

Mine is a common story. The second of two children of my parents, immigrants from former British and French colonies, both of whom share ancestries shaped by the practice of indentured servitude. It will become apparent that colonialism and its legacy has shaped and molded my family, and therefore me. Even my name has been shaped by my grandfather’s adoption of the name “Wallace” to teach in the English Empire.

Shaped by colonialism…

My parents came to Canada as students, settling in Vancouver, getting married; with my sibling and I arriving on the scene shortly after. Eventually, my parents moved us to Victoria, where I grew up. Victoria and the BC coast are beautiful, but growing up, one thing that was dramatically different from Vancouver and from Hamilton as well, is that there weren’t a lot of kids or families that looked like me; as a son of immigrant parents who, while keeping us connected to our histories and overseas families, also did their best to fit in and be “Canadian.” So, as a result of this duality, when my family and I return to where my parents were born, I don’t quite fit in, I don’t belong.

And while culturally I feel at home and comfortable in “Canada” I often don’t quite fit in or belong here either. My history and experience, how I look has often led to my othering from the more “Canadian” experience of my “white” friends growing up in Victoria. This experience is common among kids of immigrants in Canada. I’m sure there are many Hamiltonians who feel or felt something similar.

The in-betweener

And this in-between space of being born in Canada, growing up in Canada, but with the kind of visible and racialized immigrant experience and history, never quite belonging anywhere and always being aware of my difference. This too has shaped who I am.

Ultimately, my parents were shaped by their faith and instilled in my sister and me a more collective outlook of the world; one in which we started volunteering, even as children, at service agencies working with youth, unhoused populations, and seniors. They instilled in me from a very early age a sense of civic and moral responsibility to give back to my community in service to collective good. Like many immigrants my parents studied and worked hard, and “made it” which, for them, made giving back that much more important.

All this led me to the University of Victoria to study political science. While my parents remained very supportive, there was quiet disappointment, and subtle hints that political science was a great first degree…before going to law school. When I ended up going to the University of Ottawa for post-colonial studies and community development — in the political science department —  my parents saw the writing on the wall.

Finding philanthropy

My education further developed my understanding of the world, and after grad school I took a frontline non-profit job at the Mustard Seed Food Bank back in Victoria. My time at this multi-service nonprofit was at the intersection of the housing, mental health and opioid crises, including the introduction of fentanyl on the streets of Victoria. This is where I cut my teeth working with unhoused populations, low socioeconomic demographics and equity-deserving communities. These experiences shaped my community development approach and my leadership approach, teaching me that lasting impact requires centring the voices and lived experiences of the people being served. It also made me realize that systemic change is required to address and/or mitigate the challenges faced by marginalized communities. This realization led me to Victoria Foundation and philanthropy.

Foundations have significantly more resources and social and political capital than most organizations working for social change. I made the move to Victoria Foundation to try and shift funding practices and community development models. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t too thrilled or supportive of foundation funding models and practices working front line. Often funding was tied to projects on short timelines, and funders would either cast a very wide net funding many things at very small levels or they’d fund something well for a few years and then pivot to something different, leaving funding gaps with little time for community to adapt or prepare for the shift. I wanted to change all that. And I still do.

A different kind of foundation

Eventually, at a Victoria Foundation board retreat a bespectacled man from Hamilton named Terry Cooke came to speak and painted a vivid picture of a different way of operating as a foundation: one that deployed its endowment, its capital, for social impact; one striving to use all of its assets for its mission and mandate. And while I had started to learn more about how foundations could deploy more resources beyond just granting, Terry’s presentation crystalized for me the need and responsibility we have as foundations to think differently about our business model and our community development practices.

Rudi Wallace holding talking into a microphone.
Rudi Wallace hosts a Vital Signs Chat about eviction prevention.

I’m happy to say that Terry and Annette’s ongoing advocacy and tireless work to shift the culture and behaviours of foundations across the country is paying dividends, with more and more foundations charting new paths to better deploy their resources for the public good.

So, when the Vice President, Grants and Community Initiatives role came up at Hamilton Community Foundation, I threw my name into the mix. To my surprise, I was offered the job. And I accepted. My partner and I packed up and moved to Hamilton during the COVID-19 lockdowns in January 2021, in the dead of winter; bought a house, got a giant Newfoundland dog, had our first kid and we have a second kiddo on the way. Folks keep telling my partner and I that every time we do something, it’s never small. We always dive in together. But it was important to us to put down roots for our family. We wanted to commit to this move across the country and to our new home and our new city.

And four years in, I find myself in the new role as President & CEO of the Hamiton Community Foundation, committed to an equitable, vibrant, diverse and inclusive Hamilton, driving positive change by connecting diverse people, ideas and resources. All underpinned by our values of Equity, Reconciliation, Courage, Relevance, Accountability and Collaboration.

My kind of town

So, Hamilton. I always get asked, what do you like about Hamilton and don’t you miss Victoria? I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss Victoria, it’s where I grew up and started my career, met my partner and got married, and where my parents live.

But Hamilton is my family’s home. It’s where we’ve bought our first house, in the lower city in a neighbourhood that looks onto the escarpment. My daughter was born at St. Joe’s, and that’s where her little sibling will be born. It’s where we shop, get coffee, go to daycare. I love and appreciate all of Hamilton, but give me Ottawa Street and East Hamilton any day of the week.

Viewed from behind, adult and child walking on the sand along the beach with mountains in the background.

I see a “big small” city teeming with histories, diversity, different languages, cultures and a dope food scene. I see Indigenous resurgence and language revitalization, a strong activist community advocating for social justice and a strong arts scene full of potential that needs more commitment and increased investment from civic leaders. I see non-profits taking risks and innovating to house those most vulnerable of our neighbours as different levels of government fall short of their responsibility in this area. I give the City of Hamilton credit here stepping up with a real plan with the Hamilton Housing Sustainability and Investment Roadmap, and while there is lots of work to do there, we also need the province and the feds to step up their game.

Hamilton. A real city with all the opportunities and amenities, with the grit and all the challenges. Over the last four years I’ve experienced the collective nature of Hamilton; a city steeped in a strong labour and union movement, shaped by a collective chip on its shoulder creating a sense of community and a resilient spirit, centred on taking care of and supporting neighbours. From the mutual aid groups that arose during the pandemic to the emerging solidarity networks across equity-deserving groups to improve the lives of their communities. Upwards of 30 percent of Hamiltonians are not born in Canada. Our diversity is our strength. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Hamilton is a solid cycling city with good infrastructure and a strong biking culture, it has trails and natural environments, world class education institutions, a robust nonprofit sector, a healthcare hub for the region, and while diminished, a legacy industrial sector building its way back. On a personal note, I’m in love with the escarpment as a topographical wonder (though being from Victoria I don’t think I can call it “the mountain”, but a wonder nonetheless!) especially in the fall, my favorite time of year. And what I found most surprising, was the centrality of neighbourhoods with something I’ve come to know as porch culture. I’ve never experienced this before, neighbours just sitting and chatting while sitting on their front porches. As we moved into our new neighbourhood, people got off their porches and came over to say hello. Absolutely foreign to me. But four years in, my daughter is running after the older kids in our neighbourhood, as folks are sitting on each others’ porches chatting and sharing life with each other. The sense of community at a neighbourhood level is something I’d never experienced before, and watching my daughter grow up in that is a sight to see.

A legacy to build on…

Yet, our city continues to face significant challenges. HCF has been at the forefront working to address these since 1954. This organization has a tradition of stepping into messy and hard work, with intentionality and care, working for positive impact and systemic change for the betterment of our neighbourhoods and communities. Past leaders, staff and board — have leaned into the complex and messy nature of this work and taken risks that other foundations and institutions wouldn’t: from our poverty reduction and neighbourhood work with Carolyn Milne at the helm, to our education and impact investment work with Terry Cooke and Annette Aquin. HCF has been the first through the door, a beacon of innovation and ingenuity in the nonprofit sector and in Canadian philanthropy. From dedicating all our unrestricted grant funding to deep and lasting impact on critical issues to building and shaping the social finance ecosystem in Canada, HCF has shown leadership and courage, always centered in its values.

The opportunity to build on this legacy and history with our many partners, is not only exciting for a lowly community developer like me, but a great responsibility. This is not lost on me as I step into this new role. Especially in our current context.

Hamilton is facing a series of intersecting crises during an increasingly polarized political landscape underpinned by increasing economic disparity between rich and poor. The housing, affordability, mental health and opioid crises are acute and are having a significant negative impact on our neighbours and our communities. Hamilton continues to have one of the highest rates of hate crimes per capita in the country. Inflation and cost of living are squeezing and hurting many families and communities. Gentrification has displaced so many, in particular along the planned LRT line. Throw in the backdrop of Canada’s ongoing failure to move the needle on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action; admissions of anti-black racism in our institutions with little to no reform; geopolitical conflicts that play out between communities on Hamilton playgrounds and workplaces; the rise of populism and increased polarization; and the threat of climate change…

To say we have work to do is an understatement.

…And work to do

HCF is on a trajectory. It is our responsibility to build on the work of those who came before us. To bring folks together, renewing old partnerships and forging new ones around critical issues, always speaking truth to power and finding pathways forward for people and planet.

It’s also our responsibility to acknowledge and identify where HCF itself has work to do. We have to ask ourselves some tough questions as we look at the future we want to build for Hamilton. We have to continue learning and increase our understanding of the historic and ongoing implications and harm being caused by colonization on Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island, who have been here since time immemorial. Colonization is not some historical fact, but an ongoing harmful practice in the Canadian context. What does that mean for HCF? What does Reconciliation and self-determination for Indigenous Peoples mean for HCF? I’m proud that last March we launched HCF’s Declaration of Action on Truth and Reconciliation, co-creating it with our urban Indigenous partners. The Declaration is just a first step; HCF is working to implement the Declaration’s short- and long-term goals, to measure our progress and to be accountable for what we have said we’re going to do. We have work to do.

Rudi Wallace hosts Rick Monture, Professor, English & Cultural Studies at McMaster University and author of We Share Our Matters: Two Centuries of Writing and Resistance at Six Nations of the Grand River.
On an episode of Vital Signs, Rudi Wallace hosts Rick Monture, Professor, English & Cultural Studies at McMaster University and author of We Share Our Matters: Two Centuries of Writing and Resistance at Six Nations of the Grand River.

What does equity mean to HCF and what does addressing the philanthropic funding inequities look like at HCF? How do we work to address the fact that Black-led organizations in Canada receive 0.03 percent of total philanthropic funding? I’m proud that we recently launched a Participatory Granting Pilot to democratize HCF’s funding, centring funding decisions in six equity-deserving communities, including Black, Indigenous, racialized, people who are deaf and people with disabilities, women and gender-diverse and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. We’ve made progress here, building on HCF’s equity, diversity and inclusion plan and learning from our equity audits over the past 16 years. But we have work to do.

How do we continue to work toward aligning all of our assets with our mission and values while wrestling with the criticisms of philanthropy and foundations that what the philanthropic sector invests in to generate a financial return and make grants, may be contributing to the very issues we are trying to address through those grants? What does that look like for us? I’m proud that we’ve have helped shape the social finance ecosystem in Canada, and that 25 percent of our assets are either placed or committed to social impact investments and that we’ve committed $50 million of our capital over the next ten years to build supportive and affordable housing through our affordable housing program, SCAFFOLD.

But still, we have work to do.

When talking about taking on the President & CEO role, I consistently came back to a particular word to describe the process and opportunity: sobering. Where this organization has come from and where we, collectively, want to go, is a sobering prospect. The work ahead will challenge our practices and ways of thinking. It will be hard and likely make us feel uncomfortable. Adding the values of Reconciliation and Equity was a public statement to our community of where we are going as an organization, and what is important to us.

It’s up to us now, to demonstrate that in action, reciprocity and in relationship. I am honoured and deeply humbled that I get to go this journey with all of you here today.

Much gratitude.