Stories

Walking the talk

New fund helps put mission into action

Jane Allison started her consulting business, Dovetail Community, in 2017 with the goal of helping corporations and others find ways of aligning their business objectives with their desire to be good corporate citizens.

“Corporate social responsibility is where profit meets purpose,” she says about the sweet spot where the values of an enterprise, its employees and its owners dovetail perfectly with its engagement in, and contribution to, the community. Some examples include companies that focus their hiring on at-risk youth to create a skilled workforce, include volunteerism as part of job performance and many other unique strategies that advance their business goals while strengthening the community.

As she described and refined Dovetail’s mission, Jane realized that she wanted to live those ideas herself—“walk the talk” as she puts it—even as a small start-up firm. Being familiar with Hamilton Community Foundation through her career at The Hamilton Spectator, Jane talked to HCF about creating a fund and directing a portion of each of her corporate billings into it. While the fund grows, it resides in the Community Fund; but ultimately it will become a donor-advised fund focused on mental wellness, kindness, body confidence and other issues Jane is passionate about.

She says establishing the fund is the fulfillment of a dream. The process of “really digging deep” into what she wanted to support was challenging and enormously satisfying. “You really think about what you stand for,” she says. To see her fund grow with small, regular additions to the capital from her business and personal philanthropy —along with the “miracle of invested earnings” and the expertise of HCF—pleases her immensely.

“It’s very empowering to realize that you can have an impact without having millions of dollars,” she says. “You just have to start.”

 

Excerpt from 2019 Annual Report