At HCF we believe that supporting and empowering women and girls is a crucial element in building a vibrant and inclusive Hamilton. Research undertaken by Women 4 Change demonstrates the impact of gender inequality and suggests that women and girls in our city need additional supports to thrive. Here are some of the latest local projects we support that are directed toward this effort.
The teenage years are a crucial time of physical, emotional, spiritual and social development for young girls. Transitioning to a new culture can be especially challenging in this context. A free program from YWCA provides young girls who have fled Syria as refugees the opportunity to develop leadership, recreational and personal skills during a week-long March Break camp session.
From January to March, this program – a partnership between Good Shepherd Women’s Services and Steel City Stories – included women from a variety of backgrounds sharing their stories and experiences and culminated in performances that celebrate International Women’s Day.
We love this program that allows women to flex their coding muscles. Last fall, a group of women had the opportunity to participate in a 12-week coding boot camp at the Eva Rothwell Centre which included building websites and digital applications. The program was a partnership between Industry Education Council of Hamilton and Mohawk College. Read more here.
After fleeing from physical and emotional violence, women and their dependent children face challenges in rebuilding their lives. We’re glad to support the Phoenix Place program at YWCA which empowers women and children in these situations with access to affordable housing, part of a wider strategy to end violence against women.
Empowering women takes many forms. This project, sponsored by Social Planning and Research Council, empowers women to participate in legal processes by providing legal advice and accompaniment to legal appointments, facilitating conversational women’s groups, and providing links to free community resources and wellness.
Future Intended is an ongoing series that spotlights some of our most recent granting in categories like music, visual art, literacy, STEM and more.
Hamilton is definitely a music town. Through a variety of funds, we’re glad to be able to support local projects and organizations that spread the joy of music. From dance and jazz to music-related health research, here are just a few great music projects that we’re supporting this year.
Hamilton All-Star Jazz Band
Did you know that grads from the Hamilton All Star Jazz Band have garnered 33 Juno nominations, 11 Juno wins, and three Grammys? The band has performed at world-famous jazz festivals like Montreux in Switzerland and has featured more than a thousand young musicians since its inception in 1984. We’re glad to give continued support to this Hamilton treasure.
Dance for Parkinson’s
We love this research project which is a partnership between McMaster University’s Digital Music Lab, St. Joseph’s Healthcare, and St Peter’s Hospital. Participants – who dance, dance and dance some more – use a screen-based app and Microsoft’s Kinect camera whose motion-sensor technology allows researchers to study the effects of dance therapy on the symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease.
Arrell Youth Centre Productions
A new music program at the Arrell Youth Centre (operated by Banyan Community Services Foundation) will help troubled youths get back on track – by laying down some tracks of their own! The program will involve building a sound studio, music education, and writing and producing music under the guidance of professional musician mentors.
Chinese Cultural Association of Hamilton
Hamiltonians with Chinese heritage have a lot to celebrate this month. This project helps residents appreciate the arts through an array of cultural activities including a dance program for kids that culminated in a Chinese New Year performance.
Resonance Choir
Kids at the Ron Joyce Children’s Health Centre will have an especially great reason to sing this year – for their health! This project which also includes partners Hamilton Health Sciences and Culture for Kids in the Arts, will look at how group vocalization and choir singing may benefit youths with physical disabilities, like respiratory and pulmonary diseases.
Future Intended is an ongoing series that spotlights some of our most recent granting in categories like visual art, literacy, the environment and more.
Hamilton Community Foundation has an important role to play in stimulating and supporting Hamiltonians to be engaged and effective philanthropists.
One way we’re playing that role is through a new educational workshop titled Sharpen Your Impact. It takes participants through fun and interactive exercises that help them uncover what is important to them and why, and then to use that self-knowledge to build their personal philanthropic plan.
Sarah Wardrope attended a session hosted by Hamilton HIVE, a network for the city’s young professionals. “It helped me to bring into focus the areas I am passionate about,” she says, “and to identify resources I already have, like my social media networks, that I can use to start making a difference.”
Sharpen Your Impact helps participants recognize that philanthropy goes beyond money, and to consider how they can focus assets such as time, connections, volunteerism and employment to foster the social change they envision.
Sheree Meredith, HCF’s Vice-President of Philanthropic Services says the workshop shows people how to reflect on what they are doing now – and could easily do in future. “It helps them bring together their efforts in a way that can increase the both the difference they make in the community and their own intrinsic satisfaction.”
To learn more about hosting or attending a Sharpen Your Impact workshop, please contact Jill Anderson: j.anderson@hamiltoncommunityfoundation.ca.
Excerpt from the 2017 Legacy Fall newsletter
Five years after its launch, a local vision screening pilot program for school children is paying high-level dividends. The Ontario government recently indicated a new mandate for public health province-wide: to address vision.
HCF provided start-up funding in 2012 to the pilot at five high-need elementary schools. It discovered vision problems in 16 percent of the children screened. Of children who needed glasses, 18 percent didn’t have them. The project engaged multiple partners to provide screening space, transportation, expertise and equipment and more than 114 Hamilton schools are now involved. HCF has supported the program throughout, including subsidizing the cost for glasses.
HCF’s initial grant also helped document the project as a policy and public education tool. Now, incorporating that evidence into its broader findings, Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long Term Care has mandated all public health units to address the need for vision screening.
“HCF’s funding was critical to getting this project going,” says Laura Laverty, from the City of Hamilton’s Healthy Families Division, ”and because of that, Hamilton has a head start on the province’s new vision mandate.”
Excerpt from the 2017 Legacy Fall newsletter
Women are flexing their coding muscles at a free 12-week bootcamp held at the Eva Rothwell Centre this fall.
The program, which is supported by HCF’s Women 4 Change and organized by Hamilton’s Industry Education Council and CitySchool by Mohawk, teaches women not currently in school to build websites and applications. Guest speakers and visits to Mohawk College provide inspiration and practical information about educational pathways.
The bootcamp addresses an important need in Canada. “With cumulative hiring requirements expected to reach as many as 232,000 by 2019,” reports the Information and Communications Technology Council, “attracting and retaining top female talent in this highly competitive market has never been more critical.”
Excerpt from the 2017 Legacy Fall newsletter
“Brain Smart: Let’s Play Safely,” is a research project that is tackling youth concussions head on.
Concussion can have lasting impact on all areas of a young person’s life: cognitive, social, physical and emotional. The project’s objectives are to reduce the risk of concussion in organized youth sports and increase knowledge of concussion management by coaches, athletes and parents. The initial focus is on the sports with the highest concussion rates: hockey and football.
The 16-month project is funded by a Community Health and Education Research grant, led by McMaster’s CanChild Centre for Disability Research. Numerous partners include the City of Hamilton, minor sports associations, Brain Injury Services, Lifemark Physiotherapy and the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board,
The project’s five phases include a baseline survey about concussion incidence, knowledge and attitudes and existing protocols, ; helping teams to develop or refine their concussion management protocols; outreach and education sessions for teams and players; a follow-up survey; and sharing results. The plan is to eventually expand the research to all minor sports in Hamilton.
Excerpt from 2017 Fall Legacy newsletter
Next summer, local SoBi bikeshare hubs will be transformed by art, and in the process, increase the artists’ connection to community.
The artists will be participants in Proof Positive, a collaboration between Centre[3] for Print and Media Arts and the Regional Rehabilitation Centre that teams up 30 people who are undergoing physical and mental rehabilitation with two local experts. The participants will learn the fundamentals of printmaking, drawing, painting and photography while producing their own work on the theme of transformation. The program will be hosted at Centre[3]’s James North studio and the rehabilitation centre at the Hamilton General Hospital.
Access to collaborative, creative opportunities for self-expression is important for people whose disabilities may prevent them from going outside the rehabilitation centre and thus may isolate them from their community. Participants in the project, which is funded by an HCF Creative Arts grant, will use art to connect and share with the larger community, breaking down barriers to inclusion and sparking conversations at SoBi stations across the city.
Excerpt from 2017 Fall Legacy newsletter
There are more than 700 alleys in Hamilton. In its oldest neighbourhoods, these alleys gave horse-drawn carriages access to homes and businesses. Today they are transportation corridors and impromptu playgrounds, bike paths and shortcuts to school or work. Some are gang-tagged and littered with drug paraphernalia. Increasingly, they are leafy, flower-lined and bordered by public art. Brenda Duke, is determined to make every one safe and beautiful. 
Brenda started cleaning the alley behind her Gibson Landsdale home in 2011. The idea caught on, and she engaged more and more local residents in caring for their local alleys – spaces that accumulate garbage and blight neighbourhoods when neglected, but generate pride and healthy activity when reclaimed.
Brenda expanded her effort into Beautiful Alleys in 2015. Since then, the group has transformed roughly 200 alleys. Some 150 volunteers do twice-annual cleanups with support from the City of Hamilton, area BIAs, businesses and community organizations, supplies from Hamilton Clean & Green, McMaster University researchers cataloguing progress, and HCF small grants.
Brenda credits some of her success to HCF’s Neighbourhood Leadership Institute (NLI). Through her 10-week course in 2015, Brenda says she “refined her skills” and made her work more effective. She built networks and learned more about dealing with conflict. She remains a valued NLI alumni, mentoring other community leaders. “NLI is always there for you,” she says. “It’s continual learning. I recommend it to other leaders and help in any way I can.”
As she gears up for the next cleanup, Brenda has an ambitious goal – to put Beautiful Alleys out of business. “When residents take over the care of their alleys, you don’t need our group to come in,” she explains. Already, the number of “new” alleys needing help is going down – a sure sign her leadership is making a difference.
Excerpt from 2017 Fall Legacy newsletter
Rainbow’s End assistant manager Tom Varley is a testament to the power of meaningful work
Look behind the stainless steel prep counter at The Rainbow’s End Bistro and you’ll find a pot of gold — a meaningful job for those with lived experience of mental illness.
The Bistro anchors the busy food court at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton’s West 5th location. With a focus on serving healthy, high-quality food, it’s a social enterprise providing training and employment for those living with mental illness.
One in five Hamiltonians will experience some sort of mental illness in their lifetime. Many want to return to work, but struggle to find opportunities. The Bistro not only provides its team members with training in safe food handling and exposure to a fast-paced kitchen environment, it proves they can be productive contributors to both workplace and community.
“The people who work here show us that despite some very difficult hurdles, they continue to climb,” says David Williams, executive director of Rainbow’s End. “I learned my relentless enthusiasm from them.”
Accommodations come standard. “We adjust the jobs to fit the people,” says Tom Varley, who started as kitchen help and is now the Bistro’s assistant manager. “Some people come in beaten down, with no self-confidence. Then they see they’re a vital member of the team. The change is amazing.”
Tom speaks from personal experience. “I was an addict for 25 years. You fool yourself into thinking you’re functioning but you’re not. Now I’m fully self-sufficient, and helping others, too. It’s like night and day.”
With support from an HCF grant, the Bistro is enhancing its training program with six-month paid internships and expanding its catering services. New signage, equipment and marketing help from Mohawk College students are also on the menu.
“We’re successful because of the hard work of our team members,” David says. “They belong here. They belong in the community. And they’re contributing to the success of Hamilton.”
Excerpt from 2017 annual report
Clare Wagner brings people together around food at the Hamilton Community Food Centre
It’s a cold and rainy Saturday morning, but inside Neighbour 2 Neighbour’s Hamilton Community Food Centre on Limeridge Road West, everyone gets a warm welcome.
The centre is the first of its kind in Hamilton and only the eighth in Canada—a place that’s changing the food system through the power of a great meal, cooked with love and eaten with others.
At the Saturday market and café, a woman from South Korea and her son sample Persian tea and vanilla crêpes. A man from Dubai with a PhD in agriculture fills out a volunteer form. A woman from London, Ontario, in town to visit family, marvels at a table full of bright green chard for her mom’s Kurdish dishes. “I don’t know of anything like this in my city,” she says.
More than one in three people in some Hamilton Mountain neighbourhoods are living below the poverty line, with very few services. Programs at the Hamilton Community Food Centre are free. The market and café sell their wares at or below cost. No one is asked to prove their need.
“We aren’t teaching poor people to cook,” clarifies director of community food, Clare Wagner. “We’re creating a space for people to grow, cook, share and advocate for good food.”
Community Food Centres Canada chose Hamilton from among 24 Ontario communities for a five-year, $1 million investment. A loan from HCF’s Hamilton Community Investment Fund is helping to bring the centre to life by supporting construction, a capital campaign and operations.
The centre’s programs are filling up before there’s even a sign on the building. HCF funds support the Welcome Baby program, delivered in partnership with the City’s Public Health Department, and food-focused after-school and summer programming for children and youth.
Other popular programs are an intercultural community kitchen, lunch and dinner drop-ins, community gardens, a language exchange and community action training.
“There’s hope when we bring people from different backgrounds together around food and start talking about what needs to change,” says Clare. “This is a space where people can grow and feel valued.”
Excerpt from 2017 annual report
Donations to the Foundation are invested for the long term in public markets and in alternative investments. Investment income is then allocated annually to support granting, community leadership and operations. The summary and charts presented here provide both a financial snapshot and a history of recent activity that underlies the grants and community leadership activities represented in this annual report, made possible by remarkable donors.
Donations to the Foundation are from individuals, corporations and other charities. Donors may contribute to named endowment or flowthrough funds, to the Board-directed Community Fund, or to HCF’s community leadership projects.
The $35.1 million in donations this year is the second highest total in HCF’s history. Annual donations are influenced by the timing of the realization of donations in wills and significant one-time donations like the $27.7 million in donations of property and private equity. As illustrated in Chart 1, annual donations have ranged between $3.2 and $35.1 million over the past eight years. The five-year rolling average of donations ranges from $5.0 million to $13.3 million over the past eight years.
The five-year rolling average number of donations is 1,787 with 2019-20 at 1,853. The number of donations fluctuates based on “in memoriam” donations and the number and nature of events sponsored by donors to raise money for their funds.
Chart 1
Grants are made annually from both endowed and flowthrough funds. Because flowthrough fund balances are distributed in a shorter time period, granting from these funds can materially influence HCF’s total annual amount granted.
As illustrated in Chart 2, grants and community leadership project spending over the past eight years has ranged from $4.7 million to this year’s historic high of $11.5 million. Granting from endowment funds was reduced in 2013 as a result of the decline in investment returns in 2012 which a) lowered the asset base used for the granting calculation (currently four percent of the fund balances), and b) resulted in less income available to grant. Flowthrough granting and expenditures on community leadership projects has ranged from 22 to 56 percent of total granting in any given year and is dependent on the timing and nature of flowthrough and project activity. At 893, the number of grants for this year is 37 percent higher than the eight-year average.
Chart 2
Investments traded in active markets are reported at fair market value. Investments not actively traded are recorded at their cost less any impairment of their value.
To support our strategy of aligning our assets with our mission and to provide a more diverse and robust portfolio, HCF has committed to investing in alternative asset classes including loans to charities and not-for-profits, private debt, real estate, infrastructure and private equity. These alternatives are consistent with the Foundation’s long-term investment horizon and liquidity requirements. Since these investments are not actively traded, they are valued at cost in the investments. These alternatives total $25.8 million.
HCF invests according to policy guidelines established by the Board of Directors. Two committees of the Board oversee investments to ensure compliance with the policy:
As an endowment builder, HCF’s policy focuses on long-term investing and is supported by reserve accounts that are currently at their policy maximum.
The investment policy sets out a total portfolio target asset mix, as well as a range around these targets. The public market investment managers have mandates within this targeted asset mix and use their discretion to invest the portfolios within this range. Chart 3 reflects the current and target asset mix. Note: $25 million of private equity relates to a fund established by a donor and is not part of the asset mix or the consolidated portfolio results.
Chart 3
Two long-term portfolios are invested in the public markets with Jarislowsky Fraser, and Connor, Clark & Lunn. Chart 4 compares those portfolios against benchmarks as follows:
Benchmarks reflect the performance of each market index based on HCF’s specific target asset mix. Comparing actual results to the benchmark measures the value added by investment managers compared to the average market performance. HCF’s investment policy target is a long-term investment return in the 6.5 to 7.5 percent range.
Chart 4
The effect of the global pandemic has materially affected investment returns, resulting in a -8.4 percent public market return for the year. The seven-year annualized return at 6.8 percent is within the targeted investment policy range and is 1.2 percent higher than the 5.6 percent benchmark. As noted in the financial highlights, the current 10-year annualized return of 7.0 percent is in the target range and is higher than the benchmark by 1.2 percent.
Impact investments enable donations to endowed funds to drive positive change beyond granting, because they represent investments of capital that deliver financial returns coupled with positive social and/or environmental outcomes. In addition, these investments provide a pool uncorrelated to the public markets which, in turn, buffers the portfolio from the volatility currently experienced.
More than 15 percent of our long-term assets are in impact investments. Chart 5 illustrates HCF’s impact investing progress over the past five years, with $25 million currently placed or outstanding and another $15 million committed. This brings the total commitment to $40 million, up from $34 million last year. Impact investments cover areas including affordable housing, arts, environment and sustainable development.
Chart 5
Local loans since inception total $9.7 million with $7.1 million outstanding at year end. Chart 6 shows the impact areas our loans have supported. Since the loan program’s 2012 inception, $2.6 million in loan principal has been repaid and recycled as new loans. In addition, the interest from these loans supports HCF granting.
Chart 6
IRP is a Government of Canada program being delivered nationally by partners including Community Foundations of Canada. As the first phase in the government’s long-term investment in social finance, the IRP’s goal is to make social-purpose organizations “investment ready” so they can make a difference in new and innovative ways through their participation in the social finance market. HCF has partnered with community foundations in London and Niagara, and the McMaster Innovation Park to manage the program regionally on behalf of Community Foundations of Canada. The first request for proposals for funding in January created enormous interest nationally and garnered 65 submissions to our regional partnership. Approved funding is expected to be released in June 2020. As an additional benefit, the IRP brought a growing number of potential opportunities for local loans to HCF’s attention.
These investments include private equity, private debt and real estate investments. Many of these investments are long term in nature, are maintained at cost and do not have a regular income stream. As these investments are maintained at cost, their results include interest income and realized gains, but not unrealized gains. Results for these investments are closely monitored and are reported when realized. Chart 7 identifies the investment areas, with $18.0 million placed and a total commitment of $33 million across 21 investments.
Chart 7
Operating expenses for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020 total $2.5 million and were 2.5 percent higher than last year. Staffing costs related to the Foundation’s 22 employees represent 70 percent of HCF operating costs.
In addition to breaking out cost by type, operating costs are allocated to each of the Foundation’s operating areas: grants administration, community and philanthropic leadership, community relations and knowledge dissemination, development activities, and administration and governance. Examples of community and philanthropic leadership include convening around the city’s critical issues and fostering the growth of philanthropy by sharing staff time and knowledge to support other charities. Charts 8 and 9 illustrate these costs by operating area and by expense type.
Charts 8 and 9
The Foundation’s annual development expenses are not necessarily attributable to the donations received in that year. The nature of donations to the Foundation can result in costs preceding the receipt of the donation by several years (for example, donations through wills). As a result, consistent with the community foundation sector, operating costs are evaluated by a ratio of total operating expenses to average total assets. Ratios fall within a range depending on the size and stage of the community foundation’s development.
Management considers the ratio of 1.26 percent (1.25 percent in 2019), as illustrated in Chart 10, to be within an acceptable range for a foundation of HCF’s size, stage and level of community leadership, compared against benchmarks established in the community foundation sector. We continue to monitor both the actual results and the benchmarks on an ongoing basis.
Chart 10
Hamilton Community Foundation’s total assets of $201 million at March 31, 2020 include balances of HCF funds and funds held on behalf of others at $1.7 million.
Hamilton Community Foundation’s fund balances, illustrated in Chart 11, represent accumulated donations plus the net investment earnings on these donations, minus granting and operating costs. Funds include both endowed and flowthrough funds. Endowed funds are held permanently and grant from investment earnings. Flowthrough funds are fully distributed as grants over a pre-determined term.
Chart 11
The fund balances have grown 55 percent to $198 million at the year ended March 31, 2020 from $128 million in 2013. Donations of $35.1 million included $4.4 million in flowthrough donations that were largely distributed as grants in the year and, as a result, do not remain in the fund balances at year end. This results in a modest total funds balance growth of 4.8 per cent for the year. The number of funds has grown 19 percent to 377 from 318 in 2013.
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