Monarch butterfly numbers are in freefall. A January 2014 count by the World Wildlife Fund shows North America’s population has hit an all-time low – and may disappear completely.
That’s not news to the Hamilton Naturalists’ Club. But it does make its latest project, with partner Environment Hamilton, all the more important.
Supported by an HCF grant,“Transformations: Hamiltonians creating and restoring monarch habitat” aims to create monarch butterfly and pollinator habitat at several Hamilton sites, a solution scientists recommend to help the species. It will teach youth about the importance of the monarch and other pollinators in sustaining plants in natural, agricultural and urban landscapes, environmental threats and, most important, what they can do to help.
Students will grow pollinator-friendly plants such as bee balm, milkweed and coneflower from seed in their classrooms, then head out to do the planting at the Naturalists’ Club’s Lands Inlet site and the remediated Rennie landfill in the Red Hill Valley.
The grant will also help families to find out more about the project at four community days. The public can learn about the importance of monarch habitat at the planting sites and other events held across the city, including “build your own pollinator box” workshops.
HCF is helping more families put money in the bank for higher education through a program to increase access to the Canada Learning Bond
Studies show that youth who have even modest education savings are 50 percent more likely to go on to post-secondary schooling than those who have none. Targeted directly at low-income families, the Canada Learning Bond is a federal government program that contributes up to $2,000 towards a child’s post-secondary education.
Although parents don’t have to make their own financial contribution to qualify, they do have to apply, and barriers such as paperwork, dealing with a financial institution and low awareness mean that some 900,000 children across Canada are not accessing the funds they are entitled to.
Locally, HCF is working with a multi-sector partnership to raise awareness and get more families registered. Led by the Best Start Network, the group recently mounted a two-day “sign-up fair” at Mission Services where families could get help to fill out forms and establish savings accounts. The federal government also chose the fair as a pilot program, enabling the group to leverage additional funds for outreach.
Financing is only one piece of increasing post-secondary access, but results show it’s a critical one.
Adolescence is hard enough – now consider the additional impact of a cancer diagnosis on a teen or on a young adult anxious to get on with life. A grant from HCF is supporting Wellwood Resource Centre to help this vulnerable group.
The Canadian Cancer Society reports that adolescents and young adults have unique needs for psychosocial support that aren’t being met as they straddle the pediatric and adult oncology worlds. Isolation both from fellow patients and from the day-to-day experiences of healthy friends has a profound effect.
Wellwood’s experience confirms this finding. Meeting the needs of this group is both a strategic priority and the focus for programs that will bring together adolescents and young adults with similar experiences to ease feelings of isolation and find meaningful support in an accessible, inclusive, safe space. Families will also find information and support.
Special efforts will be made to address the needs of young women, who have unique physical and psychological pressures due to fears and grief about infertility, body image and relationships.
The project will use Wellwood’s time-tested self-help model, which engages clients in information-sharing, exploration and problem-solving. Project partners include Hamilton Health Sciences, Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre, VON, Canadian Cancer Society, The Well and YWCA.
A bustling new addition to Hamilton’s food landscape represents two milestones: the city’s first co-op grocery store and the latest loan from the Hamilton Community Investment Fund (HCIF).
Like all co-ops The Mustard Seed, located just west of Locke Street on York Boulevard, is member-owned, though you don’t have to be a member to shop there. Its emphasis is on offering locally produced, sustainable food and creating a “positive impact on our local economy, our community, our health, and our environment”.
“As a social enterprise, The Mustard Seed was a clear match for us,” says Annette Aquin who heads up the Foundation’s impact investing program. “It touches many of our investment themes to create positive change, especially in the surrounding neighbourhood.”
The HCIF offers financing to Hamilton-area charities, non-profits and social enterprises. It’s one component of the Foundation’s impact investing portfolio that seeks to put more HCF assets to work in support of our mission.
Mustard Seed CEO Graham Cubitt says that the HCIF loan process was beneficial in ways beyond generating capital. “It helped us to make sure we had good answers to important questions about our feasibility, long-term goals, and ability to repay,” he says. “It was a good education and we’re happy knowing the loan interest is going back into the Foundation’s other good works.”
Watch Annette and Graham talk about HCIF and the Mustard Seed at here.
The store opened in January with 1,220 members and added another 200 in the first month.
Excerpt from Legacy newsletter, Spring 2014
It was the perfect example of connecting people, ideas and resources when Hamilton Community Foundation helped launch a program that trained out-of-work people in construction and gave downtown residents small exterior property renovations they could not otherwise afford.
Last spring, HCF grants manager Sharon Charters learned about the need for a home renovation loans program and brought it to the Hamilton Funders network. There the idea was sparked to create a grants program, using provincial training money available for job seekers to do the work.
Called the Neighbourhood Home Improvement Program, the partnership links job-readiness funding from the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities with the non-profit Threshold School of Building’s teaching expertise to help low-income homeowners.
The Foundation and the City of Hamilton are providing additional funding, as well as matching job seekers to the opportunity and overseeing the project applications review. Threshold provides the training: 26 weeks of paid onsite construction experience for 21 unemployed Hamiltonians as they complete the renovations CEO John Grant says the workers were “unbelievably gung-ho” about the program. “They are very proud and feel they are really giving back to the community.”
The program results?
Everyone associated with the program agrees it is an overall success. One homeowner called the construction crew an “army of hardhat angels that came to my rescue” while a crew member stated that aside from obtaining work experience, “being part of a positive change for Hamilton is what is most important.”
The Foundation’s ability to connect local needs with national resources means kids will be on the ice this winter at Eastwood Arena.
Skate the Dream is a local program that helps remove barriers preventing Hamilton children from learning to skate and to play hockey. This season, the program will be fully funded by a grant from the Daryl K. Seaman Canadian Hockey Fund at The Calgary Foundation, which supports amateur ice hockey across the country.
An entrepreneur and philanthropist, “Doc” Seaman is famous for bringing the NHL’s Flames to Calgary. He made headlines again this year when his estate made a $117-million donation to The Calgary Foundation — the third-largest gift ever to a Canadian charity.
HCF learned about the availability of nation-wide hockey grants through its community foundation network and linked the two. “HCF has previously supported Skate the Dream but the need for this type of program is great and more funding is always required,” says President & CEO Terry Cooke. “Making the connection to Calgary represents funding which may not have otherwise come into Hamilton.”
A Hamilton Community Foundation grant is helping to support Expansion 2013 at the Ancaster Senior Achievement Centre (ASAC), a project that will enable the centre offer its more than 30 arts, music and health programs and social opportunities to a burgeoning seniors population.
Established in 1974, the Centre has undergone a number of expansions. Today, with 1,100 members, it is operating at capacity — visits have increased 32 per cent over the past five years — and numbers are on the increase with the rapid growth of the senior population in the Hamilton area.
In fact, Statistics Canada predicts that within the next 10 years one in four residents will be 65 years or older.
“Expansion 2013 responds to ongoing demographic changes and the need for more social and programming space,” says ASAC Advisory Board Chair Al Gordon. “Most important,” he adds, “more older adults will have an opportunity to become part of a welcoming and supportive community of friends.”
Known as “The Meeting Place,” the Centre provides a relaxed environment where members can socialize, make new friends and participate in a variety of activities to improve health and fitness and to learn new skills.
NOTE: next application deadline is October 1, 2024. Apply online here.
These wonderful entertainers, all over age 60 – and some well into their 80s – regularly sell out their Hamilton variety show. They have also entertained audiences across North America and abroad.
In 1989, the Geritol Follies members decided to turn over their accumulated profits – more than $100,000 at the time – to set up a student bursary fund with HCF, encouraging “rising stars” to pursue post-secondary education in the performing arts. Follies members saw it as a way “of returning some of the blessings and benefits” they received in their younger days to talented Hamilton youth.
They also wanted to celebrate their own love of the stage, create a lasting legacy and be remembered for their unique impact on seniors everywhere.
By 2014, more than 100 young people from our community have received bursaries to help them pursue their dreams in the arts.
In the spring of 2000, one of the largest charitable donations in Canadian history was made to the Hamilton Community Foundation – transforming our organization’s resources and ability to respond to the charitable priorities of our community. This gift comes from Joyce Young – a private, soft-spoken, Hamilton-area woman – who made a donation of $40 million to the Foundation. More broadly, Mrs. Young’s remarkable gift to the Hamilton area has inspired people throughout communities across Canada, sparking dialogue and awareness of the power of individual citizens to change their communities.
The desire to help their nephew, Bob Young, in a high tech business venture left Joyce and her husband Bill with a financial windfall that exceeded their wildest expectations. Joyce made an investment in Red Hat Inc., the company established by their nephew. After holding the company’s stock for three years, she took out her original investment, leaving a little in “just for fun”. The “fun” translated into stock worth over $40 million.
Mrs. Young’s concern was to use the money responsibly to strengthen the services and supports in our community. It is significant that this generous gift, which, by virtue of its magnitude will transform the grant-making capabilities of the Foundation, results from the field of technology, which has had such a major impact on transforming our community. The Community Foundation will ensure that the Youngs’ generous gift has a broad and significant impact, strengthening our community and the quality of life enjoyed by all who live here. Joyce and Bill Young also hope that their gift will inspire others who reap financial windfalls to make similar charitable donations and, equally importantly, that each of us will be inspired to “give back to our community”.
By the tenth anniversary of that extraordinary gift, there had been grants totaling more than $11 million to innovative programs in Hamilton, across Canada and internationally. These grants have touched areas including education, health, the arts and the environment.
Perhaps one of the best examples of the impact is Pathways to Education, a trailblazing program that has proven to reduce high school dropout rates dramatically among disadvantaged youth and help them go on to post-secondary education. Pioneered in Toronto’s Regent Park, The Young Fund has supported its expansion to 11 Canadian communities including Hamilton, where it is addressing the critical issue of low high school completion in challenged neighbourhoods.
Their gift has also improved the life prospects of countless Hamilton young people through the creation of NYA:WEH, an Aboriginal stay-in-school initiative, and a model that is having an influence across the country.
Transformative to the Foundation and to Hamilton, the Young gift in 2000 virtually doubled the granting capacity of HCF’s Community Fund, which is directed to the city’s highest needs. It continues to contribute to this fund annually. At the same time, it enabled the Foundation to pilot its Growing Roots…Strengthening Neighbourhoods program. Together, these components have come together to inform and enable HCF’s neighbourhood-based poverty-reduction work.
“There are many remarkable aspects about this gift,” says President & CEO Terry Cooke, “and perhaps most humbling is the trust placed in the Foundation and the confidence the Youngs have in Hamilton and its future.”
The Young gift continues a family tradition of giving back to their community. Their roots in the community are deep and their commitment to its welfare is profound. Joyce’s great-great grandfather, Colin Ferrie, became the first mayor of Hamilton in 1847. Bill’s ancestors established the Hamilton Cotton Company and his father, James Young, was one of the founding board members of Hamilton Community Foundation in 1954.
The Young Fund is a legacy that will continue to transform this community for generations to come.
When John Marshall asked a friend to set him up on a blind date for a University of Toronto dance, he had no idea he was about to meet the love of his life. “From the beginning, I could see that Esther had a quiet and steady presence. She was well liked and respected by everyone. She had a good laugh.” The date and the dance were a huge success. John married Esther, a Brantford native, on May 29, 1948. Although both graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School, John, who also completed a degree in aeronautical engineering and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1967, says they seldom talked law. “Esther practiced for a year in her father’s firm, but when the first of our four daughters came along, her attention turned to family and community life.”
Esther gave extensively to the community through her volunteer activities, including membership on the Board of Directors of the Hamilton Community Foundation from 1979-1983, the Junior League of Hamilton-Wentworth, volunteer committee of the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and the Board of Governors for McMaster University.
The value of public service may well have been learned from her widowed father, Ross Macdonald, who served as a Member of Parliament for Brantford, Speaker of the House of Commons and a member of Lester Pearson’s Liberal Cabinet. When he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Ontario in 1967, Esther often acted as his hostess for official engagements.
Through a gift of securities, John and his four daughters – Ann, Claire, Mary and Janet – established a fund in honour of their wife and mother who died in September of 1995. The Fund is used to make contributions to arts and cultural organizations in Hamilton. Daughter Mary Prime says the Fund is a wonderful way to keep her mother’s memory alive. “My mother always put others first. She was admirable in every way and she remains a strong reference point in all our lives.”
In 2003 the fund was passed to the daughters on John’s death. Because they remembered the lifelong value of their early experiences in the arts, they now use the fund to provide similar opportunities to children in Hamilton today.
The four siblings work closely with Hamilton Community Foundation staff to make grants from the fund their father established in memory of their mother in 1995 and passed down to them on his death in 2003.
They support the organizations Esther and John favoured, but they have also branched out to fund priorities identified by HCF. “The Foundation has been superb in giving us options to consider,” says Janet. The sisters are attracted to projects that expose low-income children to the arts, like hands-on summer arts camps and artist-in-the-classroom programs. They feel their parents would have appreciated that direction too.
“Our parents loved the arts and they enjoyed contributing time and resources to the arts community in Hamilton,” says Ann. “We want to make sure that continues.” Now that the family is scattered across Canada, the fund is “an anchor back to the Hamilton community where we grew up,” adds Mary.
“Dad was so pleased to have established this fund in memory of Mum,” says Claire. “We’re very, very pleased to continue it.”
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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