February 26th, 2010 - Castlegar,BC

Welcome and Introductions

Wally Penner, CBT Vice President of Community Partnerships, welcomed Project Advisory Committee members to the meeting, and introduced his colleagues, Sabrina Curtis, Director of Planning & Development, and Jennifer Krotz, Community Liaison. Wally provided an overview of the background and purpose of the project, and introduced Barbara McMillan, Director of Regional Strategies, Community Foundations of Canada, who would be leading the process.

Meeting participants were asked to introduce themselves and their foundation, and identify their primary sustainability challenge:

 a.. Norm Carruthers, Osprey, $5.6M, 10 years

 b.. Larry, Creston Kootenay CF, $650K

 c.. Rita Scott, Creston Kootenay CF, $650K

 d.. Seona Helmer, Chairman, CVCF, $800K, 9 years, trying to get community know that they're there, getting seasonal residents to know we're here

 e.. Steven Hui, Chair, RCF, struggling with admin costs ($8-10K year), need to move to another level and bring on an individual that can spend 16 hours/week; also challenged by newcomers

 f.. Ryan Watmough, ED, GDCF, $1.2M, 9 years old

 g.. Vivien Berry, Director, Nakusp CF, $250K, recently received generous donation from Credit Union, challenged to find strong board members and keeping their interest, open houses to get in front of community, conservative board, donor fatigue; local banks are a huge resource

 h.. Kent Goodwin, $450K, 8 years, all volunteer seems to be working, but they're at their limit; challenge of single industry town (Tech Cominco mine is closed); challenge of finding board members and keeping them;

 i.. David Stewart, CF of Kootenay Lake (under Osprey Foundation); started in 2005; membership fee of $10/year, one member provides $30/mth; lean on the Osprey Foundation; challenge of

 j.. Chris Bond, LeRoi Foundation, $500K, received money from Credit Unions, challenge with admin costs (finance/accounting)

 k.. Al Dawson, Osprey, $5.6M, Marketing Committee, trying to find sources increase their capacity and public awareness - looking for $5-8K/yr for 3 years to build

 l.. Melba Hanson, ED, Cranbrook and District CF, $1M, $750K in donor directed fund, very little in general endowment fund, 1/3 of board appointed (Ktunaxa, etc.), 2 year terms, partnered with SIDIT, job creation programs, challenge in growing endowment in a professional manner.

Introduction to collaboration concepts, research and tools

Barbara provided an overview of community foundation strategic alliances, including research, rationales, promising practices, challenges, and examples.

Activity: Collaboration Spectrum

Participants were asked to mark the Collaboration Spectrum with coloured stars to indicate areas where they believe their community foundation:

 a.. Should definitely collaborate

 b.. Should probably collaborate

 c.. Would not collaborate

In addition, they were asked to indicate areas where they believe their foundation donors would want them to collaborate, and would not want them to collaborate, and where other stakeholders (funders, community, grantees) would want them to collaborate.

The completed mapping showed clear clusters of common areas of interest. Areas where most CFs believe they should or could be partnering on include:

 a.. Marketing and communications

 b.. Fund development

 c.. Board development

 d.. community leadership

 e.. Vital Signs

 f.. Financial management (including accounting, audit and software system)

 g.. Information technology and website

 h.. Administration: grants and donor services

Many also felt that they could partner on Investments, although others indicated that was definitely an area they would not partner on.

Report: Community Foundations' status and systems

Barbara reported on the feedback provided through the individual conversations with community foundation board chairs, as well as the completed Community Foundation Summary Function Chart. The attached presentation provides an overview of the feedback.

CF Sustainability Challenges (as identified by participating CFs):

 a.. Transition from volunteer run to staff

 b.. Developing partnerships for strategic granting

 c.. Recognition in community

 d.. Getting known in community beyond grants - reaching second home owners, dormant organizations for fund development

 e.. Administration costs; reliance on board for operating

 f.. Changing community demographics

 g.. Operating revenues

 h.. Board member attraction, retention, succession

 i.. Getting new funds

 j.. Lack of sources for fund development

 k.. Funding for raising profile, building capacity

 l.. Limited discretionary funds

 m.. Limited staff and resources

Exploration: Ideas and options for strategic alliances - a focused conversation

Participants discussed their interests and ideas, clarifying various CFC programs, and highlighting some of the activities of other CFs that they were interested in. They discussed previous collaboration among CFs in the Basin, and the focus then moved to ideas for potential new partnerships.

 a.. Every grant given out is accompanied by a donor story

 b.. Get videos of donors to keep on website, etc. - talking about the motivation of the fund

 c.. 1% for the Planet - CFs are eligible by applying to CFC, and have businesses donate to their Environment Fund.

 d.. Land Trusts: partnership between local land trust organizations and CFs; tax benefits for environmentally significant land; CF holds the endowment to maintain the land - approximately 15% of land value each year required for stewardship

 e.. Potential for CF Partnerships: Marketing, back-office support, joint granting, bookkeeping

Previous Sharing/Ideas and Partnerships

 a.. Climate change cheques for creating environment fund

 b.. Wills tour

 c.. Website template

 d.. National Philanthropy Day/Week of November 15th

 e.. Centre for Sustainability - Environment project and National Philanthropy Day ? new project with Wildsight (Creston-Kootenay CF)

 f.. Marketing - Holiday Giving Campaign

 g.. Ski Resorts - Ski Resort Community Endowment Fund, funded by transferable corporate pass

Potential Partnership Projects

 a.. CBT website for sharing ideas

 b.. small grants to fund CF projects

 c.. Professional advice on tour:

   a.. (NFP) Speaker Series

   b.. Eg. KRIC in East Kootenay with Cranbrook CF; KAST in West Kootenay

   c.. College of the Rockies

 d.. National messaging

 e.. Sharing board and staff resources, expertise

 f.. Financial management

 g.. Board development

 h.. Shared financial management program, eg. Income Manager

 i.. Non-staffed CFs purchase services from staffed CFs

   a.. Fee for service/management agreement

   b.. List services available/needed

 j.. How do we pool resources for shared activities?

 k.. How do we manage information?

 l.. CBT's support for emerging/new Basin CFs

   a.. CFC + CBT + area CFs consistent messages and options

 m.. Director's Insurance (previously offered, but not enough uptake. Now refer to program through Volunteer Canada)

 n.. audit

 o.. State of the Basin/Vital Signs

 p.. Youth and Youth Vital Signs/State of the Basin

 q.. "turnkey operations" for financial management

Look for "quick wins"

Final questions, comments, next steps

Community foundations are asked to "Take it Home:

 a.. Share information with whole Board

 b.. Engage boards through activities: checklist, questionnaire, Collaboration Spectrum activity

 c.. Identify priority partnership interests

 d.. Identify concerns and barriers

 e.. Confirm preliminary interests

The next phase of the project will:

 a.. Update CF partnership research

 b.. Survey individual CFs

 c.. Identify relevant models, experience, tools

 d.. Assess opportunities and recommend options and approaches

 e.. Convene second meeting of Advisory Committee in May

 f.. Report to CBT in June