2015 ANNUAL REPORT 2015 ANNUAL REPORT | 1 We believe in finding and nurturing the next generation of leaders of character: mission young people who act with integrity, courage, compassion, determination and a high level of personal autonomy. Canada will thrive if we ensure that high-potential students are given the opportunity to imagine, explore and create the future. The Loran Scholars Foundation, founded in 1988, is a national charity that works in partnership with universities, donors and volunteers throughout the country to invest in young Canadians who demonstrate character, RIGOROUS SELECTION PROCESS commitment to service and leadership potential. The foundation is governed by an independent board of directors. We look for qualities in our scholars that a transcript alone cannot show: personal integrity and character; commitment to service and an entrepreneurial spirit; breadth Formerly known as the Canadian Merit Scholarship Foundation, the Loran in academic and extra-curricular interests; strongly developed inner-directedness; and outstanding overall potential for leadership. Through a series of assessments and Scholars Foundation changed its name in 2014. personal interviews, we select the top 30 from 3,800 applicants as Loran Scholars. We also grant up to 80 one-time entrance awards. MISSION STATEMENT LONG-TERM INVESTMENT IN POTENTIAL We are committed to the greatest of Canada’s resources: our youth. We work to identify and support talented students who show promise of We provide Loran Scholars with a renewable award comprising an $9,000 living leadership and a strong commitment to service in the community. stipend and a matching tuition waiver from one of our 25 partner universities. We encourage scholars to resist the temptation to take easy or conventional paths and to We fund these citizens to study on Canadian campuses, to the benefit of their seek out, instead, how they can most effectively contribute to society. To this end, we future and ours. provide $8,500 in funding for three kinds of scholar-initiated summer internships (private sector, public policy and personal/community development). We also pair scholars with mentors who will challenge them and introduce them to their new community. We expect scholars to use these opportunities to broaden and enrich their academic studies. TABLE OF CONTENTS EXTENSIVE NETWORK Letter from CEO & Chair 4 Summer Program 16 Results So Far 6 Volunteers 20 We welcome Loran Scholars into an extended family of volunteers, donors, staff, and Selection Process 9 Donors 26 past and present scholars. The incoming class of Loran Scholars spends five days together in Algonquin Park as part of their orientation expedition before they begin Class of 2015 10 Financial Information 35 university. All scholars are invited to our annual four-day national scholars’ retreat. University Partnership 11 Board of Directors & Officers 38 Our past scholars organize their own Connexion weekend every three years. We know the value of these relationships and take care to nurture them. Mentoring 12 Honorary Council, Committees Scholar Gatherings 14 & Staff 39 Cover photo: Faelan Prentice (Young Fund Loran Scholar ‘14) spent his summer working for the Haida Gwaii Higher Education2015 Society inANNUAL Haida Gwaii, REPORT BC. Photo credit:| 2 Brianne Miller. 2015 ANNUAL REPORT | 3 LETTER FROM CEO & CHAIR Nearly four years ago we determined that to continue Most significant for the foundation’s long-term future will be our ability to focus our program at its current scale we had to raise $14 on our alumni. Supporting and engaging our community of alumni is more than a million by 2017. Our community of supporters strategic goal: it is central to our mission. We do not reward Loran Scholars for responded to this challenge with true leadership and past accomplishments but invest in their potential to make an impact throughout commitment. Long-standing investors redoubled their their lives. Their ongoing success is therefore the greatest measure of ours. We are contributions, and a significant number of new partners excited to work with our global alumni network to develop initiatives that will joined our cause. This year, with the goal in reach, help them build their skills, collaborate with and inspire one another. As the Loran several donors gave our campaign the final push to Scholars Foundation supports its alumni, they are increasingly the stewards of the Franca Gucciardi (Loran Scholar take us past the $14 million mark. Thanks especially to foundation’s success. Alumni are integral to and engaged with every facet of the ‘90), Executive Director & CEO John and Marcy McCall MacBain and an anonymous program as mentors, selection volunteers, board members, staff and more. This donor who stepped up to fund, respectively, five and year past scholars set a new fundraising record, with 89% of our 426 alumni now four scholars yearly over the next four years. Not only donors, bringing cumulative donations to well over $1 million from a group did we reach this goal two years early but, for the first whose average age is just 29. As the alumni community continues to grow (by time, every incoming Loran Scholar is named for a more than one third in the next five years alone), their commitment to our work specific donor who will support their four years in the ensures that the Loran Scholars Foundation will grow with them. program. Our base of support is both deeper and An ambitious plan needs an exceptional team to bring it to life. Our selections broader than ever, comprised of an unprecedentedly team of 350+ volunteer assessors, committee administrators and interviewers diverse range of individuals, foundations and across the country enables us to put each one of our ~3,800 yearly applicants companies who believe in finding and nurturing the through the most rigorous and personalized selection process of its kind in the next generation of leaders of character. Patrick Cronin, Chair world. Our volunteer mentors commit to a full four years of supporting and In addition to thanking these supporters, I want to challenging our scholars to test their comfort zones, discover their strengths, highlight what their investment makes possible. As we advanced towards our and take on new challenges. The extraordinary effort and dedication of these goal, we were able to keep our annual cohort size at 30 as well as make incre- volunteers, mobilized by our full-time staff of eight, is the engine powering ev- mental improvements to the program. Reaching the $14 million milestone has a erything we do. greater significance: it allows us to focus on our vision for the future. Nor could we fulfill our mission without our 25 university partners across Canada. This summer our board of directors and management team worked to outline Loran Scholars not only benefit from a tuition waiver - equal in value to their what form that vision will take in the next six years. The result is a strategic plan annual living stipend - but also receive invaluable guidance from volunteer ad- that will shape our trajectory to 2021, focusing on four key objectives: ensuring ministrators at each institution. These partnerships speak volumes to our shared our program is among the best in the world, marketing our brand, engaging values, to the universities’ trust in our organization to select these young leaders alumni, and securing our long-term funding model. Each of these objectives of character and to the contributions Loran Scholars make to their campuses. signifies exciting new initiatives and new possibilities. For example, we will be Thank you for your support. increasing stipend and summer internship grants, add fourth-year transitioning With the momentum we have achieved in the last three years and an ambitious programming and give more flexibility to our national committees to select a few plan for the next six, Loran is poised to grow into one of the great globally recog- more scholars annually if quality allows. We can focus on further raising our nized scholarship programs. As we tell incoming scholars, when it comes to profile among potential applicants, influencers and supporters, continuing a investing in their potential we are “in it for the long term.” Thanks to the commit- trend that saw us receive front-page coverage in The Globe and Mail this year. ment of our donors, partners, alumni and volunteers, we look forward to honoring We will fund our efforts with increasingly ambitious annual and endowment that promise for years to come. fundraising, with a goal of securing over $20 million in annual fund commitments between now and 2021. 2015 ANNUAL REPORT | 4 2015 ANNUAL REPORT | 5 RESULTS SO FAR Loran alumni continue to give generously to the foundation and support one Loran Scholars are developing cutting-edge technologies, shaping public another in living the values of character, service and leadership. This past year, policy, pushing boundaries in art and excelling in fields of finance, medicine, alumni contributed $117,000 to our annual campaign, beating last year’s mark law and science. See examples below. by more than 10% and bringing our cumulative giving to $1.1M with an 89% Past scholars’ passions, projects and careers are strikingly diverse. What unites donor participation rate. For a group of 426 whose average age is only 29, them is their demonstration of the core values of character, service and lead- these numbers are truly encouraging. ership, and shared experience of our program. Across the world, they are making Beyond their financial contributions, alumni are also giving generously of their outsized contributions that will continue to grow as the scholars themselves time. Over a quarter of them serve as volunteers in our selection process or as grow older. As the primary beneficiaries of the Loran Scholars Foundation, alumni mentors. In addition, many are working with current scholars by introducing will also be its ultimate stewards.