2011 ANNUAL REPORT helping good people do great things in their community NIAGARA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OUR VISION Realizing community dreams through philanthropy. OUR MISSION The Niagara Community Foundation is a charitable public foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life in Niagara through building endowment funds, providing grants and enabling philanthropic partnerships. OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES ENABLE, COLLABORATE AND TRANSFORM: Enable community improvement by providing funding and community knowledge. Bring organizations together to form partnerships based on the respective strengths of each organization to focus on key community priorities. DEMONSTRATE PHILANTHROPIC LEADERSHIP: Demonstrate expertise and best practice in philanthropic leadership. PUT NIAGARA FIRST: Communicate and support the Niagara story. Build community leadership. Seek and develop individuals who will bring leadership to the community. BE TRUSTWORTHY AND TRANSPARENT: Engage in practices that are open, accessible, fair, objective, flexible, timely and built on a foundation of respect, trust, integrity and honesty. ENSURE SOUND GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT: Ensure that the Niagara Community Foundation governance and management is sound, relevant and realizes its full fiduciary responsibility. Cover photo – Go to page 6 to read about Heartland Forest’s educational programs. EXECUTIVE MESSAGE CONTENTS Message from the Board Chair and Executive Director 3 Priorities, strategies and plans 4 Grant stories 6 Liz Palmieri Executive Director and Discretionary Mel Groom President grants 9 Each year brings different challenges and opportunities to our work with donors and community groups. In 2011, the Foundation experienced continued growth Donor-directed in donations, which in turn strengthened both our donor-directed and our five grants 14 discretionary granting programs. We have developed and sustained meaningful relationships with like-minded organizations across Niagara. And we continue to Donor be challenged by the state of the investment climate. stories 16 For long-time supporters of the Foundation this annual report represents a Endowment funds departure from the past. The change, we believe, highlights an aspect of our work that perhaps is less public, but equally as important as the work for which continue to grow 20 we are known, our grantmaking and building new endowments. This year, as well as telling stories about the grants we’ve awarded and the wonderful donors Donors, memorial who support our work, we will also be reporting on our strategic plan, board and tribute gifts 23 governance, risk management, investment performance and our operations. Our goal is to continue to build our reputation as a trustworthy, well-governed and Financial and transparent organization built on a solid foundation for continued growth and governance highlights success. 26 Thank you to our volunteers, donors, sponsors and supporters for continuing Board of directors, to give us the opportunity to provide philanthropic leadership across Niagara in committees and order to support a vibrant voluntary sector doing truly remarkable work. sponsors 29 Mel Groom, Board Chair Liz Palmieri, Executive Director 3 PRIORITIES, STRATEGIES, PLANS HIGHLIGHTS In 2008, the Niagara Community Foundation adopted LEADERSHIP NIAGARA a strategic plan based on extensive consultation with the The Foundation was part of the original Steering Committee community. At the Foundation’s 2010 annual board retreat, to create Leadership Niagara, a leadership development strategic priorities were reviewed and were adopted to program to support emerging community leaders. We continue into 2011. Our plan has four priorities: provide $5,000 annually in bursaries for staff from the voluntary sector to participate in this program. In 2011, we • Increasing our impact in the community partnered with Leadership Niagara on a Trillium grant to • Building relationships with key influencers undertake a comprehensive rewriting of their curriculum • Enhancing our role as a community leader along with the development of a new strategic plan. • Building organizational capacity In accordance with our plan, here’s what we did in 2011: NIAGARA NEIGHBOURHOOD IDEA FUND The Foundation partnered with the United Way and the • Developed and implemented community outreach to Trillium Foundation, pooling their financial resources key community leaders and potential donors, achieving to develop a small grants program to support innovative 97% of contact goal projects at the neighbourhood level. • Implemented reporting mechanism on the impact of discretionary grants NIAGARA PROSPERITY INITIATIVE • Engaged Asset Development Associate to strengthen The Niagara Prospertiy Initiative (NPI), funded by Niagara relationships with Niagara’s estate planners Region, is a partnership of public, private and voluntary • Reviewed relevancy of all grant program criteria organizations working to reduce poverty in Niagara. In • Developed Executive Director succession plan 2011, we received funding to support the position of • Participated in Imagine Canada’s Standards Program Convenor enabling us to bring organizations together to • Implemented research on social entrepreneurship and share resources, implement best practices and collaboratively program related investing access funds to support a variety of poverty-reduction initiatives, including community gardens across Niagara. We realize that collaborative partnerships with funders and Staff from the Foundation also assisted with the review of other organizations will go a long way toward ensuring that the grant applications for $1.2 million in NPI funding. our grant recipients, their clients and our donors receive quality service and support from the Foundation. Here are some examples of how the Foundation has partnered with others: 4 NIAGARA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION 2011 ANNUAL REPORT | helping good people do great things in their community NIAGARA RESEARCH AND PLANNING COUNCIL In 2011, we continued to host the activities of the Niagara Research and Planning Council which produced the 2011 Living in Niagara Report. The Foundation provides annual support to the Council as well as funding towards the publication of the report. The recommendations in this report helps the Foundation align our discretionary grant programs with community priorities. FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS: GIFTS RECEIVED: $2,949,485 GROWTH IN ASSETS: 17% GRANTS APPROVED: $916,938 OPERATING EXPENSES: 2.8% of average total assets GROWTH IN GRANTS 2001 - 2011 $1,000,0001000000 Discretionary $800,000800000 Donor-directed Total Grants $600,000600000 $400,000400000 $200,000200000 1000000 Discretionary 1000000 800000$00 Discretionary Donor-directed 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 1000000 800000 Discretionary Donor-directed Total Grants 600000 800000NIAGARA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION 2011 ANNUALDonor- REPORTdirecte d| helpingT goodotal Grants people do great things in their community 5 600000 400000 Total Grants 600000 400000 200000 400000 200000 0 200000 0 0 GRANTS ENABLE COMMUNITY DREAMS FOREST DISCOVERY PROGRAM Heartland Forest is a fully accessible, barrier-free nature experience offering easy access trails and facilities on 93 acres of protected forest and wetlands in Niagara Falls. Its facilities include two trails, a fishing pond, nature centre, and one of the largest tree-houses in Canada. The tree-house offers a panoramic view of the rich Carolinian forest featuring vernal ponds, and some unique species of birds, trees and amphibians. Its newly developed Forest Discovery Program teaches children, youth and their families the wonders of nature through a structured environmental program, full of fun, adventure and discovery. With a $2,400 Foundation grant, new curriculum was developed on aquatic habitats for fish and wildlife for all four seasons and prepared adaptations for special needs programming. The program was delivered to 1,035 children and youth over 27 sessions. In delivering the program, Heartland Forest discovered that designing curriculum for special needs children translated into good design for all participants, that using interactive, hands- on programming with clear objectives and individual learning Discovering outcomes helps the full range of participants. A grade 2 student summed up her experience in a thank you Nature letter, “Thank you for letting us come. You guys are awesome.” k 6 NIAGARA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION 2011 ANNUAL REPORT | helping good people do great things in their community ALLEVIATING NEW SOCIAL ISOLATION TECHNOLOGY Social isolation and marginalization quite often accompany people experiencing hearing loss. The National Council on STREAMLINES Aging found that people whose hearing loss goes untreated experienced a higher incidence of depression, anxiety, ADMINISTRATION paranoia and reduced participation in organized activities. Charities are faced with many challenges: increased demand for services, more competition for corporate sponsors and The individual and complicated nature of hearing donors, and reduced government support. Donors are also loss makes it difficult to determine the effectiveness of questioning how much of their gift goes directly to a charity’s technology until it is tried. Individual preference, comfort programs and how much is used to support administrative level and cognitive or dexterity abilities are other factors operations. It is important to understand that programs which can directly affect an individual’s success with don’t operate in isolation;