Noting that HCF is “our local specialist in building and holding endowment funds,” The Art Gallery of Hamilton entrusted the management of its endowment fund to Hamilton Community Foundation in 2002. HCF is pleased to partner with one of Hamilton’s cultural treasures and an institution that is essential to the economy and revitalization of our City’s core.
As the Building a Legacy Endowment Fund grows, it will help to ensure the Gallery’s financial health in the years ahead. Ongoing operating funds – the resources that sustain all non-profit organizations – are often the most difficult to raise and an endowment fund is an important step toward financial sustainability. Hamilton Community Foundation now holds agency endowment funds for nine local organizations.
Louise Dompierre, President and CEO of the Art Gallery of Hamilton, says that “over the years, Hamilton Community Foundation has built a very strong reputation and a high level of credibility. We have confidence in their management of the Gallery’s fund. It’s a very beneficial partnership for us and for our supporters – the Gallery doesn’t have to manage the fund, which after all is not our core business, and donors can be assisted by Hamilton Community Foundation to make contributions that work well for them. It really is a win-win arrangement.”
Excerpt from 2002-2003 Annual Report
Hamilton lost a remarkable citizen recently – one whose name will never make the front page, but whose generosity will have an impact on her community forever.
This friend of the Foundation – we’ll call her Ruth – was a woman of modest means: an elementary school teacher who grew up in Hamilton’s north end during the Depression. Unmarried, she chose to live modestly throughout her life and gave herself very little despite being a shrewd investor. But she did indulge her passion for gardening, her love of Aboriginal art, and her desire to give back to the community.
HCF first came to know her when she began making gifts to the Hamilton Spectator Summer Camp Fund in the early 1980s. It gave her immense pleasure to know that a child would benefit from the camp experience thanks to her annual donation. With her lifelong interest in the welfare of children, as both a school teacher and a swim coach, Ruth was one of the first donors to HCF’s Ontario Endowment for Children and Youth in Recreation Fund and a regular contributor to the Community Fund.
But her gifts were always anonymous.
Late in life, Ruth developed MS and she faced those new physical challenges with good spirit, creativity and determination, continuing to swim regularly and even finding a way to enjoy gardening when unable to kneel. She kept her mind active with crosswords and she was masterful at knitting. It was always a pleasure to spend time with her, surrounded by her beautiful paintings, sculptures and masks.
Her sudden death in 2009 saddened us all. But the fund established in 2010 with a bequest from her estate – directed to the needs of children – will honour her remarkable spirit in perpetuity.
Ruth was an intensely private person and we know that her preference was to remain anonymous in an article like this. It is a fundamental HCF value to respect that wish for privacy.
Excerpt from 2010-2011 Annual Report
Caroline Stoakes was born on July 9, 1914 in Nottingham, England. She attended university on a scholarship before working at Boot’s Chemists. During the Second World War, Caroline met Harry Alvey, a Hamilton lad stationed in England with the Royal Canadian Air Force. They married there in 1944 and returned to Canada, living first in Galt and later in Hamilton. Caroline and Harry traveled extensively during their 55-year marriage – from Hawaii, China and Africa, to Australia, Greece and Turkey.
Caroline had a keen interest in history, geography and current affairs. She read voraciously and enjoyed opera and classical music. A lifetime member of the Red Cross, she also volunteered with the Salvation Army. She was a faithful annual donor to the Hamilton Community Foundation Spectator Summer Camp Fund for children. When she died in May of 2001, Caroline left a generous bequest to Hamilton Community Foundation, along with gifts to the War Amps, the Salvation Army and Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind.
Excerpt from 2001-2002 Annual Report
Ike and Shahnaz Ahmed at one of the many community events they liked to attend.
Ike Ahmed was thinking about the past, the present and the future when he created the Ike and Shahnaz Ahmed Foundation Fund at Hamilton Community Foundation last November.
The past was his blissful 36-year marriage to Shahnaz, who passed away suddenly in April 2005 at the age of 60, and Ike’s desire to honour her memory, their life together, and their mutual love of Hamilton. The present is the community need he sees: hunger, poverty and unemployment, and the arts and cultural organizations that contribute so much to quality of life. The future is his plan that the fund will grow when part of his estate is designated to it.
Ike is a well-known figure in Hamilton: a very successful financial planner; a generous and active patron of the arts, and a community volunteer through the Downtown Rotary Club, St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, and other organizations. His journey to Hamilton from his birthplace of India came by way of Karachi, Pakistan, then to Vienna, Austria, for university, with jobs that followed in Sweden, Denmark and then Berlin.
It was in Berlin that he met Shahnaz, who was German but took a Pakistani name when she married Ike. Ike was transferred to Hamilton and they began to build their life here. Ike and Shahnaz were famously close and Ike says they literally never spent one day apart in all their years of marriage. Pictures of the two of them, often in formal dress at community events, adorn the walls of Ike’s home and his corner office at the Standard Life Building.
“What we achieved, we achieved here in Hamilton, and Shahnaz helped me every step of the way,” Ike explains. “I’m glad we settled here 38 years ago. I thought of Hamilton Community Foundation for this fund, and for part of my eventual estate, because there are good people who run the Foundation. They will make decisions about how it is to be disbursed, knowing what my interests are.”
Excerpt from 2006-2007 Annual Report
Isabella Flora Frid was the daughter of a country doctor and sister of the founders of the McGregor Clinic. She was renowned for her handcrafted Christmas crackers and for her magnificent gardens in Waterdown. A charter member and former President of the Garden Club in Hamilton, Mrs. Frid enjoyed its activities up to her death in her ninety-eighth year. She graduated from New York’s Roosevelt Hospital and nursed overseas during the First World War.
The widow of H.P. Frid of Frid Construction, she was Hamilton Foundation Board member in the 1960s.
Excerpt from 1987-1988 Annual Report
Vera Elwin, born at the turn of the century in Dymock – a tiny agricultural village in England – was in her early teens when she emigrated to Canada with her parents. Her father, an insurance agent, settled the family in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Although she contracted polio as a child, she was a tall, slender, health -conscious woman who lived to the age of 95.
When she married for the first time at age 65, Mrs. Elwin had already supported herself for years working as a secretary, first in Montreal and later in the U.S. Her husband, George Elwin, had been vice-president of finance at Stelco and sat on the first Board of Directors of Hamilton Community Foundation. A sister-in-law, Jean Bendall of Ottawa, describes Mrs. Elwin as self-sufficient, clever and extremely loyal to her family. Mrs. Elwin had a lively interest in current and community affairs and indulged a whimsy for astrology. She kept her own apartment on the mountain and drove her deep green Mercedes Benz until 18 months before her death.
Many individuals and organizations were remembered in her will including the Foundation.
Excerpt from 1995-1996 Annual Report
Mary Drynan, born in 1902 in Woodstock, Ont., had decided on a career in nursing when she enrolled at the Wellesley Hospital in Toronto. Before her studies were completed, however, she accepted a proposal of marriage from the dashing William Drynan, a businessman employed at Canadian Canners. The couple settled in Ancaster and the family grew to include three children – Bill, George and Alice. Daughter Alice Lundon remembers how her mother turned her considerable intelligence and energy to community work with the Junior League and a boys’ orphanage. She was also an avid reader, antique collector and a gardener with a penchant for roses and peonies. The Foundation received a bequest from her estate. This gift reflects the long-standing interest both she and her husband, Lt.-Col. William Innes Drynan, had in the Foundation. Lt.-Col. Drynan, who was elected Foundation president in 1968, also served on the Board of Directors.
Excerpt from 1958-1996 Annual Report
Alphonse Dirse came to Canada in the late 1940s, having left his native Lithuania to avoid the Russia invasion. Born in 1913, the eldest of five children, he completed his schooling at 15, worked on the family farm and served in the army before making his decision to emigrate. Eventually, he found employment in the mines of Northern Manitoba and worked underground until a mining accident intervened. He then moved to Ontario and finally settled in Hamilton where he worked in a factory until his retirement in 1978. To keep busy, he continued to work whenever possible, usually on the Hamilton docks during the shipping season.
Upon his death in 1989, the Foundation learned of his bequest, a gift for general charitable purposes in the community.
Excerpt from 1991-1992 Annual Report
Edward Francis Dennee is remembered by his many friends as a warm and gregarious man, one who was always concerned about the needs of others. Born in Hamilton in the early 1920s, Frank Dennee served in Burma during the Second World War. Later, he continued his education and worked in finance at Stelco. Mr. Dennee traveled extensively and developed a discrimination taste for opera, dance and theater. He was a well-known bridge player and a valued member of the Board of Players’ Guild.
He died in 1993 and, without any immediate family to consider, left his estate to friends, and to several local organizations involved in the arts, health care, social services and animal welfare. The Foundation also received a gift.
Excerpt from 1994-1995 Annual Report
Mary Day graduated from McMaster University and worked with National Trust in their real estate division throughout her business career. She lived on Fairleigh Avenue South with her parents, Edwin and Maple, and greatly enjoyed her English gardens and her cats. Miss Day was a devoted member of the Church of St. Peter and Past President of the Y.W.C.A.’s “Happy to Serve” Club, a group of senior business and professional women.
Excerpt from 1990-1991 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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