It can be easy to take fitness opportunities for granted. However, barriers persist that make access a challenge for many people. Fortunately, there are wonderful organizations in Hamilton working to make sure everybody has a chance to take part in healthy active lifestyles. Here are just a few programs we are proud to support that get kids active and having fun.
Kids in this program get a healthy dose of both exercise and literacy. In the Running and Reading Club, circuit training, running-based games and relay activities are followed by nutritious snacks, “word of the day” and reading with the coaches. It all culminates in a Reading and Running Challenge that includes a 5k run and a Jeopardy-style literacy game.
Basketball, mentorship and leadership skills come together in this program at Liberty for Youth. Every practice starts with discussion led by a mentor who shares stories about dealing with challenges. Youth in the program also get the opportunity to deliver talks on a variety of issues like mental health, drugs and negative peer pressure and they learn skills relating to leadership, health, relationships, self-esteem and public speaking. In the summer, youth participate in the annual Liberty and Justice Unity Basketball Event in partnership with Hamilton Police Department.
From ball hockey games and weekly fitness workouts to dodge ball and access to the gym at the YMCA, the Rock-in-Action program offers activities for at-risk youth while promoting social inclusion. Beyond the “basics”, the program helps decrease social isolation and allows youth to experience community in a meaningful way.
Teaching children water safety is crucial for preventing injuries. According to SWAM Canada, “disabled children are ten times likelier to suffer from a submersion injury than the general population”. The SWAM program gives preference to low-income families and uses student volunteers from McMaster University to give one-on-one swimming and water safety lessons to children with special needs.
This program is another great example of breaking down financial barriers for families seeking opportunities to keep their kids active. Through activities that are tailored to facilitate mental and physical well-being, youth suffering from mental health issues are given opportunities to reap the “emotional, physical and mental rewards” of a healthy lifestyle. Youth are even invited to bring a family member along for the fun!
Future Intended is an ongoing series that spotlights some of our most recent granting in categories like music, visual art, literacy, the environment and more.
Teachers are some of the most important adults in the lives of students. As part of our ABACUS program with its focus on the middle school years, we are proud to offer funding through our Small Grants for Teachers program. The grants are designed to support teacher projects that improve students’ achievement and enhance learning experiences.
Check out the stories below for some inspiration!
Read all about it! At Ryerson Middle School, a professionally printed monthly student newspaper is one of the ways that students are staying informed. Beyond keeping up with the big issues of the day, the paper also gave students the opportunity to enhance their critical literacy skills when engaging with media – a skill that is as essential and timely as ever!
Mental health is important at all stages of life and especially so for young students. This summer at St. Patrick Catholic Elementary School, students and their parents got to experience a fair focused on mental health. Families learned together about the different aspects of mental health as well as different coping skills.
The arts are a timeless vehicle for teaching self-expression. With support from Small Grants for Teachers, an extracurricular arts program at Queen Mary allowed children with no prior experience to perform in a stage production of Beauty and the Beast. For those students less inclined to be centre-stage, the program also offered the experience to learn professional level sound and lighting for stage productions.
History buffs in the making! Two classes at Hess St. School got to visit Dundurn National Historic Site and the Military Museum last fall with the help of a small grant. Exploring what the neighbourhood was like before Confederation and discovering the role of former Hess St. School students who volunteered in the First World War is sure to pique curiosity and create some future historians!
Sparking students’ imaginations is a great way to get them engaged in learning. And what’s more exciting than building a robot?! At Mount Hope Elementary, a small grant helped with the purchase of VEX IQ robotics kits that students used to build and program their own robots. Coding and programming are increasingly sought after skills and a Robotics Club at school is an exciting way for students to work together using their imaginations and applied learning.
Future Intended is an ongoing series that spotlights some of our most recent granting in categories like music, visual art, literacy, the environment and more.
Photograph courtesy of Anna Davey
As a partner in Hamilton’s Neighbourhood Action Strategy (NAS), HCF operates the Small Grants Program that supports local projects and events that help to build healthier neighbourhoods. These initiatives are organized by residents because the NAS believes that residents know best what their neighbourhoods need, and that residents already have the ideas, skills, networks and other assets to lead change in their neighbourhoods. Here are a few examples of recent projects throughout the city supported by small grants.
Riverdale: Family Fun Day
In July, community organizers, including a youth leader, put together Riverdale Family Fun Day – a day to bring newcomers and refugees together with fun activities like a monkey bus, a magician, face-painting and more. Kids made new friends – and so did the grown-ups! Inclusive community events like this work to increase a sense of belonging, and strengthen bonds between families.
Crown Point: Whitfield Ave. Food is Free project
From May to October a truck bed garden will, from time to time, provide free vegetables for neighbourhood residents. The garden also acts as a space for residents to gather and socialize while kids learn about gardening. Local partner Liberty Iron Trading provides the space, truck bed and other equipment for the project.
Sherman: safeTALK suicide prevention workshop
This September a workshop in the Sherman neighbourhood will provide training in mental health awareness and suicide prevention to coincide with Suicide Prevention Day. Erich’s Cupboard, operated by Neighbourhood Leadership Institute alumni, will plan and implement the safeTALK workshop and issue certificates upon completion. The hope is to train 30 participants who will serve as safeTALK responders in the neighbourhood. The project also includes partners in Crown Point neighbourhood and HARRRP.
Jamesville: Youth Soccer League
Physical activity and sports have countless health benefits but they also provide opportunities for positive social development. With support from John Howard Society of Hamilton, the Youth Soccer League in in Jamesville creates an environment where kids can stay fit and socialize with one another. A small grant supports the league with jerseys, equipment and the opportunity to compete in a Toronto youth league.
Stinson: Songs from the Bishop
Inclusiveness is at the centre of this project in Stinson neighbourhood. Every Thursday in July, free performances featuring local musicians took place in Bishop’s Park. Designed in part to draw people into the park, the performances welcomed everyone, with a special focus on inviting members from St. Leonard’s Society of Hamilton who also sponsored the project.
Future Intended is an ongoing series that spotlights some of our most recent granting in categories like music, visual art, literacy, the environment and more.
When serious complications from a quadruple bypass left Bonnie in a wheelchair and confined to home, every day presented the same difficult choice: order in from a restaurant she couldn’t afford, or not eat at all. All that changed when she learned about a free home food delivery program, co-ordinated by St. Matthew’s House, which helped her get back on her feet. Literally.
Referrals to the food delivery program mostly come from seniors themselves, who are told about the program by the Hamilton Police Services seniors’ support team, the community paramedic program or another food bank. A grant from the Edith H. Turner Foundation makes sure participants receive seven days of food with each delivery. Those with special dietary needs or who have no way to store or cook food are given nutritional products such as liquid meal replacements.
The food, however, is only the beginning.
“Seniors call us because they have an immediate need—hunger. But what makes our program unique is we marry food bank supports with intensive case management,” says interim co-executive director Karen Randell. “We don’t just deliver the box of food and leave. Our program staff are trained to explore what other needs the senior may have. Our ultimate goal is to improve the quality of life for the seniors we work with.”
Visit by visit, the food delivery team is able to develop a rapport and connect the senior to resources, including the St. Matthew’s Senior Centre, which provides weekday meals, weekend care packages, social activities and a medical clinic. “We start with preventing food insecurity and end with improving quality of life,” Karen says.
Which brings us back to Bonnie. Once she started attending the senior centre’s programs, she no longer needed home food delivery. Eventually, she no longer needed her wheelchair or walker. “I’ve come alive coming here,” she says.
Excerpt from 2018 Annual Report
Hamilton is always home for Yvonne Farah. Having grown up here, she now promotes the Hamilton story to members of her international MBA program. She’s also feeling her way into her personal direction in philanthropy – a legacy from her parents Elham and Joseph Farah, who established an HCF fund in 2005 that focuses on peace education and supports the YMCA’s Peace Medal program. Yvonne has been involved with those efforts for several years and has begun exploring additional avenues for strategic philanthropy as a contributor to the Foundation’s Women 4 Change initiative.
Even with a firm grounding in her family’s tradition of giving, she says that as a “borderline millennial” the idea of philanthropy can be daunting, but it needn’t be. That became clear through her affiliation with Women 4 Change.
“I realized that we do things every day, like mentoring a younger person, without labeling those actions philanthropic,” she says. “I’m so impressed and touched by the women in the group and the work that they do.”
Getting to see HCF’s expertise in action has been exciting to Yvonne. She is hoping to become more involved once she finishes her MBA in June and returns full-time to Hamilton and her family’s convenience store business. Even with her international focus, “home is home” she says. “There’s always a connection.” The Farah tradition of philanthropy is alive and well in the next generation.
Excerpt from 2018 Annual Report
They’ve planted corn, beans and squash. Learned a 3000-year-old seed song. Beaded with porcupine quills, visited McMaster University and Mohawk College, made corn husk dolls, listened to stories told by elders, cooked with wild rice and learned to count lunar cycles on the back of a turtle shell.
This isn’t your typical school program. It’s NYA:WEH Elementary, a program co-ordinated by Niwasa Kendaaswin Teg to engage and support First Nation, Métis and Inuit students in Grade 6, 7 and 8. Formal activities are offered during nutrition breaks and after school, but students are encouraged to drop by to smudge, sing, bead, talk or drum any time the program is available. Students from every background are welcome; on any given day, between 15 and 40 children attend.
ABACUS funding supports NYA:WEH Elementary’s focus on helping middle-school students successfully transition to high school and beyond. The program operates at Prince of Wales, Queen Mary and Gatestone schools. Many of the students will eventually attend Delta Secondary School, where there’s a NYA:WEH high school program.
“The students are introduced to NYA:WEH Secondary staff long before Grade 9, so they already know they’re safe and supported,” says program co-ordinator Lauren Williams. “Once I know what high school they’re going to, I take them their project box so they can transition from one NYA:WEH to the other. It’s a physical representation of moving the fire from one longhouse to another.”
Jake Cruickshank is an Indigenous recruiter at McMaster University and connects with the kids at his monthly visits to NYA:WEH Elementary .
“I never thought about going to university until Grade 12, and by then I had a lot of catching up to do,” he says. “We’re starting early to help these students see post-secondary education as an option for them.”
The program builds confidence by building community. “By Grade 8 these kids know elders, people at the school board, high school staff and people at the post-secondary level,” Lauren says. “They have all these people wrapped around them, like a big hug.”
Excerpt from 2018 Annual Report
Lifelong Hamiltonian Frank Miller has a passion for travel — he has circled the globe four times — and an equal passion for his hometown and its citizens, tirelessly giving to local endeavors that have meaning to him.
“A light went on” says Frank when he realized that his resources were enough for him and he could indulge his philanthropic nature – a nature that was sparked by his mother when he was just a teenager. “She encouraged me as a boy to volunteer and to give away some of my earnings from my first part-time job.” Frank’s mother remained supportive of his giving until her death at 100.
Frank’s philanthropic interests are wide-ranging and he enjoys seeing his gifts in action. He has an extensive collection of teddy bears, and has shared this love by founding the Miller Bear Program at The Children’s Aid Society of Hamilton (CAS), through which child protection staff can give bears to children who come into care, or who are in situations where they need comfort. Dominic Verticchio, executive director CAS describes the impact of this gesture
“The Miller Bears put a smile on the young faces of those who come to us as the most vulnerable and fragile members of our community.”
Through the Frank Charles Miller Fund at HCF, Frank supports nursing and medical students, St Matthew’s House, natural heritage projects like the Cootes to Escarpment EcoPark System, and many other community efforts. He is also a long-time supporter of his church.
A successful entrepreneur, Frank wryly describes himself as “an infamous tightwad” for most of his adult life, but his record of giving belies that description. As he looks back – and ahead – he puts his philanthropy in perspective.
“The more you give away, the more you get back,” he concludes.
Excerpt from 2018 Annual Report
Alfred and Joan Robertshaw met on stage at the Players’ Guild—a love story with a legacy, thanks to the fund Joan established to honour Alfred’s 40-plus years in community theatre.
“The performing arts have brought much joy to both our lives, not to mention lifelong friendships,” Joan wrote at the time. “Alfred realized how important it is for such organizations to have financial support in order to encourage creativity and often foster those who go on to professional careers in the theatre.”
With Joan’s passing in 2013 the Alfred & Joan Robertshaw Memorial Fund continues to support the couple’s passion for community theatre as well as heritage preservation efforts in Hamilton. This year’s recipients included Hamilton Theatre Inc., Players’ Guild of Hamilton Inc., Theatre Ancaster and Village Theatre Waterdown.
“We really believe in community building,” says Village Theatre president Corrie Giles. “We want Waterdown to be a vibrant place where people can find their entertainment close to home.” Village Theatre has used its grant to build a new website, rent costumes from Stratford, support a bursary for Waterdown high school drama students, create banners and signs, construct the set of an English country house, and purchase equipment. They also plan to host a professional workshop for young sound and lighting technicians.
Attracting the next generation is a priority. “We take our development role quite seriously, but we haven’t always had the money to do it,” Corrie says. Village Theatre encourages high school students to complete their volunteer hours learning makeup, set construction, and the technical booth. A recent production had two Grade 9 boys learning how to work the lighting board alongside a woman in her 60s. Over the 43 years that Village Theatre has existed, a number of volunteers have gone on to local and national careers in theatre.
“When the community foundation gives us money, many people share the benefits,” Corrie says. “And because it is an operating grant, we have the flexibility to use it where it’s needed. We can make it go a long way.”
Excerpt from 2018 Annual Report
Anne (not her real name) is a respected professional in our community. She is also a victim of domestic violence who fled her abuser, only to become locked in a succession of legal battles that have put her $100,000 in debt. No longer able to afford a lawyer, today she represents herself in court, cross-examining her abuser in order to protect her children, her job, her home and her name. But thanks to Jared’s Place, she’s not alone.
Jared’s Place helps women experiencing violence and abuse navigate the legal system, whether it’s an immigration, family, child protection, civil, housing or criminal matter. The free program is named after Jared Osidacz, an eight-year-old boy who was killed by his father while on an unsupervised court-ordered access visit.
“Jared’s mom went through the system and no one was helping her,” says Nancy Smith, executive director of Interval House of Hamilton. “That’s why she let us name the program after Jared.”
The program relies on grants and community donations. Funding from HCF helps support the legal advocate, who is a specialist in violence against women and is well versed in the legal system. The advocate can clarify a woman’s rights, provide information, attend court, review court orders, help with paperwork and make lawyer referrals. Safety planning is the first priority. Almost as important is building a woman’s confidence to engage with people and institutions that have power, since perpetrators often try to manipulate the system to continue the abuse.
The legal advocate is also a witness. Before Anne knew about Jared’s Place, her abuser tried to run her down outside the courthouse. Now, Anne is never alone at court and she always has someone to call.
“Jared’s Place offers a woman hope,” Nancy says. “In a traumatic situation one’s clarity isn’t there, but the legal advocate is—every step of the way, if that’s what a woman wants.”
Excerpt from 2018 Annual Report
Hanan is a high school student who dreams of being a nurse one day. James is an electrical engineer who likes to bike from Dundas to downtown. Aref is a dedicated community volunteer who loves Hamilton’s libraries. And Shahd? She’s a recent marketing graduate who has discovered the best ice cream in town is on Duke Street.
They’re all immigrants to Hamilton and ambassadors for #HamiltonForAll, a campaign that helps newcomers and longer-term Hamiltonians find common ground.
“The campaign ambassadors serve as a human library,” says Yohana Otite, executive director for Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion, which is co-leading the campaign with the Hamilton Immigration Partnership Council. “They tell their stories on our website and at schools and events so we can discover our commonalities instead of focusing on what separates us.”
Myth busting is one component of the campaign. One myth is that Canada doesn’t need immigrants: a 2017 University of Toronto survey shows that one in five Canadians would support an end to immigration. The fact is, according to the Conference Board of Canada, our country will need 350,000 immigrants annually by 2035 to meet its workforce needs.
Supported by an HCF grant in partnership with the Community Fund for Canada’s 150th, #HamiltonForAll includes posters inviting people to post a welcome message using the hashtag, and a website listing inclusive actions anyone can take. “Welcoming newcomers is usually left to settlement agencies,” Yohana says. “#HamiltonForAll inspires everyone to play a role.” Activities across the city are being plotted on a map to be shared at Hamilton’s first Newcomer’s Day this summer.
The hashtag was trending on Twitter when the campaign launched. Since then, people and organizations have been showcasing the posters, planning events and posting on social media. The impact has been widespread and personal. As one person tweeted: “Thank you for launching a campaign like this. I cannot tell you what this would’ve meant to me as a child.”
Excerpt from 2018 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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