“Times they are a changing,” Bob Dylan.

This past year it seems that we have discovered philanthropy.  We always knew that people gave to causes they cared about.  We always knew that we could help others by donating our time and skills.  We always knew that there were organizations focused on charitable works.  But it seemed that the charitable sector was always the quiet one.

This past year, charitable giving has attracted much more attention.  I have seen articles covering a broad range of topics including: the future of volunteerism in Canada, the need to legislate salaries for executives in the not for profit world and, how to protect yourself from solicitations by unscrupulous charities.  As a measure of increased interest in the sector, The Globe and Mail published an excellent series of articles in October about the evolution of philanthropy.  The Globe now runs a regular column written by Craig and Marc Keilburger.

Where in times past we decided on which charities to give to based on our own experiences, we now trust organizations like Charity Intelligence Canada and GuideStar (US) to tell us which charities that ask us for donations are the most effective.

So why are times in the charitable sector changing?  I will put two reasons forward.  The first, I suggest, is that the need for the work of the charitable sector is more visible that it ever was before.  The effects of the economic troubles together with the reporting of the many natural disasters that have overtaken us in the past several years have put the need for charity vividly before us.

The second is that we now realize how big the charitable sector in Canada is.  Charity has become big business and continues to grow.  The upside to the growth is that there are more funds available for the sector to work with.  The downside to the growth is that the sector attracts more people preying on our good intentions.

So what is to become of the charitable sector?  For those of us who work in charities, we know that we need to be more efficient and more effective as we look to what we do.  Our donors expect us to be duly diligent.

However, I also see that we are still being driven by our sense of responsibility to contribute to the wellbeing of those around us.  Charities will continue to be the solid third pillar in our society.

So with deference to Bob Dylan, my final thought is this.  While times today continue to change, the core philanthropic values that have motivated us in the past remain in place.  We will continue to support the many good works the sector does.

Best wishes for 2012!

Sincerely,
Glenn

Glenn Stresman is the Executive Director of the WindsorEssex Community Foundation and has over 20 years experience in both writing and evaluating grant applications.

In our Community Impact Grant Round this fall, one of the smallest grants that we provided is the proverbial nail that grows in importance far beyond what one would expect.

This fall, our grant review committee selected The Infant Memory Box Project to receive funds totaling $1,000.  These funds will purchase materials that high school students use to construct small wooden boxes – containers for precious remembrances for the parents who have lost infants and toddlers.  Whereas before the hospital staff and grief counselors from CMHA had to make do with only a plastic bag to present to the grieving parents, they now have a finely crafted wooden box, reflecting the care and concern of the young craftsmen and women who have fashioned it.

From time to time, people ask me how we decide which applications to fund.  My answer is that the grants review team members look for the potential impact that the project will make.  Experience has taught these skilled volunteers to look past the numbers and focus on how the project will build our community.

Each year, approximately 65 infants and toddlers die in hospitals in the Windsor-Essex area. The students and teachers from GECDSB high schools that craft these boxes to be used in the most trying of times do so because they care deeply about those around them who are struggling to cope. This is the essence of philanthropy. The Community Foundation is honoured to provide the funds for such a worthy project.

For more about this grant and others that were awarded this fall, go to our Grant Stories page.

Sincerely,
Glenn

Glenn Stresman is the Executive Director of the WindsorEssex Community Foundation and has over 20 years experience in both writing and evaluating grant applications.

Some people today agree with Mr. Rosenwald and donate substantial amounts of money to establish funds that are to be used up in a set period of time. This year’s Federal Budget changed rules governing foundations to make these types of gifts easier for foundations and charities to set up and manage. Perhaps this is why we see more articles recently in the media advocating for self-depleting funds like the Rosenwald Fund.

But not everyone agrees with Mr. Rosenwald’s theory that permanent endowment funds automatically bring bloated bureaucracy whose sole purpose is “to prolong their existence indefinitely.”  As proof of the vibrancy of the custodians of permanently endowed funds, we can turn to foundations such as the Winnipeg Foundation, celebrating its 90^th anniversary this year and continuing to support the Winnipeg community vigorously and with great positive effect.

So, should you endow your philanthropic gift in perpetuity as many Canadians have done? Examples of these permanent endowments would be: the J. W. McConnell Family Foundation, the Metcalf Foundation, and the W. Garfield Weston Foundation.  Or should you set up a self-depleting fund as Mr. Rosenwald did?

My advice is this. Since you have the option of using either means to achieve your philanthropic goals, I suggest that you use the one that will work best. Is there a specific problem that you want solved? If so, then set up a fund that will be finished when the task is completed. If your cause is one that will continue in perpetuity, then set up the fund to match. You even have the option of using both types of funds if you have the financial resources to do so.

I have one more suggestion for you. Since community foundations have the expertise in establishing the types of funds that will best achieve your philanthropic goals and since they have the widest range of options to offer each donor, why not use them as the stewards of your funds? Remember, community foundations are great places to leave your philanthropic legacy.

Sincerely,
Glenn

Glenn Stresman is the Executive Director of the WindsorEssex Community Foundation and has over 20 years experience in both writing and evaluating grant applications.

For the past year, I have been encouraging people to consider doing random acts of kindness. I have read many reports detailing the good things that have happened through the program we put in place last November. Yet I was flabbergasted when I was the recipient of the very thing I have been advocating.

Allow me to explain. I had just settled down for a five-hour flight on Air Canada. I was in the window seat in the last row of the crowded plane – seat #37A. When the flight attendant brought the snack cart by, I thought that I would buy a bag of cashews and offered the attendant a $5 bill as payment.

“Sorry sir,” she said. “Credit cards only.”

I thought to myself that this was no way to do business. Why should I use my credit card for such a small purchase? So I decided that I would protest by not buying anything. Then my seatmate took out his credit card and bought me a bag of cashews. When I least expected it, a random act of kindness appeared!

In retrospect, what so surprised me was the result of this simple act of generosity. For the rest of the flight, we had an extended conversation about many things. This gentleman went out of his way to make my day better and I was touched by it in a very positive way. To use and old adage, he made my day.

We are just starting to plan for Random Acts of Kindness Day 2011. While we use a single day to highlight caring, I am pleased to report that generosity happens every day in any number of good deeds done when people least expect it. Count me as one who has experienced it personally!

Glenn Stresman is the Executive Director of the WindsorEssex Community Foundation and has over 20 years experience in both writing and evaluating grant applications.

Check out these sites for more information on Random Act of Kindness Day:

• Kitchener Waterloo Community Foundation’s Random Act of Kindness Page.
• The Random Act of Kindness Foundation
• Stories of Kindness on Facebook

I was taken by the phrase when I first saw it a couple of weeks ago and it continues to resonate with me; a mark of its effectiveness. I am excited to use it because it is a great reminder that we need to plan well when we draft our Last Will and Testament.

Your final instructions in your Will are exactly that – final. So, we need to take into account as many of the variables as we possibly can when we make those final instructions. Here’s an example. You are passionate about helping cure a specific disease, so you establish an endowment fund for treatment for those afflicted by the disease and research to find a cure. What if the disease is cured? Impossible, you say? How about tuberculosis and all of the TB sanitoriums that used to be around — all gone because of better treatment options. I’m a Rotarian and our vision is to eradicate polio – we are so close. If it happens, what to do with endowment funds established strictly for the eradication of polio?

How then can your final instructions establish a legacy that will be flexible enough to handle an ever changing world? Establishing a donor advised fund at a community foundation will do that. As the world changes, the fund advisor you appointed in your Will continues the conversation with the Community Foundation, ensuring that your legacy fund’s annual grants really do make a difference in the WindsorEssex community of the future. That is why the WindsorEssex Community Foundation is a great place to leave a legacy.

Sincerely

Glenn

Glenn Stresman is the Executive Director of the WindsorEssex Community Foundation and has over 20 years experience in both writing and evaluating grant applications.

The answer to these questions? I quote from the website,

“…the study has found that three main qualities attach people to place: social offerings, such as entertainment venues and places to meet, openness (how welcoming a place is) and the area’s aesthetics (its physical beauty and green spaces.)”

The answer did not surprise me – a friend from Kingston always talked about communities having a body and a soul. The Community Foundation’s role, she said, was to nurture both. And so we do.

We provide for the needs of the body of the community by providing grants for things like community gardens and repairing roofs for senior centers, for new pots for a soup kitchen and for equipment that assist children with special needs.

But there are other grants that go beyond meeting basic needs, like the grant we made last year to teach children newly arrived in Canada how to skate, using the rink at Charles Clark Square. In my mind, here is the quintessential Canadian activity, provided to newcomers through the philanthropy of local citizens for the purpose of building community. This grant nurtured the soul of our community.

The Community Foundation depends on our partners who are our donors. We also depend on our partners who are our grantees for such creative projects to fund. Together we work to nurture a community with ties to its people, ties that form strong community bonds to both body and soul.

Sincerely,

Glenn

Glenn Stresman is the Executive Director of the WindsorEssex Community Foundation and has over 20 years experience in both writing and evaluating grant applications.

A few people have asked about the necessity of having to legislate kindness. My reply has been that we are not telling people to be kind; rather we are celebrating the many acts of kindness that happen every day, especially in the Windsor – Essex County area. We believe that sharing the many stories builds a strong sense of community needed for sustainability.

Since we have been promoting Random Acts of Kindness Day, different people have told us about previous experiences with similar programs. Cindy Rivait talked about bringing the program to Windsor in the late 1990s. Mayor Francis spoke about a “random acts of kindness” program sponsored by the Windsor Roseland Rotary Club. Janet Kelly shared information about the Windsor Family Credit Union’s Random Acts of Kindness involvement by employees at their branches for several years.

The Community Foundation appreciates that we are building the next level for a tradition that has been in place here for at least a decade. We are excited about how the program has been received this year. We are very appreciative of the generosity of our sponsors and we look forward to their continued involvement as we continue to build community one Random Act of Kindness at a time. For more information about our sponsors, visit our website at www.wecf.ca/kindness.html.

Sincerely,

Glenn

Glenn Stresman is the Executive Director of the WindsorEssex Community Foundation and has over 20 years experience in both writing and evaluating grant applications.

Additional Random Act of Kindness websites to visit:

• Kitchener Waterloo Community Foundation’s Random Act of Kindness Page.
• The Random Act of Kindness Foundation
• Stories of Kindness on Facebook

Grant applications are a window into the body and soul of the community. Not only do the applications give us a sense of the resources that local charities need to meetcommunity needs, they give us an image of the hopes and aspirations of our area’s voluntary sector. The Toronto Community Foundation realized this several years ago and used the applications process to start a very successful program called Vital Signs^®. Watch for Vital Signs^® reports for communities across Canada to be released next month – they will make for interesting and informative reading.

This past week, the United Way of Windsor — Essex released its 2009 Community Well-Being Report. The second in a series of reports, this year’s edition also speaks to the physical and mental health of our community. I commend the authors of the report for their work for they have looked deeply into the physical reality of living in this area. As an example, the report details the increased incidence of asthma in Windsor and Essex. That statistic, alone, is a call to action for this grandparent to work at removing airborne pollutants and keeping them out of the environment that my grandchildren breathe.

Going forward, there is a lot to do for all of the charities in this region. The Community Foundation is pleased to provide financial assistance to as many of these charities as our resources allow.

As soon as the grant review process is completed, it will be time to write next month’s article. That blog posting will give me the opportunity to talk more about a new Community Foundation initiative called, “Random Acts of Kindness.” Until then …

Sincerely,

Glenn

Glenn Stresman is the Executive Director of the WindsorEssex Community Foundation and is Certified Fund Raising Executive with over 20 years experience in both writing and evaluating grant applications.

Monica Patten, CFC Executive Director

Like it or not, transitions are a part of life. A media release from our national association, Community Foundations of Canada (CFC) reminded me again of that fact.

The media release announced that CFC Executive Director Monica Patten was leaving her position effective in 2011.The transition will be a significant one for the organization. The media release noted that Monica has been Executive Director for 17 years. She took over a brand new association and has helped it grow to a membership of over 170 community foundations across the country. At our national conference in 2011, member foundations will have the opportunity to express our appreciation to Monica for her service on our behalf.

Since transitions are a fact of life, whether we like them or not, we deal with them. Because community foundations always think in the long term (perpetuity is our favorite word), even significant changes such as replacing the top executive in the organization are handled with planning to avoid disruption. Philanthropy is too vital an act to let transitions stall its good work so we plan for changes to happen in good order.

The thought of transitions in our personal lives draws our attention to our own personal succession planning. Is our legacy of philanthropy to pass by happenstance to others without direction and the resources needed? Better to take the opportunity to pass our legacy of charitable actions on to the next generation through a well defined plan of action. Let us start that succession planning today. Send me an e-mail. I will be happy to discuss how you can set up an endowed fund at the WindsorEssex Community Foundation as part of your philanthropic legacy.

Glenn Stresman

Recent survey’s show that less than half of Canadians have a valid will.  Do you agree with that statement?

Post your comments below!

More on Legacy Planning visit:

10 Reasons People Choose to Work with their Community Foundation

Leave a Legacy Canada

Darrell J. Canby “How do you want to be remembered?”

The website features an interactive photo/video gallery, snap-shots of grants we have provided, a log-in for grant seekers and information on the Foundation and how to get involved in our community.  The site is fully integrated with our social media portals, an interactive community calendar and our newly created BLOG – Charitable Thoughts.

BLOG “Charitable Thoughts”: will be updated monthly with articles relevant to the non-profit community in Windsor-Essex.  Glenn Stresman, Foundation Executive Director, board members and other select community leaders will provide content of interest to donors and community leaders.