BIWEEKLY DIGEST

Update on Ukraine and the contributions of Canadian philanthropy

Jean-Marc Mangin, President and CEO of

Philanthropic Foundations Canada

PFC has been in touch with the Canadian Red Cross and to date, over $59M has been raised via the Canadian Red Cross, including generous contributions from at least 20 Canadian foundations. Currently, the most urgent need is to provide them with financial means to help the people, families and the most vulnerable impacted by the conflict.

PFC continues to monitor the situation in Ukraine as well as the imminent domestic mobilization effort, and we are reaching out to the Government of Canada offering PFC’s support to assist in connecting with Canadian philanthropy.

Register now for our webinar in partnership with Imagine Canada on the Effective and Accountable Charities Act: Bill S-216 and why funding groups without charitable status matters

Wednesday, March 23, 1- 2:30 PM ET

Bill S-216 aims to enable charities to establish more equal partnerships with non-charities (or non-qualified donees) while still ensuring accountability and transparency.

Join Philanthropic Foundations Canada and Imagine Canada on March 23 for a webinar to learn more about the bill, the issues it seeks to address, and what it might mean for our work in the nonprofit sector.

Speakers include:

• MP Philip Lawrence
• Senator Ratna Omidvar
• Bill Mintram, Rideau Hall Foundation
• Jacqueline Lee-Tam, The Climate Justice Organizing HUB
• Susan Manwaring, Partner, Miller Thompson LLP -- as moderator

Save the Date! 2022 PFC conference 

When:
October 3-4, 2022
Where: 
In person + online
Palais des congrès de Montréal
Montréal, QC

Registration will be available in June. More details coming soon!

Webinar in partnership with Public Policy Forum – Perspectives on the Disbursement Quota: How much should charities be mandated to allocate?

Wednesday, April 13, 12:15 -1:00 pm ET

PFC has partnered with PPF as part of their Member Event Series, to host a discussion on increasing the disbursement quota from its current rate of 3.5%. The disbursement quota is the minimum percentage of assets charities are required to grant out or spend on charitable programs each year. While it applies to all charities, the policy is a predominant concern for foundations, whose typical operating models endow charitable assets, with a portion of the earnings granted out each year.

Please join us for a discussion with Jean-Marc Mangin, CEO, Philanthropic Foundations Canada and Yonis Hassan, Chief Executive Officer, Justice Fund Toronto, moderated by Jehad Aliweiwi, Executive Director, Laidlaw Foundation. A third speaker will be announced shortly!

You are invited to submit questions and comments ahead of time to Chelsea Berry.

New PFC Member

The Walter J. Blackburn Foundation

We are pleased to welcome the Walter J. Blackburn Foundation as a new member of the PFC community. The foundation funds capital needs for charitable organizations in the fields of healthcare, social services, the arts, education and the environment.

Update on Ukraine from the WHO

The WHO is now publishing external situation reports on the health situation and WHO’s response in Ukraine and neighbouring countries. Click here for more information.

On 13 March, UNICEF, UNFPA, and WHO issued a Joint statement on attacks on health care in Ukraine. WHO continues to monitor for attacks on health care in Ukraine, and across the world via its Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care (SSA). Click here for more information.

The WHO is working with partners to surge Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) and trauma management support, to reduce pressure on the health system, augment capacities where possible, and establish a medical evacuation system for the western part of the country. The EMT Coordination Cell Ukraine/Poland is at this time coordinating the efforts of more than 10 EMTs; those operating in Ukraine are focused on providing health services to internally displaced persons, as well as trauma care, rehabilitation and medical evacuation.  In Poland, the teams are focused providing additional capacity to respond to the health needs of refugees. The EMT Coordination Cell Moldova (Chisinau) coordinates efforts of 12 EMTs deployed to support the provision of primary health care (which is providing health care services to the refugees as instructed by the MOH), as well as mental health and psychological support services for refugees and vulnerable populations.

They continue to procure and ship supplies to Ukraine, as well. At this time, over 200 tonnes of supplies have been or are being shipped for the Ukraine humanitarian response of which 37 tonnes have already been distributed to the oblasts. More supplies are on their way to Ukraine, and while access within Ukraine is challenging, distribution continues. You will find additional info on WHO’s work to keep medical supply chains open and preserve Ukraine’s health system here.

They are increasingly receiving offers for medical in-kind donations. WHO has established a dedicated web page on medical supplies donations for Ukraine. This includes a list of critical needs requested by the Ukrainian Ministry of Health. In an effort to match supply with demand, offers outside of the published list can at this time not be considered. WHO will continuously revise and publish this list to reflect needs. 

To date, WHO has only received $3 million from UN CERF against the $ 57.5 M appealed for. They have released some funding from their Contingency Fund for Emergencies (CFE) to sustain this critical emergency health response, and they have said they may need to make further releases if they do not receive funding against the Ukraine appeal.

Engagement series on equity benchmarking - you're invited

March 31, 1- 2:30pm ET - Organizational management/leadership 
April 1 at 1:00-2:30pm ET - General sector organizations 
April 5 at 1:00-2:30pm ET - General sector organizations 

The Equity Benchmarking Project, in partnership with PFC, Imagine Canada, and other leading organizations in Canada, is hosting a series of equity benchmarking-related engagement sessions. The project aims to advance equity in nonprofit sector policy, foster a more equitable funding environment, and build sector-wide capacity to advance equity in nonprofit organizations. 

These facilitated conversations will be with leaders across the country from foundations, research bodies, charities, non-profits and other sector professionals interested in equity benchmarking for the non-profit and charitable sector.

They will be a key part of a broader initiative to gain a better understanding of equity capacity building within organizations. The project will provide an ecosystems-level view of where the sector is on a host of indicators, so that targeted interventions can be applied in an informed way. Input received from these sessions will inform the course of this project, including the development of a survey questionnaire to be fielded this spring.

Some of the questions the facilitators will seek to explore in these sessions are:

- What equity indicators are meaningful to measure?

- What types of JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) initiatives do you support?

- What gaps are present in JEDI work in the sector from your point of view?

- What tools will help you advance a collective equity agenda?

Have questions or want to register? Contact Kubilay Öğütçü, Program Coordinator, PFC at kogutcu@pfc.ca.  

Forum on Diversity and Inclusion

April 21 - 22, 2022

Registrations are now open for the Forum on Diversity and Inclusion, happening April 21 and 22, 2022 at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montreal!

The Peace Network for Social Harmony is organizing the event for all those who are concerned by issues related to Diversity and Inclusion and who are actively involved with these matters in their work. This is an opportunity to meet and collaborate in identifying concrete solutions that will lead to the development of a collective action plan.

New resource for funders

Funding and Convening a Social Innovation Lab

This report was produced by the Collaborative Funders' Table, comprised of several PFC members including: Burns Memorial Fund, the Calgary Foundation, and the RBC Foundation. A great resource for any funder or convener interested in hosting or participating in a social innovation lab.

Great Canadian ESG Championship

Follow the competition

Canadian foundations are pooling their investment assets to fuel a public ESG competition, sounding a call for a more credible market.

Launched March 10, the Great Canadian ESG Championship is a Dragon’s Den-style competition where more than 55 investment managers across the country will compete to win part of a $75 Million investment mandate.

Driven by eight Canadian institutional investors, including PFC members, the goal of the championship is not only to identify gold-standard approaches to responsible investing but also to publicly promote those who demonstrate them, with the aim of inspiring increased transparency and best practices in the market.

A new executive director at the

Béati Foundation

The Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Nadia Duguay

Nadia will join the Béati Foundation on April 11. Her role will centre on ensuring the foundation continues to be a bold organization working for real social change.

Read their press release to learn more about Nadia and the foundation.

Recap: Black Leadership in

Social Impact Summit

In February, PFC was pleased to partner with Future of Good on their Black Leadership in Social Impact Summit. For those who missed it, recordings are now available for two key sessions pertinent to philanthropy (in English with French subtitles):

Keynote with award-winning innovator, Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland, founder and chief executive officer of The Women Invested to Save Earth Fund (WISE): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6hI3XpQJAI

Breakout session: Anti-Racist Philanthropy and Grantmaking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpClCQ1Grbk