FLYING UNDER THE RADAR
SOUTH SASKATCHEWAN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ACTS AS A BRIDGE BETWEEN DONORS AND COMMUNITY-MINDED GROUPS
You may never have heard of the South Saskatchewan Community Foundation.
That may not be exactly the way the non-profit wants it, but it’s OK staying in the background. As long as it can act as a bridge between donors and community-minded groups that can use financial assistance, employees and volunteers are happy to aspire to their motto: Helping good people do great things.
The SSCF was founded in 1969 as the Regina Community Foundation, with about $60,000 from the Regina Community Chest. Years later it became the SSCF, and has grown into an entity that by 2017 had an endowment pool of just over $71 million.
In 2017, the SSCF supported more than 195 registered charities and granted $6.2 million. That money was used to help support worthy causes, mainly in the southern part of the province.
“We do fly a little bit under the radar here,” acting executive director Karen Henders said in an interview in the foundation’s modest offices in a strip mall in south Regina.
“I think that has to do a lot with the nature of our work ... and it usually isn’t about recognition.
“So we’re kind of in the background, providing some, I think, really useful funding to charities — often unexpected funding to charities — that helps move projects forward and helps keep organizations’ doors open.”
Back in 1969, what became the SSCF was founded thanks to the impetus of a man named Jack Ambler. Born and raised in England, Ambler did some flight training in Saskatchewan during the Second World War, and after the war married a young woman he had met at a dance in Moose Jaw. They eventually ended up living permanently in Saskatchewan, and Ambler spent the rest of his life engaged in activities that contributed to the greater good in society.
The SSCF is a member of a larger organization, Community Foundations of Canada. There are 191 community foundations across the nation.
On its website, the national organization describes how a community foundation generally works:
Anyone can be a donor, giving a gift of any size to a community foundation. The local foundation and donor work together to realize their philanthropic goals, matching their interests and community needs. The foundation works with the donor to establish a new endowment fund or give to an existing fund. The donor’s gift is pooled with the foundation’s endowed assets, carefully invested, and the income is used to make grants. The foundation distributes grants to all corners of the community, in arts and culture, education, health, social services and the environment. The foundation invests in many ways — grants, building partnerships, and pooling knowledge, resources and expertise to stimulate ideas and strengthen community.
The range of SSCF grant recipients in 2017 was vast — including most of the better-known local, provincial and national charities, as well as practically any communityfocused group one can imagine. Just a few examples: Blessed Sacrament Church, Cecilian Concert Series Inc., Hunger in Moose Jaw Inc., Lumsden Beach Camp Inc., Moosomin and District Healthcare Foundation Inc., Movember Canada, The Saskatchewan 4-H Foundation, and Youth Ballet and Contemporary Dance of Saskatchewan.
And the size of the grants varied widely as well, from just $100 or a few hundred dollars, up to much larger amounts.
Henders said it’s “not surprising” for them to be told that when a grant comes in the mail, it has come at just the right time — when a project is uncertain or an organization is struggling a little bit.
And she stressed that is where the SSCF often provides one of its key services.
“A role that we can play to support philanthropic efforts is to provide community knowledge, to help donors understand what the need is, and where there can be the greatest impact.”
While the SSCF often provides guidance, it also often takes guidance from the donors with which it is involved.
As the SSCF 2017 annual report notes, “Many of the grants and programs … resulted from granting recommendations that came forward through donor-advised funds where donors play a critical consultative role in the process of determining how the Foundation uses grant-making to build community.”
For example: MNP is a large Canadian chartered accountancy and business consulting firm. The MNP partners in southern Saskatchewan have created the MNP Community Partner Fund. Craig Kutarna Gates, a partner of consulting services for Saskatchewan with MNP, said his firm worked with the SSCF in making a $25,000 donation to Carmichael Outreach, a Regina non-profit organization working at ending poverty and homelessness here.
The donation was made in honour of Merrill Brinton, an MNP partner who died this year and was a Carmichael board member and advocate since its inception. The donation honoured his memory and involvement with Carmichael, and fit with MNP’S desire to help people who are in need and homeless, Kutarna Gates said.
“SSCF has been a great partner to us, to be able to accomplish our objectives, that we’re able to do as far as supporting valuable organizations in the community,” he said.
“What SSCF has done is they’ve made it easy for us to be able to manage the administration of being able to allocate and make our donations effectively.
“They’ve also been a great source of ideas to us, about different groups or organizations in the community in southern Saskatchewan that have a need that could align to the values and priorities that we have as a partner group.
“So they’ve been a wonderful source of both administrative efficiency and then also a great source of ideas to us as well.”
The SSCF is involved in more than just the important job of managing donor funds.
It is also an active participant in a program called Vital Signs — a national report led by community foundations and co-ordinated by Community Foundations of Canada. It uses local knowledge to measure the vitality of our communities and supports action towards improving our collective quality of life.
“When I think about the role (of the SSCF) as a bridge,” Henders said, “it is making connections, but it is also about adding value. And our Vital Signs work is fundamental to that because it allows us to better understand the health of our community, with a focus on belonging. And then to share that information back, not only to individuals who are looking to support the community, but also for charities to advance and understand how they can connect.”
Henders said this work is done with the support of the Vital Signs community network. She said SSCF staff meet with charities almost monthly.
“It’s a really interesting network of charities who sit around a table with us. At any given meeting it can be 12 to 20 charities there. We share information, encourage collaboration. It’s also a great way for us to get feedback in terms of the work and direction that we’re taking; to know that it has relevance.”
Henders said the work of a community foundation is inherently about “lasting impact,” and focusing on the needs of a region. She observed that it becomes a mirror of the community from which it grows.
The SSCF is now looking ahead to the near future, namely 2019, which will be its 50th anniversary.
“Fifty years is quite a landmark,” said Henders. “And when you think about how much the organization has grown in the last 50 years, our community has a lot to be proud of. Not only in terms of its generosity, but in terms of the impact that it’s been able to have in southern Saskatchewan and abroad.
“We have plans to celebrate with our community, and to recognize the leaders who have come before us and steered the community foundation on its path.”