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Highlights of the Past Year
The Calgary Foundation distributed $22.2 million to 651 charitable organizations in the 2009 - 10 fiscal year. REFLECTING ON A YEAR OF COMMUNITY PHILANTHROPY The Calgary Foundation works to support emerging needs in the Calgary and area community that require increased leadership. In addition to our role as a community convener, The Foundation continues to focus on building endowments for the long-term benefit of Calgary and area. We continue to support and strengthen the charitable sector and, despite challenging times, the Foundation has been fortunate to benefit from the ongoing generosity of our donors. Our commitment to address vital emerging issues and needs in our community prompted the establishment of the Forever Funds. The Forever Funds initiative addresses the needs in the sectors of Environment, Arts & Heritage, Seniors, Diversity & Inclusion, and Mental Health. Through the Forever Funds, the Foundation has increased its capacity to make proactive and responsive grants across these five important issue areas, hosted a successful Speaker Series to increase the visibility of the issue, and supported signature projects that will make a lasting impact in each sector. The Arts and Heritage Forever Fund supports and celebrates creativity and history, interpreting the past and forging links to contemporary discussions. The signature project for this sector has seen a unique partnership develop between The Calgary Foundation and Calgary Arts Development Authority to advance a vision for the historic King Edward School to serve as an innovative arts incubator. The vision of the King Edward School Arts Incubator project partnership is an integrated, mixed-use 'hub' that provides a dynamic and collaborative environment focused on the incubation and advancement of professional arts practice, social innovation and community development in South Calgary. The incubator will connect the community of artists and cultural workers as tenants in the building to each other and to the broader community that the facility is embedded. In the area of Environment, the Forever Funds signature project is Harvie Passage. The project involves the redevelopment of the Bow River Weir which will eliminate the drowning hazard and allow for the Bow River to flow freely for the first time in over 100 years. A period of intensive safety testing is currently underway and we look forward to celebrating the opening of Harvie Passage in 2012. ACCELERATING SOCIAL ENTERPRISE In 2010, The Calgary Foundation, The United Way of Calgary & Area and the City of Calgary, commissioned a report to explore the readiness for social enterprise activity in Calgary. This report determined that our city has a strong appetite for innovation and growth in the area of social entrepreneurship, and that nonprofits and companies alike are coming together to achieve a connection between societal and economic growth. Seeking new ways to strengthen Calgary's nonprofit sector, The Calgary Foundation, in partnership with Social Venture Partners Calgary, launched a Social Enterprise Pilot Project in 2010 to demonstrate how nonprofit organizations can generate new revenue from mission based business activities. From twenty interested organizations, two were selected as best fitting the criteria for developing Social Enterprise initiatives that would provide the most relevant learning for other charitable organizations. Eva Friesen President & CEO Allison Love Chair, Board of Directors
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