Got some extra cash that you want to use to help people who are less fortunate, or the environment — and be sure where your money goes?
Tides Canada Foundation, a new legally recognized charitable organization, is the only public foundation in the country that focuses exclusively on funding projects in social justice and environmental sustainability.
“Canadian philanthropy is underdeveloped, especially in these areas,” says foundation executive director Tim Draimin. The vast majority of major charitable donations in Canada go to education and health, he said during a recent visit to Calgary.
But Tides Canada doesn’t just want your money. It encourages your participation in deciding where your donation should be spent.
“We are providing people with a more engaged form of philanthropy,” Draimin said.
Tides Canada, headquartered in Vancouver, takes your donation and uses it, through partnerships with other donors and charitable organizations, to leverage more money for the cause that you want to help. Each project that’s undertaken must help the entire system, not just relieve the symptoms.
Here’s an example: Tides Canada recently funded a project at St. Christopher House in Toronto, an agency that helps street people.
The foundation leveraged its donors’ money to create a training program for St. Christopher House’s front-line staff. The staff got the skills to be able to tap a lot more money from under-utilized federal programs, such as low-income assistance and job-seeking training for street people.
As a public foundation, Tides Canada follows more stringent rules than those established for most of the 78,000 registered charities in Canada.
The foundation creates and manages an account for each donor, who receives detailed quarterly reports on Tides Canada’s fund. Tides, as a public foundation, can issue income tax receipts for deductions in capital gains tax to donors who contribute a portion of their stock market earnings. The typical tax deduction on a donation is about 50 per cent.
Each donor is asked for recommendations on where his or her contribution should be spent, although the foundation’s board has the final say to ensure the fund is used wisely.
The foundation’s management screens all potential grant recipients for their social responsibility and environmental ethics. The board’s expertise in charitable funding includes one member who has worked for 25 years with Tides Foundation in the United States, Draimin says.
Tides Canada is looking for individual and institutional donors who can make a significant contribution — at least $5,000 a year — in order to be able leverage sufficient money for projects.
The foundation received about $2.4 million in donations from September to December last year, and funded about $300,000 worth of projects up to the end of March 2001.
“We’re not looking for the Bill Gates of this world,” Draimin says. “But we know we’re surrounded by enormous resources.”
Web Watch:
www.tidescanada.org
