This time next year, we will have much to reflect on and share as 2020 continues to be unlike any year we’ve experienced before.

We look forward to reporting back on the scope and impact of our COVID-19 community response in next year’s report.  

But first, we have a promise to keep: to be excellent stewards and investors of your donations. That’s why we’re taking this opportunity to look back, and share highlights and outcomes of our 2019 financial year.   

We funded 36 organizations who are improving local lives.

Thanks to the generosity of donors, more than $1.33 million are being provided to programs that are meeting our community’s greatest needs. This is a 7% increase over the amount we were able to invest in 2018. These funded partners are helping people in our community access the many different types of support they need.  

The work we do doesn’t end there. Because of you, we’ve also invested an additional $2.29 million in long-term solutions, projects that make our community stronger, and charities chosen by donors. 

We ended 2019 with a balanced budget.

You’ll notice in our financial summary that our net revenue decreased in 2019, compared to 2018. This revenue loss can be explained mostly by national corporate partners shifting the way they approach their employee giving campaigns. The good news is that we were able to mitigate these losses, and make sure our community felt as little impact as possible.  

One of the ways we did that was by achieving success with some new fundraising initiatives. Within the contents of this report, we’ve highlighted one example: the Neighbourhood Kitchen Fund. This Fund is an example of targeted giving, which is something we expect to grow in the years ahead.  

Targeted giving happens when our staff team works closely with an organization or individual to understand their values and priorities, and match them with needs that exist in our community. As needs in our community continue to increase, so do these meaningful investment opportunities. 

For every dollar donated, 78 cents was invested in community.

This led to a higher amount being invested in 2019 than in 2018, even though our overall revenue was lower. The main reason for this positive net outcome is that we started a series of initiatives to increase efficiency and reduce costs.  Some of these initiatives are still in progress, while others created benefit right away. For example:  

• We updated several internal policies.  
• We reviewed our contracts with service providers.  
• We worked with a smaller staff team than we have in recent years. 

The changes you can expect to see next year include: 

• A new fiscal year beginning in April rather than January, which will create more efficient alignment between our accounting practices and our fundraising and planning activities.  
• A move from pledge-based accounting to cash-based accounting, which will help strengthen our expense management and donor accountability even further.  

Making annual adjustments is critically important.

It allows us to fulfill the promise of excellence we make to donors and invest more resources to help fill gaps in our community. This adaptability is one of the reasons donors have trusted us for decades – and can continue to do so.