"It gives me a lot of joy and pride, knowing that we can play a role in transforming the trajectory of our community." - Diane Silva, President and CEO, London Community Foundation
Since the early days of Pillar Nonprofit Network (Pillar), the London Community Foundation has always been there. From Pillar's "imagining journey," when the idea of a network for the non-profit sector was still taking shape, to Innovation Works, supporting Pillar was a 'no-brainer,' says foundation President and CEO, Diane Silva.
Connecting Generosity to Need
For more than 70 years, London Community Foundation has served London, Middlesex County and neighbouring First Nations. "We connect donors' generosity to the causes that they care about in the community," Diane explains. What sets the foundation apart is its close connections with community organizations of every size, from grassroots to midsize to large. That gives it "a good read on what's going on in the community," so it can advocate for real needs and connect donors to them.
At a community foundation, donors can set up different types of funds, or charitable giving accounts. Through the foundation, "donors are connected to local causes they wouldn't have known otherwise on their own." Donors also gain a deeper understanding of their community and how best to support it.
Today, the foundation's fundholders, the donors who hold funds there, support a wide range of areas: the arts, affordable and supportive housing, the environment, live music, health, poverty reduction and more. "There's so much that our fundholders are doing that touches every single corner of our community."
Giving That Lasts
Much of the foundation's giving is endowed: gifts are invested, and the returns support the community year after year, "making this a community asset that keeps on giving back," Diane says.
The foundation is also putting its assets to work in new ways. Instead of investing only in traditional markets, it now invests in projects that do social good, such as affordable and supportive housing. The investment gives organizations access to capital they wouldn't otherwise have, and the interest earned goes back into the foundation's granting programs. Donors have noticed the power of the foundation's model and are entrusting it with their philanthropic goals, says Diane. The Health and Homelessness Fund for Change, for example, "signals that donors trust us. They know that we have the ability to navigate complex challenges and where to properly deploy that money."
An Unexpected Path
"I never thought that I would work in the not-for-profit sector," Diane says. She spent years in executive education at Ivey Business School until a professor connected her to the foundation as a volunteer. A couple of years later, the chance to lead its philanthropy team came up, and she felt compelled to pursue it.
Thirteen years later, she leads the foundation. Being able to drive community change through connections, "just fuels me every day," she says.
The Knowledge Piece and the Funding Piece
As a funder, the foundation keeps a close eye on the nonprofit sector's financial health, especially as fewer people give and economic pressures grow. As a network, Pillar gives charities the tools to face those pressures: how to attract donors, build stronger boards, and stay innovative with fewer resources. "Pillar is doing the knowledge piece," Diane says, "and we're doing the funding piece."
A recent pilot program, From Grassroots to Registered Charity, shows how Pillar and London Community Foundation work together. The foundation can generally grant only to "qualified donees," such as registered charities, under Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) rules. For grassroots groups, figuring out whether to pursue charitable status on their own takes a lot of time and money. So, the foundation partnered with Pillar, which hosted the program and brought in a lawyer to walk groups through their options. In some cases, staying a nonprofit makes more sense, and the program helped groups make that call with confidence. "Through the program, Pillar armed those organizations with the best information to make a decision, and we proudly funded it," Diane says.
Pillar's community conversations have also introduced the foundation to emerging groups it might never have met. "As a funder, we thrive on the connections we make through the Pillar network."
Some of those conversations have stayed with Diane. During COVID, as organizations adjusted to working from home and calls for systems change grew after the murder of George Floyd, Pillar "really stood up quickly." It hosted online sessions on diversity and equity, centring the voices of Indigenous and Black people to show why systems needed to change. While the foundation focused on helping organizations respond to urgent needs, Pillar took on the conversations the moment demanded. "We were so grateful that Pillar stood up during this time to talk about some really hard, complex issues and educate people," she says.
London is lucky in that respect. The foundation belongs to a network of more than 200 community foundations across Canada, and having something like Pillar "is the envy of many other communities." In many of those places, that connection work falls on the community foundation itself.
A Gift Still Working
Looking ahead, the foundation's vision reaches beyond supporting charities to seeing real evidence of community well-being: communities that are prosperous and thriving for everyone.
Diane already has proof that patient giving works. A quarter-century since the foundation's first grant to Pillar, that one gift "is still working," Diane says. "Pillar is still moving forward, and that gives me a lot of joy and pride, knowing that we can play a role in transforming the trajectory of our community."
That's the quiet power of a community foundation. Its giving never stops. "It's always there," Diane says. "It's always there to give back to the community."
Learn more about London Community Foundation: https://www.lcf.on.ca/