CREATING VITAL SOLUTIONS
The central aim of the Community Ideas Factory project was to assist The Foundation in its effort to transform its process of allocating philanthropic dollars; rendering the process more responsive, efficient and strategic through the adoption of a participatory framework. Towards this end, the triangulation of the data from the literature review, PRA exercises, and CPS workshops served an important first step by allowing the project team to identified a list of pressing needs in the current housing, food, and employment equity sectors.
Once the researchers had triangulated data, they were able to identify some emergent themes and recommendations for action. This information was then communicated by the researchers to The Foundation. Additionally, the research team was invited to present the findings to a meeting of key Fundholders (The Funders Roundtable) in November 2017. Given the timing of the project, findings from the first two sectors (housing and food security) were communicated. Through a deliberative process, members of the Roundtable, in turn, agreed to provide funding for some of the identified priorities in Affordable Housing and Food Security.
These Funding commitments materialized in the BeCause RFP Process; the issuance of Requests for Proposals (RFP’s) in December 2017 for projects supporting the strategic areas identified in our CIF research. In January 2018, The Foundation received 9 proposals from local non-profits, charities, and other stakeholders that focused on the strategic priority areas.
On May 1, 2018, The Foundation hosted a ‘philanthropitch’ event wherein the short-listed applicants were invited to present, discuss, and ‘pitch’ their proposals to the 30 Fundholders in attendance.
Using a new technology called “Community Suite”, Fundholders were enabled to ‘vote with their philanthropic dollars’ by directing their contributions towards the short-listed proposals catalogued in the “Community Suite” online portal.. At the same time, The Foundation agreed to match Fundholder contributions with their own community granting process.
These Funding commitments materialized in the BeCause RFP Process; the issuance of Requests for Proposals (RFP’s) in December 2017 for projects supporting the strategic areas identified in our CIF research. In January 2018, The Foundation received 9 proposals from local non-profits, charities, and other stakeholders that focused on the strategic priority areas.
On May 1, 2018, The Foundation hosted a ‘philanthropitch’ event wherein the short-listed applicants were invited to present, discuss, and ‘pitch’ their proposals to the 30 Fundholders in attendance.
dollars.
The result of this process was the approval of $257,000 in funding for the following three projects:
» Affordable Housing Halton Initiative - Position Paper on Alternative Housing for Halton
» Home Suite Hope - Margaret Garden Community Project
» The Faith and Common Good - Community Resilience Hub.