By Alexandra Reid
The Community Foundation of Ottawa yesterday celebrated a quarter of a century supporting nonprofit organizations in Ottawa with a memorable event at the Ottawa Convention Centre’s Trillium ballroom.
The event featured a keynote address from Canada’s governor general, David Johnston, and Ottawa mayor Jim Watson presented the key to the city to the organization for “a job very well done.” Fittingly, Jim Durrell, who was mayor of Ottawa and supported CFO when it was first organized, also offered a few words. He said, quite truthfully, that the event welcomed “the very best of Ottawa.”
More than 500 people attended the event and saw performances from local artists, including The Joynt, who opened with a rap called CapCity, the inclusive dance works company Propeller Dance, and the Leading Note’s Children’s Choir, which sang Waving Flag. Award-winning videos from the CFO’s supported organizations were also presented, including those of the Ottawa Humane Society, Rotary Home and CompuCorps.
About a dozen community champions founded CFO in 1987 with a $500,000 bequest from the United Way’s endowment fund. By enabling generous citizens to “enhance the quality of life for people in their community and to achieve their own charitable objectives through permanent endowments,” it “nurtures philanthropy and works with partners to have an enduring impact on communities.” Today, CFO’s endowment fund is worth more than $90 million. The fund is invested, while the interest from those investments is paid out as grants. The Silver Anniversary celebrates more than $65 million poured into 462 local organizations over the past 25 years.
“The Community Foundation of Ottawa should be allowed to bask shamelessly in civic pride,” said CBC’s Adrian Harewood, who MC’d the event.
Brian Toller, CFO’s Investment Committee chairman, along with foundation president and CEO Barbara McInnes, explained that the organization has been working to make “philanthropy enduring,” by granting funds to all areas of society, including sustenance and care, shelter, recreation, environment and the arts, with a focus on driving the foundation and the city towards resiliency and resourcefulness by investing in long-term, sustainable solutions.
Toller emphasized the variety of projects CFO supports: winter boots for the homeless, seed funding for an innovative new play, the restoration of walking trails and bridges in a local park, and summer camps for low-income children, to name a few.
The governor general’s keynote address was on the important role philanthropy and community foundations play in building smart and caring communities. He also acknowledged the positive impact CFO has had on improving the quality of life for thousands of citizens in the Ottawa area.
“If you wish to judge the quality of a city, look to see what it cherishes,” he said, quoting the Catholic saint Augustine. Noting that our actions to help others must be inspired by compassion but also grounded in intelligence, he added that the CFO has “taken the lesson of smart and caring and truly brought it to life.”
Following his speech, he presented the Governor General’s Caring Canadian Awards to six recipients from the National Capital Region who have contributed to the well-being of the community.
As a departure from our usual tech marketing activities, our agency has been working with CFO — offering ongoing marketing counsel and at the event by managing its Twitter wall — and so it was a joy to witness such a milestone and meet many of the individuals and groups that the organization has supported over the years. From all of us at Francis Moran and Associates, congratulations, CFO, on such a remarkable achievement.
