From donation to impact: how flexible giving responds to change

When donors give to Vancouver Foundation's Community Impact Fund or one of its focus areas, they make a lasting difference. Their gift turns into grants which are designed to meet today's needs and tomorrow's unknowns.  
 
Donations are put into an endowment, which acts like a community's permanent savings account . The yearly income generated from the investment is used for grants, so the original gift continues to create impact year after year.

From gift to grant 

Every year, thousands of nonprofits doing important work apply for funding through Vancouver Foundation's grant programs. Staff screen applications to ensure they meet requirements. Then Community Advisors, people with lived and professional experience of the issues the grants tackle, review them and recommend which proposals should be funded.

Once recommendations are in, staff consider them and decide how to fund each proposal. They look first at funds with specific donor instructions. If none fits, they use funds tied to the project's focus area. And when a project covers more than one issue, or if all other funds are spent, they use the Community Impact Fund, a flexible pool of money that tackles timely community needs.

Mike Conroy, Vancouver Foundation's Director of Granting, says the team tries to fund as many proposals as possible and use up the funding available each year.  

"Our goal is to allocate resources efficiently and get money out to the community and not carry it over," said Conroy.

Why flexibility matters  

With over a decade in granting, Conroy has seen community needs shift — from policy changes to natural disasters and public health shocks.  

"Sometimes it's an unforeseen event like COVID that disrupts the sector and leads to novel applications we haven't seen before," said Conroy.

This is where flexible funding proves its value. Around a decade ago, few people had heard of fentanyl, Conroy notes. There was no "fentanyl response fund," yet flexible dollars from the Health Focus Area and Community Impact Fund allowed Vancouver Foundation to respond quickly to the toxic-drug crisis, without having to raise money for the specific cause.   

"Focus areas and the Community Impact Fund give us income that isn't overly narrow. That flexibility lets us deploy funding where it's needed most and fill gaps that we can't predict," Conroy said. 

Preparing for what comes next  

Conroy says it's important to be humble when predicting future priorities, as community needs 30 or 40 years from now might not mirror today's headlines. "You don't want a fund that's locked to yesterday's problem — you want a fund that can meet tomorrow's," he said.  

With focus areas and the Community Impact Fund, future staff and Community Advisors can direct support to the most urgent issues of their time without delay.

Join us: Give to the Community Impact Fund or a focus area to transform your generosity into action now — and for whatever comes next.