Environment committee  Good morning. The CVC Foundation works tirelessly to raise funds in support of the invaluable projects and programs of CVC. Raising these funds is a daunting task. As has been proven through numerous research studies by StatsCan and Imagine Canada, raising funds for environmenta

Environment committee  We do our best. Absolutely, it is a tremendous amount of work. One of the things we have found to be very successful, in the sense that companies seem to be more reactive, is cultivating those personal relationships with employees at the ground level. We have found that the groun

Environment committee  Credit Valley Conservation has an extensive program of volunteer engagement, so dozens of activities per year that are based on projects that need and have to be done. That is the primary consideration. Then they enrol corporate volunteers and volunteers from the community. Those

Environment committee  Right.

Environment committee  I think there is some anxiety within the ENGO sector about partnering with corporations. I think there's a little bit of resistance and a fear of greenwashing, if you may. There's a fear that the shared objectives are not truly mutual and that the corporation is looking to enhanc

Environment committee  Greenwashing is essentially the term that's used in the ENGO sector. It's the fear of corporations, who may be viewed or perceived by the public as being the cause of some environmental degradation or who are not doing their part. So the corporation will partner with an ENGO to i

Environment committee  I won't lie and say that it's easy. I think from a very practical point, we have a very solid gift-acceptance policy that's approved by our board of directors and reviewed on a biannual basis. It's available to the public. It's incredibly transparent. For example, it speaks to th

Environment committee  Yes.

Environment committee  It's a very real part of the fundraising process with environmental fundraising.

Environment committee  I'm just reflecting. They have definitely turned down gifts of less than that, which were more sponsorship arrangements in which the companies were really looking for extensive promotion that wouldn't necessarily substantiate the marketing or sponsorship agreement. But no, for gi

Environment committee  No, for us we have both portfolios. We have the corporate grants, corporate donations, which would constitute the charitable contribution, because they're voluntary with no expected return or benefit. Then we have the sponsorship and cause-related marketing arrangements that are

Environment committee  Yes, we do have a code of ethical standards that is published on our website. We also adhere to the standards of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. As an individual member, I adhere to their code of ethical standards, and our agency belongs as well.

Environment committee  Thank you. Yes, it's a combination of approaches and efforts that we take. With the larger companies we do quite extensive prospect research to understand their values, their motivations, their history of giving, and then generally the initial approach happens either by me or an

Environment committee  Absolutely. In fact, one of our ultimate motivations is always to instill that appreciation and understanding in anyone we work with at any level—volunteers, donors, business owners—because it's really their engagement and their true involvement that's going to make the long-term

Environment committee  Yes. We're definitely finding that if we look at a community context and track involvement, say in Orangeville, the businesses that have become involved over the past decade—it's been a long campaign—have steadily increased their level of involvement. It's gone from general inter