In 2008 Mark Brown was honoured with the Chair’s Award of Distinction from United Way of Canada / Centraide Canada. This award recognizes Mark’s dedication to community and his instrumental role in establishing United Way of Avalon (now United Way of Newfoundland and Labrador).
Pictured (L to R): Gary Peddle, Past President; Tammy Davis, Executive Director; Mark Brown, Founding Chair; Kathryn Atkin, Chair; and Judy Vanta, Former Labour Representative Board of Directors.
United Way of Newfoundland and Labrador is one of the newest United Way – Centraide organizations in Canada, having been officially launched in 2005.
Apparently there were several inquiries and attempts over the years to establish a United Way organization in our province, but these did not achieve the necessary support or momentum. In the meantime, some employers such as the Government of Canada Charitable Workplace Campaign (GCWCC) were already providing employees in Newfoundland and Labrador with an option to give to local charities through a workplace fundraising campaign. As early as 1992, United Way of Canada – Centraide Canada began setting aside funds received which were designated for use in Newfoundland and Labrador in anticipation of the creation of a United Way. This trust fund received donations from the GCWCC, various corporations and workplace campaigns, and from other United Ways-Centraides. These funds eventually totalled $30,755 and were turned over to the newly formed United Way of Avalon (now United Way of Newfoundland and Labrador) in 2004 and 2005 and were included in the first campaign and agency distribution.
In early 2002 a new process began with a discussion amongst the Presidents of local Rotary Clubs about the need for such an organization. Mark Brown, President of the Rotary Club of St. John’s Northwest at the time, became very interested in the idea and agreed to take on the challenge of completing the groundwork necessary to move forward. On his own initiative, Mark Brown went to Ottawa and met with officials from United Way of Canada – Centraide Canada to discuss the idea and how this might be done. He followed up with several more meetings with United Way and staff of the Government of Canada Workplace Charitable Campaign to discuss the process and feasibility. He then approached his own Rotary Club to take the lead and brought together the five St. John’s area clubs to participate and a Committee was formed to explore the possibilities. Mark went to the national conference that year in Winnipeg to obtain more information and continued to meet with UWC-CC.
Consultations where also held with a variety of community groups. Initially many agencies opposed the creation on the basis that United Way would compete with them for funds. Specific issues identified were a requirement for “Blackout” periods in which funded agencies could not raise their own funds and the “In or out, member or not” scenario in which agencies were forced to choose between being members or remaining independent. Following the consultation, the committee felt that they could avoid these issues and were encouraged.
One of the key barriers to starting up a new United Way – Centraide is the difficulty of funding the operations of the charity in the first few years while the fundraising campaign is being established and built up. The Disbursement Quota which applies to charitable foundations is particularly difficult to deal with in the start up period because it requires that at least 80% of annual revenues should be disbursed to other charities (“qualified donees”).
In 2004 the steering committee sought and obtained an initial $50,000 sponsorship from 4 national corporations to fund the first two years of start up. The committee specifically wanted it to be a sponsorship instead of a charitable donation so that the funds could be used for infrastructure. On the basis of this success, a First Board was formed and the organization was provincially incorporated. At the same time six partner organizations supported our initial operations: Canadian Helicopters, Petro Canada, RBC, Deloitte, Exxon Mobil and Aliant.
The United Way was identified with the region of the Avalon Peninsula on the basis of both population (+50% of population) and geographic consistency, as well as the presence of many business and government linkages in this area. The group didn’t propose a single United Way – Centraide for the province at that time because of the need to be community based and to focus on a manageable area to establish the organization.
Things moved quickly after that, and an office was set up in August and the United Way hired a full-time co-ordinator. An application to Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) for Charitable status was prepared and filed, and the Board set up Finance, Campaign, Fund Distribution, and Governance committees.
Throughout this period the organization worked closely with United Way of Halifax Region as a “mentor” to help identify business models, establish operating policies, and learn about the idiosyncrasies of the national and regional United Way-Centraide structures and programs. Status as a Public Foundation and Registered Charity was received from CRA in September 2004.
For the first campaign the Board set up a campaign team and approached corporations and businesses to run employee campaigns, using a general case for community building. 12 companies agreed to participate in the inaugural campaign and $151,000 was raised! Marketing and media was a huge challenge – it is hard to get known and get attention when you are first starting and the brand is not well established.
Following the campaign, the Fund Distribution Committee issued a call for proposals for small grants of $1-2,000 in order to reduce risk and spread funds widely. About $40,000 was immediately available to distribute for this first round and they set up a panel of 15 people to review more than 40 applications. United Way of Avalon (now United Way of Newfoundland and Labrador) officially launched on 3 March, 2005 and 31 organizations were supported through the initial fund allocation that year.
For the second campaign a kickoff was held at City Hall and recognition awards for the first year’s participants were distributed. The campaign team was expanded and a plan was developed to increase the number of workplace campaigns, create events like a Day of Caring, and provide a speaker’s bureau. In just the second campaign, United Way locally raised $425,000! Based on this very successful result the United Way was able to increase the Community Fund allocations with the increased campaign revenue and allocations specifically to the “Community Fund”.
Since the launch in 2005, we have run five very successful workplace campaigns. Many of you likely participate in your workplaces! (or we hope you do!) We are steadily growing, and the 2009 campaign raised over $800,000 and we are well on our way to reaching the $1million mark in 2010 or 2011, because of the continued dedication of our volunteers – and the continuation of Rotary support is evident through our Board of Directors, our Campaign Management Team and other committees.