Welcome to our 2024 Annual Report. To find the PDF version of the printed report, click here.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We acknowledge the Oakville Community Foundation is located on the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, as well as the Traditional Territory of the Haudenosaunee and Wendat people. Further, we acknowledge that the Town of Oakville is covered by Treaty No 14, the Head of the Lake Purchase (1806) and Treaty 22 (1820).
OUR YEAR IN REVIEW
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped to make our 30th year a resounding success!
Together, we celebrated The Foundation’s 30th Anniversary by focussing on the lasting impacts we could leave in our community. With the help of Oakvillegreen and the generosity of our Fundholders, we planted 300 trees at Valleyridge Park. We were also able to support 30 local students in their journey to postsecondary education with $60,000 in education awards.
Other highlights in 2024 include:
- Launching our exclusive Community Concierge service for Fundholders,
- Hosting the film Finding Freedom on the Sixteen on Community Classroom with the Canadian Caribbean Association of Halton and supported by The Foundation,
- Raising nearly $1 million for the charities in the GIVEOakville campaign and hosting the first-ever GIVEOakville Charity Showcase, an in-person event we’re excited to host again in November 2025,
- Publishing the report Our Community Legacy: What Oakville will our Children and Grandchildren Inherit? on current and potential future impacts of local climate change,
- Launching the new Debwewin: The Oakville Truth Project Exhibition during Museum Week and taking part in the Oakville Festival of Film and Art’s National Indigenous Peoples Day Gala,
- Being named the 10th Most Equitable Charitable Funder across Canada,
- And, adopting the Ontario Non- Profit Network’s Decent Work employment practices as well as being a certified Ontario Living Wage Employer.
In our 30th year, The Foundation has grown to stewarding $140 million in assets. Investment Pool returns were 12.5%, generating new funds for our Fundholders to grant to charities. Additionally, about 1.6% of the Endowed Funds held at The Foundation have been invested in the new Impact Investment Pool, earning 6.7% and growing to over $1.1 million.
We also reduced our fees by a further 3 basis points to continue to encourage the generosity of our Fundholders as we all look to support the work of the local charities in our community.
Finally, there were some changes within The Foundation. We said goodbye to Accountant Dan Ierullo and Happy Retirement to Frances Pace. In the fall, we welcomed Accountant Razan Hamad and Director of Fundholder Engagement Jaya Mootoo to our team.
We would like to thank our Family of Fundholders, donors, volunteers, local charity partners and sponsors who are integral to the success of the Oakville Community Foundation and the Oakville community.
LOOKING BACK AT 2024
The Foundation was thrilled to award a record 30 educational awards worth $60,000 to local students as part of our 30th Anniversary Celebrations!
All 30 education awards were funded by The Foundation’s Donor Advised Fundholders alongside a generous match from Foundation Board Chair Mike Miller. The Foundation is grateful to our community of local philanthropists and the following Donor Advised Funds:
C3 Foundation, Jelinek Cork Family Foundation, Les and Kathleen Ross Family Foundation, Kopriva-Robinson Family Foundation, Augy and Anna Carnovale Foundation, the Shorey Family, Carmichael-Willis Fund, Jackson Family Fund, AMPed for Life, Famille Yolaine Boileau & Pierre Matteau, Larmour McLaren Family, Kickstart Your Education and Oakville Dads.
The Foundation’s inclusion in this group reflects its ongoing efforts to support initiatives that address systemic inequalities and enable a more just and inclusive society, like Debwewin: The Oakville Truth project and the Enable Education course, among other efforts.
The Foundation is grateful to its Board of Directors, volunteers and partners for their guidance and support.
Thank you for raising nearly $1 million for our local charities through GIVEOakville!
The 2024 campaign raised more than $860,000 and inspired a further $86,000 from Foundation Fundholders, who directed additional grants to GIVEOakville charities during the campaign. The Foundation also highlighted priority areas, including FEED Oakville, Intimate Partner Violence, the Urban Tree Fund and the Mental Health Alliance.
To celebrate the launch of the campaign, The Foundation also hosted the first in-person GIVEOakville Charity Showcase, featuring more than 50 local charities that participated in the campaign, all in one place.
The new Debwewin: The Oakville Truth Project Exhibition launched during Museum Week in 2024 as a way to provide the community with an opportunity to better understand the past and present Treaty relationships in what is now Oakville and start conversations around reconciliation.
Debwewin took part in the Oakville Festival of Film and Art for the National Indigenous Peoples Day Gala. It featured three screenings of Indigenous-led or created films, including The Great Saelish Heist, Onyota’ a:ka. (People of The Standing Stone) and the premiere of a trio of Debwewin: Truth of the Land videos.
30th Anniversary
Our 30th Anniversary Tree Planting
To celebrate The Foundation’s 30th Anniversary, and the newly released climate report Our Community Legacy, 300 trees were planted at Valleyridge Park with the help of the Oakvillegreen Conservation Association, The Foundation’s board members, committee volunteers, staff and other friends of The Foundation, including Community Living Oakville.
With shovels in one hand and a celebratory cupcake in the other, the community came together to leave a lasting legacy that will be enjoyed by future generations to come!
30 Public Charities in 30 Years
In 30 years of granting, The Foundation and our Fundholders are proud to have supported the work and missions of many local Halton charitable organizations. To recognize some of these incredible charities, we have highlighted the top 30 public charities that have received funding from The Foundation over the last 30 years.
Climate Report
On Earth Day, The Foundation launched its climate report, Our Community Legacy: What Oakville will our Children and Grandchildren inherit? The report looked at how climate change is impacting our community and us as individuals, both now and potentially in the future.
The report also shared original research from Sheridan College looking at local youth and their experience with climate anxiety, with nearly half reporting that their feelings about climate change negatively impact their daily life. Many Oakville youth feel afraid, angry and abandoned by inaction.
At its heart, this report is a message of hope of what we can do together. If not you, then who?
Click here to read the report.
Finance & Investment
The Foundation provides careful stewardship of the monies given over to our care. The following charts and graphs illustrate a snapshot of our Fund positions for the past year, and demonstrate some historical data as a comparison.
Our Audited Financial Statements are available here.
In 2024, the Foundation launched the Impact Investing Pool, allocating up to 3% of all Endowed Fund assets to investments that deliver both financial returns and measurable social or environmental impact. With Fundholder input, three priority areas were identified to guide future investments: the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Climate and Equity, and Fundholder Priorities. The Foundation currently holds eight impact investments totaling nearly $1.3 million.
Recognition
Our Staff
Back Row: Jaya Mootoo, Taline McPhedran, Gillian McLaren, Alison Moeller, Razan Hamad, Karin Douglas, Varsha Joseph (Intern), Michelle Collins
Front Row: Lori Armitage, Michael Salem, Wendy Rinella, Frances Pace, Courtney Waddell
A special thank you to our two 2024 interns, Sanjana Bassi and Varsha Joseph. We wish them luck in their future endeavours!
Our Board
(Back row L-R) Christine Langevin, Lisa Kohler, Andy Aicklen, Les Ross, Andrew Tyrrell, Bindu Cudjoe (Past Chair), Lindsay Patrick
(Front row L-R) Binu Dhas (Secretary), Ameeta Vijay (Vice-Chair), Mike Miller (Chair), Kevin Tremblay (Treasurer), Fred Pinto
(Not pictured) Sharmila Ali, Julie Cordiero, Ronan Ryan
Our Committees
Community Legacy Building Committee
Andrew Tyrrell (Chair), Les Ross (Vice- Chair), Andy Aiklen, Sharmila Ali, Julie Cordeiro*, Bindu Cudjoe, Binu Dhas, Geraldine Esemezie, Michael Gesualdi, Julie Pehar, Jen Zhou
Governance & Nominating Committee
Binu Dhas (Chair), Ameeta Vijay (Vice- Chair), Julie Cordiero, Bindu Cudjoe, Lisa Kohler, Mike Miller
Finance, Risk & Audit Committee
Kevin Tremblay (Chair), Christine Langevin (Vice-Chair), Kirby Alguire, Rashpal Brar Grewal, Stephen Credico, Mike Miller, Ronan Ryan, Grant Redpath
Investment Committee
Fred Pinto (Chair), Lindsay Patrick (Vice- Chair), Martha Hill, Xavier Labrecque St- Vincent, Mike Miller, David Wong
Impact Investment Committee
Ameeta Vijay (Chair), Ronan Ryan (Vice- Chair), Rob Budhwa, Samantha Cheung, Anusha Shanmugarajah*
* represents those serving until the June 2024 Annual General Meeting
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisor
Ercole Perrone
Indigenous Cultural Advisor
Elder Peter Schuler
