Charities are awesome.
We just don’t know which ones.
In November 2022, the Vancouver Police Department commissioned a report on the complex overlapping landscape of non-profit organizations that operate in the City’s Downtown Eastside. The report argued that approximately a million dollars was being spent each day on “community and social issues” in the DTES.
This number is disputed, but the fact that a number like that is even plausible tells you two things:
- we are spending a lot of money
- we are ready to be outraged
non-profits do amazing things.
their grant writers told us so.
An excellent fundraising team is absolutely critical to a charity’s success. Like, duh.
Non-profits get the money they need to offer the services they provide from a variety of places:
- Private foundations
- Government funding initiatives
- Private donors
- Sponsorships
- Grants from Crown corporations and various public entities, like BC Lotto, RCMP, etc.
These funding opportunities can have complex and competitive processes, and it pays to have someone with experience on your side. Fundraisers and grant writers can help you articulate what you do, the difference it makes, and how it furthers the goals of whoever is doling out cash.
This is a specialized kind of skillset. People who do it well work in offices, not shelters, drop-ins, or on the streets. They typically make more money than the people who depend on them for their salaries. This makes sense: without them, nobody gets paid.
Do they understand the work being done by your organization? Possibly.
Do they know everything there is to know about what happens on the ground? Unlikely.
Do they know what it’s like for the staff who deliver the programs being funded? Probably not.
Do they talk to the people who depend on your work? No.
Fundraising is an inevitable part of operating a non-profit, and the people who do that work are not bad people. In fact, they are generally very kind, likeable, and engaging people who genuinely care about the work they’re asking you to support. That’s why they do what they do.
Someone who does what they do, especially if they do it well, is not there to help distribute funding to the organizations that deserve it.
don’t ask the organizations if they’re doing a good job.
Ask the people they serve.
More information
2025 Point-in-Time Homeless Count in Greater Vancouver Preliminary Data Report
Artwork generously stolen from the talented Matti Lichen Lee of artpocalyptic.com.