This is a web toolkit designed for community foundations that want to focus more strategically on poverty issues. Other funders and not-for-profit organizations may also find it useful.

We've called it "From Good Causes to Root Causes" to reflect a significant change in approach: more and more, community foundations are thinking strategically about their granting and other activities. They are marshalling their resources to tackle the root causes of complex social issues like poverty. They are trying to move from alleviation of poverty to reduction and prevention of poverty.

This toolkit will help community foundations with:

How to use this toolkit:

The toolkit has background information, discussion questions, tools, and lessons learned to help your community foundation understand and address poverty. It also has links to other relevant resources and websites where you can explore topics in more depth.

You can work through the site from start to finish, or you can head directly to your area of interest. For those who like process, there is a logic to the flow of the site: first developing understanding of the issue and different possible responses, then assessing readiness, then choosing a strategy, then considering impact.

How this toolkit came about

"From Good Causes to Root Causes" was developed in close partnership with CFC members working in poverty as part of the Community Foundations Addressing Poverty project. Particular thanks to Hamilton Community Foundation, The Winnipeg Foundation, The Calgary Foundation, Vancouver Foundation, Edmonton Community Foundation, and Fondation du Grand Montreal for sharing their experience - some in the early stages and some further along in the process - so generously. Thanks also to the Annie E. Casey Foundation for their expertise and wisdom. Dal Brodhead, of New Economy Development Group, also made important contributions to the toolkit.

This toolkit is part of a series of resources touching on social justice and poverty available through CFC's website, including:

In 2001, Community Foundations of Canada began to explore the role community foundations could play in advancing social justice issues in Canada. Since then, with support from the Ford Foundation, the Atkinson Foundation, the Government of Canada's Social Development Partnerships Program, and other funders, CFC and its members have been deepening our understanding of how community foundations might help to "level the playing field" for all Canadians by tackling the root causes of social problems.

Authors:

This toolkit was produced by Community Foundations of Canada, the member organization for Canada's more than 160 community foundations.

Content: Nancy F. Johnson, Johnson Associates, and Sara Lyons, Community Foundations of Canada.
Design: Industrial Media Inc., www.industrialmedia.ca.
Funding: This site was created with funding by the Government of Canada's Social Development Partnerships Program. The opinions and interpretations in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Government of Canada.

Connection to other CFC programs

Adding breadth and depth to the exploration of broad social issues like poverty is CFC's expanding national Vital Signs initiative. Vital Signs reports, produced by community foundations in over fifteen Canadian communities, provide a report card on local social indicators. Vital Signs is helping communities understand local issues and zero in on where they are doing well and where improvement is needed. It raises the profile of issues like poverty and homelessness and engages citizens in ranking the local priorities that need to be addressed. Vital Signs is an important tool for community foundations as they move "from good causes to root causes" across Canada.

For the last number of years CFC has been developing thinking and resources for related to social justice work. This site is a continuation of that work, focusing on particular advice and tools to assist in beginning, implementing and evaluating activity to reduce poverty at a local level. Previous reports from the Social Justice Philanthropy initiative are referenced and linked in various places.