There is no doubt that the past two to three years hit the not-for-profit sector hard. SickKids Foundation was no exception. So when I started here almost a year and half ago, I knew there were specific areas that required our attention in order to gain back some confidence from our donors that SickKids Foundation was in fact an effective steward of their donations and worthy of their support.
I am happy to share an article by Paul Waldie from today’s Globe & Mail highlighting some of SickKids Foundation’s successes over the past year.
Having released our annual report and financial statements for 2009/2010 at the beginning of September, we were pleased to report, as the article points out, “donations have held steady at $88-million, costs are down 20 per cent and executive pay has been curtailed.” These are three areas we have really concentrated on in our effort to be transparent and accountable to all of our donors.
A large portion of the article focuses on the performance of our investment portfolio and thanks to the outstanding stewardship of our investment committee, led by Prem Watsa, the Foundation has realized a 41.6 per cent increase in our endowment funds, today reaching an all-time high of $680 million.
I hope you will all take the opportunity to read what the Globe & Mail had to say. We are really proud of our achievements and very optimistic of what the future holds for SickKids and children’s health.