Happy New Year to all!
2021 has been a challenging year for many in the nonprofit and charitable sector. Artists have also felt the challenges.
As a social enterprise business, our goal has been to raise money for our clients, while providing a positive impact to the community. Thanks to our clients, we were able to raise $1.3 million for our clients. As we enter our 4th year of business, we’re proud to say that we’ve raised over $3 million for charities, nonprofits, and artists.
Some of the trends we saw this year included:
- A shift to capacity building grants, where funders began to provide money for organizations to build, develop, and grow intellectually, in an effort to avoid funding gatherings.
- A cancellation of traditional grants, such as the OTF Seed, Grow and Capital grants. This series was replaced with the Resilient Communities Fund
- A shy response from Foundations, with many pausing their operations during the uncertainty.
As we have heard at the start of the new year, lockdowns continue, and we think this will have a challenging impact on the state of the nonprofit sector, and for artists. We encourage leaders to come together to discuss ways that we can address issues in our own communities, and leverage existing resources, including grants, technology, and knowledge. If you can offer your expertise to other community organizations, please reach out to us let us know, and we will do our best to introduce you to others who may be doing similar work.
Our business has also changed dramatically. This year we introduced our new Annual Plan Plus, which allows organizations to meet with us on a monthly basis, in addition to a number of other features. We have been listening to our clients, and hope that this new offer allows busy Executive Directors and leaders to be able to make decisions on which grants are best for them.
We have hired a new Grant Administrator (Samina), a Finance Assistant (Daria) and promoted our Grant Writing Coordinator (Manreet) to Grant Writing Specialist. Alongside our Grant Writing Assistant (Jordan), and our Marketing Assistant (Abigail), the team is ready to serve you! We are currently on the hunt for a full-time Grant Writer, and we welcome any recommendations as we grow our business to meet your needs.
We look forward to a time when all of us can get together again in one room. We are also excited to show you our new and improved office space in Mississauga, where the team is going to be based as soon as lockdowns open.
Thank you for your support of our business and we look forward to helping you raise more money in 2022!
