As 2018 comes to a close, I鈥檇 like to share with you the incredible year we have had at the Victoria Foundation and all the wonderful work we鈥檝e been able to accomplish while partnering with some fabulous organizations and individuals in our region.
Numbers-wise, it has been another record-breaking year for the Foundation. In 2018, thanks to the generosity of our donors, the Victoria Foundation granted more than $22 million to more than 450 organizations in Greater Victoria and beyond. In addition to this, total assets under administration here crossed the $360-million mark, a significant achievement all of us 鈥� our board, our staff, our donors, the whole community 鈥� can take pride in.
As we focus more on taking a leadership role in the community, early in the year the Foundation hosted four separate Vital Conversations events, inviting the public to participate in lively, informative dialogues around key issues to our community, including living with disabilities in Victoria, youth mental health and the local implementation of the UN鈥檚 Sustainable Development Goals.
The SDGs took on a larger role throughout all we do here at the Victoria Foundation this year, too. Adopted in 2015, the goals are a blueprint to achieving a better and more sustainable future for all by 2030. We have incorporated these goals into everything we do, from our granting process, to our Make it Happen! catalogue, to our Victoria鈥檚 Vital Signs report.
We also used the SDGs as a lens when we took a hard look this year at the economic impact of the local civil-society sector. Working with the University of Victoria, we produced a report that definitively shows that the contributions of charities are among the most substantial and important to our region, both economically and socially. And we found significant contributions to all 17聽SDGs are being made by the dedicated and hard-working charities in Greater Victoria.
Our findings also show the sector generates more than $4聽billion annually, supporting the equivalent of 63,000 full-time jobs, rivalling the tech and tourism sectors. We were very proud to present these findings and to bring some attention and, we hope, prestige to the hundreds of charitable organizations working in our region.
I鈥檇 like to thank my staff and our board for their incredible work this year, and also to all of you who support, participate in and/or follow our work. As it has been for more than 80 years now, our goal is to foster a vibrant, caring community for all, and I believe each year we take another step in that direction. Thank you for walking with us, and Happy New Year.
Sandra Richardson is CEO of the Victoria Foundation.
