Responding to the Financial Situation

The downturn in global financial markets has affected foundation assets dramatically. On average, foundations in North America have seen declines in their asset base of between 15 and 30 percent. Canadian foundations have been hit less hard than American. In 2008, Ivey Foundation assets declined by approximately 17 percent. Historically, the Ivey Foundation has maintained annual granting at a minimum of 4.5 percent of assets. In 2009 however, the Foundation will be reducing its granting to the legal minimum of 3.5 percent. The environmental funding programs are the Foundation’s priority and will experience only modest grant reductions this year. The smaller Director-Initiated Program will be scaled back disproportionately; no new Director-Initiated grants will be considered in 2009 beyond commitments already made.

Changes to Guidelines of the Conserving Canada's
Forests Program

Please note effective January 2009, changes have been made to the Conserving Canada's Forests Program Guidelines to reflect the outcomes of our recent five year review of the program. These include:

1. Our growing preference for supporting multi-organizational collaborations as a key method of securing our conservation goals
2. A focus on investing in geographic areas and methods of change that will achieve the greatest outcomes in the balance of our CF Program term
3. A commitment to share with potential grantees the areas of priority to which we expect to provide grants in the coming year
4. A desire to ensure that potential grantees work with Foundation staff in advance of our Letter of Inquiry deadline to ensure that their project fits with Foundation priorities for the coming year.


Please also note that our funding priorities for this year are:

• Land-use planning in the northern, intact boreal forest
• Securing the success of market based mechanisms to improve forest management
• Multi-party collaborations to address forest conservation and industry competitiveness related to emerging climate policies and market demands.

Please contact Tim Gray or Lara Ellis at the Foundation, if you are considering an application and we can help you to determine if your project fits these areas of focus.

2010 - Conserving Canada's Forests Program

No more grants will be awarded in 2010 for the Foundation’s Conserving Canada’s Forests Program

2011 Deadlines

Conserving Canada's Forests Program - Letters of Inquiry
Winter 2011 application deadline - December 10, 2010

Conserving Canada's Forests Program - Proposal Deadline
Winter 2011 full proposal application deadline (following Foundation's acceptance of Letter of Inquiry) - January 14, 2011

Information and Publications

From August 18th to 20th, 2008 Tim Gray and Bruce Lourie joined a group of other conservation foundation staff and board members for an eye-opening workshop and tour of the Alberta oil sands. Tim's impressions (and photos) are captured on his tour blog at http://oilsandstour.blogspot.com/

Background materials and results of our fall workshop on forest and carbon sequestration. Please visit www.forestsandclimate.org

December 2007: Learning from Ontario’s New Endangered Species Act
A report to document the successful effort to create a new Endangered Species Act in Ontario

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