Today we want to make you aware of important financial aspects of our critical community campaign to Save our Greenspace by updating you on our accomplishments, the fundraising challenges we face and our needs going forward.

With today’s E-News, we’re sending a KGPC financial update.

The Coalition’s work to stop the greedy grab by ClubLink/Minto/Richcraft and its planned destruction of our shared greenspace doesn’t stop.

Update: Year-end Financial Statements, December 31, 2019

The Coalition incorporated as a not-for-profit (NFP) corporation in 2019 specifically to ensure we were well positioned with the best tools at hand to address the ClubLink threat to our community. Incorporation created new obligations in several areas including financial reporting. The Coalition appropriately completed our first financial year-end on December 31, 2019.

It’s important to remind you that the Coalition’s entire operation has been premised on volunteer efforts. This applies to accounting as well. We want to acknowledge specifically, a generous Kanata Lakes resident who stepped forward in the past year to donate her professional accounting experience and time to set up our financial records including completing a software transition and the 2019 year-end financial statements. While we will respect her request for anonymity, we do want to shout out our gratitude. Volunteers are everything to any community based campaign!

NFPs require, at minimum, an annual third-party review of their financial statements. Green Books Financial Support Services provided that independent review for the KGPC and confirmed that our year-end financial statements accurately represented both our financial position and performance consistent with Canadian accounting standards. In June, the KGPC directors approved the KGPC Year-End Financial Statements December 31, 2019.

Update: 6 Month Financial Update, ending June 30, 2020

How are we doing financially in 2020? Below is an update on our Income and Expenses over the January to June period.

There should be no doubt how successful our ForeverGreen Gala proved to be. You can see from the chart above that the Gala ultimately produced 78% of our net income for the period with Donations of $24,500 representing just over 20%. Merchandise sales contributed a small benefit in comparison.

Celebrating our inaugural gala in the Brookstreet Hotel Ballroom on January 29, we were oblivious to the looming Covid-19 pandemic and had no idea of what lay ahead for the world let alone our community. The pandemic forced the cancellation of our Inaugural Golf Tournament planned for The Marshes in May. A calendar shuffle to September has since proven unsuccessful and we are now looking forward to a date in 2021.

All this to say, despite a very difficult environment and with an ongoing need to raise funds to face our Goliath in ClubLink/Minto/Richcraft, we must keep going.

The Coalition understands there is a conscious decision made when anyone donates to our cause. We do feel it is important to remind you how those donations are magnified by the lens of the thousands of volunteer hours donated by our board members and community volunteers. As a result, over 93% of our expenditures directly funded our campaign of community opposition to ClubLink. We covered off more than $45,000 in Legal and Planning expert fees, investments crucial to our success, as well as Advertising and Communication costs of approximately $5700. Administration costs were contained at only 7% of total expenses and consisted of necessary fees (accounting software, banking, credit card processing), insurance and corporate expenditures.

Update: Where does our We’re MAD (We’re Making a Difference) Campaign stand?

We launched the campaign in November 2019 with a goal of $185,000 in response to the ramping up of ClubLink’s KGC redevelopment plan with its October delivery of a development application to the City. Our intent was to set an achievable fundraising goal that would meet identifiable targets while positioning us favourably to address unforeseen financial needs that our opponents may create as they press forward.

The first target was a short term plan to join and strengthen the City’s newly launched legal action to defend the 40PA in court. The 40PA hearing finally occurred in July and the Coalition believes our legal team was successful in making valuable additive arguments to the City’s 40PA position and novel inroads against ClubLink’s defensive arguments on perpetuity. As we know, the final decision of the court still lies ahead.

A second long term target was the funding of our opposition to a ClubLink appeal action to the Local Planning Appeals Tribunal (LPAT) which ClubLink launched in February, as expected. This is a long, expensive process with the majority of the funds required closer to the actual hearing date, not expected until 2022. In the nearer term, however, there will be legal and planning preparation costs required which is why we have identified this target early. Other targets will be identified and follow in due course.

Here is where the We’re MAD Campaign balance is at present.

Nov 6, 2019	We’re MAD Campaign Launch	$ 185,000
Dec 31, 2019	November – December Surplus to MAD	-$ 44,000
Jun 30, 2020	January – June Surplus to MAD	-$ 65,400
		—————
	We’re MAD Campaign Balance	$ 75,600
Jul 30, 2020	Campaign Expenses (New)	+$ 59,500
		—————
	We’re MAD Campaign -New Goal	$ 135,100

By June 30,2020, we had very successfully reduced the outstanding campaign balance to $75,600 with the contribution of our net earnings (surpluses) from the November-December 2019 and January-June 2020 periods of $44,000 and $65,400 respectively. Since then, we have identified additional expenses related to the 40 PA hearing including research and costs required for a third hearing day as well as additional planning fees to assess the new ClubLink resubmission received by the City in July.

The Coalition is thrilled to report that by July, our We’re MAD Campaign goal was reduced by $50,000 or 27%. This is a phenomenal statement on both our community’s generosity and commitment! We believe it shows that we can develop the strategies and raise the funds necessary to put down this clearly unwarranted and opportunistic attack by ClubLink against our community.

So… how do we finance our campaign moving forward?

Like you, we hope that a decision by Justice Labrosse on the 40PA is not too far away. Immediate next steps will flow from that – whether it is fending off an anticipated ClubLink appeal should the City and the Coalition be successful or, to joining the City in a potential appeal were the decision go the other way. Regardless, we need your ongoing financial support to ensure we have the resources to choose the best path forward when that happens.

Event Fundraising

As we noted earlier, respecting Covid-19 public health restrictions in the first months of the pandemic made fundraising events impossible. We did successfully organize a small T-Shirt Pop-up Shop in July without incident. With the continued easing of restrictions, the Coalition will begin looking carefully, creatively and specifically at events with a prominent virtual component that will allow people to participate from a safe distance. Be assured that ALL events organized by the KGPC will fully respect all safety mandates and guidelines. We will be reaching out to you with new plans in the coming months.

If you have an idea that we might consider for a virtual event, please reach out to our Events Chair Jen Fyfe at events@ourkanatagreenspace.ca

We would welcome your creative idea or two!

Donations

Until we are again in a position to safely event fundraise, donations remain key. We would love to repeat the great donation drive following our We’re MAD Campaign launch, where we successfully raised $44,000 in donations in the last 7 weeks of 2019.

440 contributions of $100 or more would match that accomplishment. Please consider a donation today. It can be made conveniently online via credit card or by cheque. The website Donations page has the information you need.

We hope you find this update informative and helpful. Should you have a question, send it to Ask A Question or send your comments to my email below.

We know we can achieve more together!

Barbara

Barbara Ramsay
Chair,
Kanata Greenspace Protection Coalition
chair@ourkanatagreenspace.ca