Funding cuts put Big Brothers programs at risk

0:00This episode is brought to you by Facebook. So you were scrolling on Marketplace. And there it was. The bike you've been searching for. You sent a message, and it turned out the seller was super chatty, kind of funny, and an avid cyclist. The next thing you know, you're in a cycling crew. Well, a community cycling group. The thing about Facebook, you might find more than what you're looking for. From a browse to a bike ride, this summer find more on Facebook. Big brothers of Greater Vancouver is saying that its youth mentorship programs are at risk because of a funding shortfall. Did you know that that organization has supported 1,074 children in the past year? That number is up. It's the first time serving more than 1,000 children since 2019. And they're at risk of losing parts of that because of a funding shortfall. What can we do about that? Valerie Lambert is executive director at Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver. And joins me now.

1:00Thanks for being here, Valerie. How are you? Hi Scott. I'm fine. And thanks so much for expressing interest in this subject. Well, yeah, I definitely know people who have benefited from Big Brothers. And I'm sure that a lot of people listening, know people as well. Even if they haven't benefited themselves. Why is there a funding shortfall right now? The funding shortfall, first of all, we're funded in a bit of an unusual way in the not-for-profit sector. Two thirds of our funding actually comes from our running of a social enterprise. And that's in the charitable sector that's very unusual. So we don't rely on government funding other than a community gaming grant and some small municipal grants. We're primarily funded by the private sector. And people reach out to us. Donations come from various sources. We have a big golf tournament that's sponsored by B2 Gold every year. We have individual donations, a few private foundations donate to us.

2:06But most of it comes from our social enterprise. So unfortunately, being a business as they value villages is basically we sell use clothing and household items. And books to value village. And they're a commercial operation obviously. And if their sales are down, they have to buy less product. So that's basically the situation that we're in right now. So we've been increasing our product sales to them for a long time. We've had a contract with them for over 30 years. And we've seen growth throughout that entire period. So it's very unusual to have a rollback which we've seen. And it came upon us quite suddenly. So we were right in the middle of our fiscal year. Our programs were all up and running. And all of a sudden we found out we were going to have $400,000 dollars less to fund our programs this year than we anticipated. So for a not for profit, that's a really that's a huge blow. And that's where we're dealing with right now.

3:06So we're trying to make that up. And I think more importantly, we're looking at growth for the future. We have hundreds of families waiting to get into our programs. We even have schools on weightless for our school based programs. And the issue is how do we raise more dollars every year? It's very difficult. I think lots of not for profits are having this problem of how do you fund the growth? Yeah. And I think that that's a great question to your point. I think lots of not for profits are going through that. As many people are struggling financially. We know that the economy is not in a great spot. But what can people who want to support and feel like they should support? What can they do? Well, we have a donate button on our website. BigBrothersVancouver.com. We would welcome any donors to come there and help us out. And also would like to reach out to any large funds or donations.

4:07Private donate funds that we may not know about that may be out there. And they're sort of looking at places to commit funds. There's a lot of fund. We've seen huge increases in the stock market. So there's a lot of foundations that have accumulated very significant wealth and maybe looking for new opportunities. So we certainly would welcome discussions with them. Valerie Lambert is the executive director of Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver. Where can people go for more information, Valerie? I think our website's best. BigBrothersVancouver.com. Fantastic. BigBrothersVancouver.com. Thanks so much for taking some time to speak with us. And also for the great work that you do with Big Brothers. Thanks. Wish you all the best. Thanks so much for that Scott. Really appreciate it.