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NOTE: This post was originally posted on 28 June 2010, at Fish Farm Fuss.
Thanks to the Vancouver Sun's on-line database about election donations, its possible to find out who's financing Vancouver's politicians. As I purused through this database recently, I found it interesting to note that a number of the financial supporters of Vancouver's Mayor Gregor Robertson have connections to Tides Canada Foundation. For some time, I've been trying to figure out to whom Tides Canada has re-granted $US 43.7 Million that has been granted by a handful of huge, U.S. foundations.
One of the significant donors to Mayor Gregor Robertson's campaign is Carol Newell. According to the Vancouver Sun's database, Newell contributed $15,010 to Vision Vancouver and to Robertson's campaign.
Another significant donor is Joel Solomon, the Vice-Chair of Tides Canada Foundation, and his company Renewal Partners. According to Renewal Paryners, Carol Newell is the founder of the Endswell Foundation which was created "with the intention to spend beyond the annual earnings - choosing to maximize its immediate impact over its longevity as a private institution."
Renewal Partners says that Newell is also the "investing founder" of the Renewal family of companies which includes Renewal2 Investment Fund. Renewal Partners says, "Over the past 20 years she (Carol Newell) has deliberately activated the vast majority of her wealth – well over $60 million - to help catalyze organizations, individuals and businesses working toward sustainable economic development, social and environmental justice, and local resiliency." One of the businesses funded by Renewal Partners, is Happy Planet, Mayor Robertson's company for beverages made from natural juices.
I can't help but wonder... why did the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, based in California, need to pay $US 75,000 to the Endswell Foundation so that it could provide "analytical technical advice" about the Greatbear Rainforest? Was this a one-off? Have other U.S. foundations also made grants to the Endswell foundtion?
Renewal Partners says that through the 1990s, Endswell was "the largest B.C.-based private foundation" funding environmental issues in our province. But Renewal Partners says, "Endswell's grant-making era is now complete."
According to Endswell's Canadian tax returns for 2008:
- The three directors of the Endswell Foundation are Drummond Pike, Chairman (the founder of the U.S. Tides Foundation), Carol Newell, and James Morrisey, Treasurer. Morrisey is also Treasurer of Tides Canada Foundation and is also a senior partner at Ernst & Young, in Toronto.
- Endswell had 5 full-time employees, 3 of which were paid > $120,000
- Endswell's revenues were -$461,592. Yes, NEGATIVE $461,592. As Endswell wound down, it spent $765,395 on office supplies and expenses, $387,679 on salaries, wages and honoraria, $42,829 on professional and consulting fees and spent $704,760 on "other expenditures."
- Endswell made grants for $2,355,195 (yes, $2.3 MILLION) and ALL of these funds seems to have been granted to Tides Canada Foundation.
According to its 2007 tax return, the numbers for 2007 are as follows:
- Total revenues were only $1,259,452 yet $599,017 was spent on wages, salaries and honoraria, a further $73,550 was spent on professional fees and honoraria and $421,310 was spent on office supplies and expenditures - for only 5 employees. A further $848,080 was for "other expenditures."
- A total of $1,941,957 was made in grants to "qualified donees." According to the info posted at Revenue Canada's web-site, all but about $6,000 was granted to Tides Canada Foundation.
So, other than Carol Newell herself, both of the people on the board of the Endswell Foundation are simultaneously directors of Tides Foundation or Tides Canada Foundation. and virtually ALL the grants made by the Endswell Foundation are made to Tides Canada. Endswell's directors grant funds from one charity with which they are intimately involved, to another?
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