A Q&A about impact investing – a powerful way to redefine prosperity, wealth, and social good.
A visit to the Canadian Canoe Museum is a striking and rich experience. As you wander through the world’s largest collection of canoes and kayaks, in Peterborough, Ontario, you’re immersed in the diverse cultures, histories, and waterways that have built our collective identities.
Victoria-based philanthropic and impact advisor Jim Hayhurst sees his childhood in one of these canoes. The name “Ebbs,” for his grandmother Adele Ebbs, is imbued on the rib of the birch bark canoe. This traditional canoe was built by young hands at a children’s camp in Algonquin Park, in the 1920’s, with the help of Indigenous craftsmen from Pikwakanagan First Nation (formerly the Golden Lake First Nation). The camp was founded by Jim’s great-grandfather.
“My grandmother kept the canoe at the cabin near the camps where I spent most of my childhood summers,” says Jim. “Paddling the canoe was a rare treat, and usually quite a short one, as it leaked after so many decades.”
His grandmother donated it to the museum when it was founded in 1997, by her close friend and fellow camp director Kirk Wipper.
The museum has recently moved the canoe, and all others, to a new sustainable facility along the Otonabee River. The Victoria Foundation and other Canadian community foundations are helping finance this building, to keep Jim’s story and hundreds of other histories alive. This initiative is one of the Foundation’s six current “impact investments.”
These special investments are hand-picked. They aim to further social change and are part of a growing trend across the globe to invest specifically in initiatives that improve the wellbeing of people and the planet.
Are you intrigued? Let’s paddle further into the current of impact investing.
1) HOW DOES IMPACT INVESTING DIFFER FROM TRADITIONAL INVESTING?
Impact investing shifts how we think about our investments and returns. These are investments made into companies, organizations, and funds, but with the intention to generate measurable social or environmental benefits to society – and a financial return. Impact Investing allows a community to invest money toward its values and beliefs. As one of Canada’s oldest and largest community foundations, the Victoria Foundation is leading a reimagining of how money can flow into our community to make positive impact. We believe it’s time to further direct our funds to help the community solve the most pressing challenges of our time, to demonstrate that investing can be socially transformative.
2) WHO CAN BE AN IMPACT INVESTOR?
Anyone! You don’t need to be a foundation or a financial institution or even have significant wealth. You just need to invest with intention. The Victoria Foundation started its impact investing journey when we set an intention to place up to 15% of our investible assets into impact investments by the end of 2026. Because of this, every single fund holder and donor whose contributions are invested through the Foundation joins us as an impact investor!
3) HOW MUCH IS THE VICTORIA FOUNDATION AIMING TO INVEST FOR IMPACT?
In 2018, the Foundation set a goal to place 5% of our investible assets into impact investments. The Foundation defines investible assets as the assets of the Foundation’s Common Trust Fund which had a market value of $465.6 million on December 31, 2024. By 2022, the first national and global investments were made, including into the Canadian Canoe Museum and the Mackenzie Greenchip Global Environmental Equity Fund. By 2026, we anticipate up to 9% ($41.9 million) to be invested, with a goal to invest 100% of our endowment toward social purpose.
4) WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ISLAND-BASED IMPACT INITIATIVES THE FOUNDATION IS INVESTING IN?
Our investments are actively shaping Vancouver Island’s future. In 2023, the Foundation invested locally in the Thrive Impact Fund, which supports BC non-profits and social enterprises. Some include the Victoria-based sustainable clothing enterprise Ecologyst, the FED Urban Agriculture Society, and Indigenous technology enterprise Animikii. These investments are tangible examples of how capital, when intentionally directed, can build stronger, more resilient communities.
5) HOW CAN SOMEONE GET INVOLVED IN INVESTING FOR SOCIAL PURPOSE?
Getting started is easy. If you’re a fund holder or donor to the Foundation, your endowed fund is being invested according to our impact investing strategy. You can also support the Innovation and Impact Fund, which helps the foundation participate in exciting new social finance strategies and helps local non-profits invest to grow their missions. To learn more about how you can connect with the foundation’s work, please contact Jessica Doll at info@victoriafoundation.bc.ca.
