Monthly Archives: February 2012

Useful Fundraising Tool: the Donation Credit Calculator

The CRA’s Charities Directorate recently added a new and useful feature to its website. The Donation Credit Calculator allows donors to determine the total amount of tax credits, including federal and provincial, for their charitable gifts. It is also handy information for fundraisers making a pitch by mail, email or in person. An example: an Ontario […]

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Green Grants now available

Toronto’s Energy Efficiency Office provides incentives available to new and/or retrofit projects through its Better Buildings Partnership, which recently expanded its focus to include the Arts & Culture sector. These incentives can represent up to 50% of project costs. The 2011-2014 incentives include: Audit Funding helps you spot energy-saving opportunities and cover up to 50% of the […]

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Change the language, change the relationship

by Jini Stolk At a recent Ontario Nonprofit Network strategy meeting, we were reminded that many volunteers don’t think of themselves as “volunteers.” They are, instead, deeply engaged individuals who want to make a meaningful contribution in their communities. Doesn’t that make more sense? It does to me, and led me to think about how […]

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Just released! Energy Conservation Audits for Six Performing Arts Facilities

We can talk about greening our theatre spaces – and we do at Creative Trust’s Facilities Roundtable meetings – but it’s not easy to know where to start. That’s why we started by commissioning independent energy auditor Anthony Marshall to do detailed energy conservation audits for six companies in Toronto. Between May and October 2011, […]

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A Valentine’s Day gift to Toronto

Not all of us who attended Creative Trust’s Facilities Roundtable  in August wore hard hats and steel toed boots – but we sure could have. The site of our meeting, Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie’s  space at 304 Parliament Street, was a construction project very much in process. We carefully picked our way through roughly sketched […]

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Can’t miss facilities initiatives

by Jini Stolk Artscape’s New Online Do-It-Yourself Resource for Creative Placemaking and City-Building Through The Arts, Artscape DIY features extensive case studies, tools and resources, including easy-to-use downloadable templates and examples, informational videos, guides and articles designed to help users develop sustainable, affordable space for culture and creativity. Among the most valuable sections are detailed […]

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Finances matter

by Jini Stolk The deficit has become our artistic director, according to one Creative Trust member from the early days of Working Capital for the Arts: dictating choice of play, number of actors, design decisions, weeks of rehearsal and more. And for many of us, “Cash flow…cash flow…cash flow!”, co-founder (and former Tapestry Music Theatre […]

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Social media and community engagement at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Ariel Fielding’s passionate involvement with culturally diverse performing arts led to an extraordinary work experience last summer with the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. Creating and implementing the Festival’s social media and community engagement strategies–no small task to undertake during a four-month fellowship supported by the Metcalf Foundation and the Ontario Arts Council–was all […]

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