"Standing up for the city": Vital Toronto celebrates 40 of Toronto's best ideas, organizations and people from the not-for-profit sector

TORONTO, June 20, 2012 /CNW/ - A crowd of more than 350 filled the Glenn Studio at CBC for the Toronto Community Foundation's annual Vital Toronto event, celebrating recipients of grants from its Vital Toronto Fund. The Vital Toronto Fund is a community endowment built by Community Foundation Fundholders, individual donors, and the public and corporate sectors. Presentations were made to 40 community organizations and leaders recognizing their innovative work addressing some of Toronto's most pressing quality of life challenges.

The Vital Toronto Fund fuels the Community Foundation's three grant programs, which awarded a total of $612,118 in grants in 2011/12:

Vital Ideas - Capacity building grants for community organizations to stabilize, expand, or replicate initiatives.

Vital People - Professional development grants for not-for-profit leaders.

Vital Youth - Program grants to increase access to recreation for youth.

The Vital Toronto Fund also supports building partnerships with the private sector to increase support for organizations working for social change by addressing the challenges identified in the Community Foundation's annual Toronto's Vital Signs^® Report. Through a partnership called "Vital Impact: Vital Toronto", the Community Foundation worked with KPMG LLP (KPMG) to facilitate skills-based volunteer opportunities for its employees at the organizations seeking funding through the Vital Ideas grant program. The engagement resulted in KPMG providing a $30,000 Vital Ideas grant to Not Far From The Tree.

"We recognize the significant opportunity we have to affect positive change and make a real difference in the communities where we live and operate," says Beth Wilson, GTA Managing Partner and the Canadian Managing Partner of Community Leadership, KPMG "Collaborating with the Toronto Community Foundation's Vital Ideas program was a perfect fit because it offered KPMG people the opportunity to put their skills and talents to work for causes they felt passionately about and address pressing social needs in their community."

Matt Galloway of CBC's Metro Morning, who hosted the Vital Toronto event, led a conversation with Shawn Micallef on "Toronto: The loveable city". Micallef is the editor-co-owner, Spacing; author, Stroll & Full Frontal; columnist, Toronto Star; 2011-12 Massey Journalism Fellow.

"We wanted to have a bit of fun while sending an important message - Toronto is not broken. And, we owe much of what we love about Toronto to the wonderful community organizations and individuals such as those we celebrate each year at Vital Toronto.  We feel privileged to be able to stand side by side with them to do the work that needs to be done to build the Toronto we all want, for the long-term, said Rahul K. Bhardwaj, President & CEO, Toronto Community Foundation.

A complete list of the recipients is available at: www.tcf.ca/newsandpublications/VitalTOGrants2012.html.

Toronto Community Foundation
With more than 325 endowment funds and assets under administration of more than $250 million, the Toronto Community Foundation is one of Canada's largest public charitable foundations. Our mission is to connect philanthropy to community needs and opportunities, all with a vision to make Toronto the best place to live, work, learn and grow, through the power of giving. For information, please visit www.tcf.ca

Media contact: Simone Dalton, Manager, Media Relations & Communications,  [email protected], cell: 416-809-5036, office: 416-921-2035 ext. 218.