Community Foundations of Canada is excited to launch the SDG Guidebook and Toolkit for community foundations. This package provides a detailed introduction to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the context of community foundation engagement and philanthropy. It provides practical, real-life examples of SDG-based work in local community foundations, as well as ideas and steps for aligning current community foundation work with the SDGs.

We are proud to launch this package in partnership with the Mott Foundation, which supports efforts to adopt the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework for developing community-level solutions to global challenges.

“As the world faces crises on multiple fronts, community foundations can serve as vital leaders in helping their communities bounce back, and build toward a better future for all. The Sustainable Development Goals offer a framework to make it happen. Community Foundations can use the SDGs as a catalyst for planning, implementing and communicating the work they are doing to create local solutions to global problems like poverty, health, education and hunger — and this new SDG Guidebook and Toolkit will be a great resource and reference for organizations looking to create lasting change in their communities,” shared Nick Deychakiwsky, Program Officer with the Mott Foundation.

Over the past few years, CFC has been working to explore and better understand the intersections of the SDGs with our ongoing programming and initiatives. As part of these efforts, we connected the SDGs to Vital Signs, furthered our work with our partner Alliance2030 through a collaborative podcast, No Little Plans, and launched The SDG Learning Community, a six-part webinar series on SDGs and community foundations, among other collaborations and learning opportunities. 

As we work towards SDG integration across our projects, we hope the SDG Guidebook and Toolkit supports local community foundations on a similar journey to further deepen their SDG support and understanding.

We continue to look towards leadership from other philanthropic organizations engaging with the SDGs across Canada and around the globe, and are spending time reflecting on what this ongoing Decade of Action can look like for CFC. In an earlier Journal post, CFC President, Andrea Dicks, spoke to the integration of the SDGs with philanthropy:

“Yes, philanthropy has various assets it can utilize to address the domestic and international goals and indicators. It can do so through its mechanisms of grants, thought leadership, convening, etc. But, what is the relationship between the values of the SDGs and the values of philanthropy? If these are not aligned, can the full opportunity of philanthropy truly be unlocked for the SDGs?”

The SDG Guidebook and Toolkit is a place to continue this conversation and support local community foundations as they begin to address this subject in their own projects. We are excited to continue to explore the SDGs further over the course of this year, and look forward to sharing more information with our network.