‘Giving back is part of our DNA’: CIBC launches $70 million foundation to fight social and economic inequities

The new CIBC Foundation will fund charities working on job reskilling and education in underserved communities – and may give substantially above Canada’s legal minimum disbursement quota for charities.

Runa Whitaker, senior director of community relations and CIBC Children’s Foundation, says the new CIBC Foundation – with $70 million in assets – will give at least 5 percent of its assets annually, but could go as high as 9 or 10 percent. Currently, Canada’s minimum quota is 3.5 percent.

“We’re not just sticking to what the government guidelines are,” Whitaker said in an interview. “We’re really looking at doing as much as we can.” 

CIBC is already well known for its charitable work within the financial sector. It launched the CIBC Children’s Foundation in 1977 to help disabled children. Since 1984, CIBC claims to have raised over $260 million through its annual Miracle Day event. But Whitaker said the bank decided it wanted to get involved beyond supporting children, inspired in part by the hardships of COVID-19, as well as social movements that exploded over the last year.

The new CIBC Foundation is focused on levelling the playing field and giving more access to education leading to greater employment outcomes for underserved Canadian communities. “There’s going to be a call for proposals for people who are doing different types of work,” Whitaker explained, “to help level the playing field and give more access to people to get into their preferred jobs – whatever the field may be.”

Economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the biggest public policy priorities this year, especially for women, racialized, and young workers. Statistics Canada says Canada’s unemployment rate in August was 7.1 percent. To put that into perspective, Canada’s jobless rate in Feb. 2020, the month before the pandemic hit, was 6.3 percent. 

However, Statistics Canada noted that fewer people are trying to find jobs, while employment rates in retail and food services employment – where many racialized, women, and young workers are employed – still lag. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has promised billions of dollars in economic recovery spending, and wants Canada’s banks to bear some of the costs. 

Shortly before his re-election last fall, Trudeau promised to raise the corporate income tax rate on Canada’s largest banks by three percentage points on all earnings over a billion dollars to support Canada’s economic recovery. He also pledged to start a “Canada Recovery Dividend.”

Victor Dodig, president and CEO of CIBC, said the Foundation’s launch showcases the bank’s commitment to building a better economy while also creating more prosperous and resilient communities. “An inclusive economy with opportunity for all lifts our society and benefits everyone,” Dodig said in a statement on Nov. 15.

CIBC plans to eventually grow the CIBC Foundation from its initial $70 million in assets to $155 million, although the bank didn’t give a timeline for that goal. Combined with its decision to disburse a minimum of 5 percent of its assets annually, CIBC says it is confident the CIBC Foundation will soon be a major player among Canada’s charitable funders.

“With the bank’s initial donations in 2021, the CIBC Foundation will be one of Canada’s top providers of funding grants to charitable organizations,” the bank said in a statement.

Canada’s asset disbursement quota remains a divisive subject for many leaders in the charitable and philanthropic sectors as Finance Canada considers whether or not to increase it. The Give5 movement calls for Canadian philanthropic leaders to give at least 5 percent of their foundations’ assets every year. However, former Philanthropic Foundations Canada president Hilary Pearson recently wrote the Canadian government shouldn’t overhaul its charity rules during the pandemic.

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