Donations to Charities and Non-Profit Organizations
At Ethicalhost we
believe in the importance of corporate social and environmental
responsibility. One of the key ways we try to be a good corporate
citizen is by donating 10% of our pre-tax profit back to the
community.
We recognize there are so many important areas that warrant
donations but we have chosen to focus on the following three areas
which we care about deeply: 1) Economic/Social Justice in Canada, 2)
Environment and Biodiversity, 3) World Poverty and Human Rights. We have limited it
to three areas of focus to ensure that our 10% donation does not get
divided too thinly. We compiled a list of three organizations
per category based on our own knowledge of the important work they
do and the suggestions of our clients. For the 2007 tax year
we conducted a draw to
pick one organization per category to receive Ethicalhost's donation (the draw was verified by an
independent person). The charities and non-profit
organizations that received a corporate donation for 2007 are
highlighted below. Please see below for more information about
our selection process for corporate
donations and recent
changes we incorporated. Corporate transparency is
important to us at Ethicalhost. In addition to donating 10% of pre-tax profits, we further
our commitment to corporate social and environmental responsibility
by telecommuting, using public transit, supporting local and cooperative
businesses, minimizing paper use and using 100% post-consumer
products wherever possible. We also offset our company’s energy usage
with wind-powered energy certificates.
Economic/Social Justice
in Canada
The Progressive Housing Society received our donation for the 2007 tax year.
Sistering: www.sistering.org
Sistering has been supporting homeless, underhoused and low-income
women in the Toronto community since 1981. Evergreen Youth Services:
http://www.ysm.on.ca/evergreen.php
One of five branches of Yonge Street Mission, Evergreen focuses on
meeting the complex needs of Toronto's large street youth
population. Progressive Housing Society: www.progressivehousing.net
Progressive Housing Society is a not-for-profit, charitable society
located in Burnaby, B.C. Originally called the Burnaby Association
for the Emotionally Disabled, Progressive Housing Society has been
providing affordable housing and support services for adults with
mental illness, to enable them to live independently in the
municipality of Burnaby, since 1981.
Environment and Biodiversity
EcoJustice received our donation for the 2007 tax year. Ecojustice: www.ecojustice.ca
Ecojustice (formerly Sierra Legal Defence Fund) goes to court to
defend the right of Canadians to a healthy environment. Since 1990,
they have created lasting solutions to Canada's environmental problems
by winning landmark cases and setting powerful precedents. They are
Canada's foremost non-profit organization dedicated to enforcing and
strengthening the laws that safeguard our environment, wildlife and
public health. Earthroots:
www.earthroots.org
Earthroots is a strong advocate for wilderness
preservation in Ontario, combining aggressive grassroots campaign
strategies with excellent research and educational programs. Since
1986, Earthroots has used its grassroots expertise to organize,
educate and mobilize the public, conduct successful media events,
carry out wilderness research projects and ensure proper forest
management planning. FLAP (Fatal Light Awareness Program):
www.flap.org
FLAP works to safeguard migratory birds in the urban environment
through education, research, rescue and rehabilitation. As
stated on their website, collisions with human-built structures is
steadily becoming the leading cause of bird mortality across North
America.
World Poverty and Human Rights
The Stephen Lewis Foundation received our donation for the 2007 tax year.
Oxfam Canada: www.oxfam.ca
Founded in 1963, Oxfam Canada is a non-profit international
development organization that supports community programs in food
security, health, nutrition and democratic development with an
emphasis on working with women. The Stephen Lewis Foundation: www.stephenlewisfoundation.org
The Stephen Lewis Foundation was founded to address the horror of
the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa and is committed to ensuring that
90% of your contribution goes directly to those at the grassroots
level in Africa. Amnesty International:
http://www.amnesty.org/
Amnesty International helps stop human rights abuses by mobilizing
its members and supporters to put pressure on governments, armed
groups, companies and intergovernmental bodies.
Selection Process
We elected to do a draw for the 2007 tax year as a simple and
fair way to determine which organization would receive our donation
(the draw was verified by an independent person).
We are in the process of consulting with other socially responsible companies to
figure out a process where our clients can take part in the
selection process
through voting rather than having a draw in future years. We have not finalized this process but will be
putting it into place before we issue our 2008 corporate donations.
Our current plan would involve our clients voting for their
preferred organization among the three in each category and the
organization that received the majority of votes would receive the
allotted donation for that category (1/3rd of the total corporate
donation). We plan to rotate one new non-profit/charitable
organization into each of the three categories each year to replace
the one we donated to in the previous tax year. Through our own
research and client suggestions other organizations that do valuable
work in each of these categories can get on the donation list. We welcome suggestions for charities/non-profits
that can be added in upcoming years but ask that they
meet the following criteria:
--Have a charitable registration number.
--Have a website where they outline their mandate.
--Fit into one of our three categories: Economic/Social Justice in
Canada, Environment and Biodiversity, World Poverty. We will monitor and evaluate our corporate donation selection
process, and welcome any suggestions you
may have for improvement. We will continue to be transparent about
the process and any changes we incorporate.
Recent Change in Selection Process
When Ethicalhost was founded we had hoped to let our
clients designate organizations of their choice for our corporate
donations, and our longer term clients may remember reading this.
Unfortunately we ran into difficulties with this method. We believe
in the importance of corporate transparency and want to explain the
reasons for our change in the donation process. In 2007 we compiled
a list of our clients' favourite organizations -- the list was
extensive and quite varied in focus. We were concerned that
the bulk of our donation would get used up in the administrative
costs of the charities if we sent a small amount to each. We
are trying a new process because Ethical Web Services wants to
ensure that the maximum donation possible gets to the front-line.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions
about this change.
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