BC Business
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Faye Wightman delivers a persuasive pitch – spend a few minutes listening to her describe how the private sector can be part of the solution to homelessness, and it’s hard to resist reaching for your wallet.
The 58-year-old president and CEO of the Vancouver Foundation comes by her talent naturally, thanks to a long career in the helping professions. Originally trained as a nurse, she ran the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation for 14 years and spent a couple of years overseeing external relations for the University of Victoria. Today she oversees a whopping $700 million earmarked for charitable organizations throughout B.C. “I have worked in the social service sector, I’ve worked in health and I’ve worked in education,” Wightman says. “It’s nice to be able to now look at all the different areas and feel like at this stage of my life, it’s coming together.” It’s not all warm and fuzzy. Wightman’s gaze is as intense as those of her CEO counterparts in the corporate world as she leans across the table in her 12th- floor Harbour Centre office and describes how Canada’s largest community foundation doles out funds. Its recipients range from social services and medical research groups, to organizations devoted to the environment, education, children and families, and even animal welfare. But it’s when she gets to homelessness that Wightman becomes particularly animated. She describes a recent incident in Vancouver’s Downtown East-side, when police were called to a disturbance involving a homeless woman. Some debate ensued as to whether the police should confiscate the shopping cart containing all her possessions. “It’s not about police taking her shopping cart,” Wightman says, her piercing blue eyes widening in disbelief. “It’s about what kind of city do we live in where it’s okay to have all your belongings in a shopping cart? It’s not acceptable in a city like this, where businesses are prospering and where the number of houses worth over a million dollars has doubled. We have to take responsibility.” The Vancouver Foundation has about 200 people sitting on 10 committees throughout the province studying the best way to give money to meet local needs. Donations don’t go directly to aid, but into any one of approximately 900 endowment funds, the interest from which is distributed to agencies selected by the foundation’s committees. Its assets are overseen by 10 fund managers drawn from leading financial firms in Vancouver. The money managers, in turn, are overseen by Vancouver Foundation investment committee members, who measure financial performance against established benchmarks. As Wightman wraps up her impassioned plea for private-sector engagement, she sinks back against her chair. “I love people,” she says with a sigh. “I love connecting people with causes out there that can really make a difference.” Coming from anyone else, the cliché about being a “people person” would sound hackneyed. But from Wightman, it seems a fitting career summary of someone who, today, is in charge of determining the best way to give back.