Donations are an important cornerstone of our community programs, with a tradition of philanthropy dating back to our roots: in fact, we have donations on record as far back as 1891. We are now one of Canada’s largest corporate donors, and contribute to communities across North America and around the world.

We take great pride in the accomplishments of our community partners, and appreciate the opportunity to invest in their good works.

GOVERNANCE
The member companies of RBC Financial Group administer charitable donations through the RBC Foundation, established in 1993.

Our formal Donations Policy is reviewed annually by the Public Policy Committee of the Board of Directors, outlining our giving guidelines and strategy.

The RBC Foundation has a Board of Directors, comprised of heads of each of our businesses worldwide, which sets policy and ratifies all donations made in Canada. The Foundation is staffed by a team of five employees.

To ensure our giving is appropriate and responsive to local needs, we also have professional grant-makers situated in each of our regional headquarters in Canada (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax) as well as our businesses in the United States (RBC Dain Rauscher, RBC Centura and RBC Insurance).

DUE DILIGENCE
RBC Foundation receives about 20,000 requests for funding each year – more than 10 requests for every hour of the business day. Seeing so many proposals for funding, we are in a privileged position to notice when the mandates of different charities overlap, and we encourage synergies between organizations. Our goal is to ensure that our charitable partners have sustainable sources of funding and use their donors’ funds responsibly.

Our grant-makers follow a rigorous process when evaluating proposals to ensure our funds are invested with the utmost care and responsibility. We look at whether the charity has a wide range of support and assess the charity’s ability to deliver its programs. The process includes a complete assessment of the charity’s fiscal management and governance practices. All charities must provide audited financial statements in order to qualify for RBC funding.

SOCIAL IMPACT
In 2005, the RBC Foundation expanded our application requirements and we now require our charitable partners to clearly demonstrate the social impact of our contribution. Further, we expect our charitable partners to outline the specific details around the goals and gaps they encountered during the period of time they receive funding from the RBC Foundation.

TARGETS AND PERFORMANCE
We are a founding member of Imagine Canada, which encourages philanthropy and citizenship.

As a member of Imagine, we are committed to donating at least one per cent of our average annual net income before taxes, based on a five-year average. A complete list of all our donations over $500 given in 2005 is available on rbc.com.