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Donner Awards OPNC with $5,000

The OPNC Board | OPNC
The OPNC Board | OPNC

Oak Park Neighbourhood Centre has wins the 2014 Award for Excellence in the Delivery of Social Services for Children by the Donner Foundation, a program of the Fraser Institute.

Oak Park Neighbourhood Centre (OPNC) is a charitable organization created by the community for the community. OPNC supports youth, family, outreach—to build friendships, strengthen our children, and create healthy neighbourhoods. Participate, volunteer or sponsor one of our programs and make Oakville a stronger community where everyone can feel welcome.

The Donner Canadian Foundation was established in 1950 by William H. Donner. In the mid-1960s, the Foundation began to focus on specific program interests, among these, research on public policy. The Donner family chose Canada's centennial year, 1967, to embark on a course of professional grant-making that has contributed well over $100 million to more than 1,000 projects across Canada and around the world.

This year more than 260 non-profit social service agencies from across Canada applied for the awards and were ranked in 10 key performance areas including management and governance, use of staff and volunteers, innovation, program costs and outcome monitoring. Oak Park Neighbourhood Centre received an award certificate and a $5,000 cash prize. Certificates recognizing the finalists in each category were issued as well. Our congratulations to all finalists and winners!

The Donner Canadian Foundation evaluates agencies in the following 10 areas.

  1. Financial Management. Considers year-over-year financial management, cost containment, program spending and financial reporting.
  2. Income Independence. Considers the level of diversification in an organization’s revenues.
  3. Strategic Management. Considers the process through which resources are directed towards a common goal or objective.
  4. Board Governance. Considers the independence, accountability, and effectiveness of board governance.
  5. Volunteers. Considers the number of volunteers, their recruitment, management and development.
  6. Staff. Considers the level of programming provided by staff, their recruitment, management and development.
  7. Innovation. Considers the uniqueness of programs, how organizations innovate in response to change, and the use of new technology in program delivery.
  8. Program Cost. Considers the per-hour cost of providing a program or service.
  9. Outcome Monitoring. Considers the extent to which organizations assess their own performance in terms of achieving specific goals in their programs.
  10. Accessibility. Considers the extent to which organizations assess need in making scarce resource allocation decisions. *Note: “Accessibility” is not applicable to organizations in the Education and Services for Children categories.