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Ketchum Canada- Philanthropic TrendsSpring 2005"The next new entrant into the financial services sector may just be a bank for the voluntary sector. Established through a collaboration of leaders from the nonprofit sector, business, and government, Vartana is an organization seeking to create a financial institution designed to meet the financing needs of the Canadian voluntary sector. Research from a variety of sources has underlined the challenges many nonprofit organizations meet - from the lack of health benefits for their staff to the struggle to fund operating costs in an environement where funders focus on project-based funding. Vartana aims to assist organizations in tackling these problems by providing access to financial tools that are not always accessible to them. Significant quantitative and qualitative research has found a high degree of interest in the promise of Vartana because of its potential to meet the unique financial and credit needs of voluntary sector organizations which are often not always adequately met in the market today. Focusing on small to medium sized organizations that represent 78% of the overall sector, the bank will be based on successful models from other countries. The bank itself will be a charity and will reinvest any profits into the nonprofit sector. "Vartana Bank's aim is to help organizations fulfill their missions by strengthening their financial capacity and capability," said Jeff Pentland, a member of the core team. Vartana expects to officially open in February 2006." |
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