D.    STRUCTURES TO SUPPORT COLLABORATIVE WORK

A new organization is the best method of accommodating a new collaborative initiative.

Women's groups have different opinions about the viability and need of setting up a new organization to undertake any collaborative fundraising strategies. Some state the desire to work within existing organizations and foundations to raise money. Several suggest the Canadian Women's Foundation, but it has a specific mandate focused on increasing the economic independence and self-reliance of women and girls. Others think that new organizations are better able to accommodate the breadth of issues and values represented by national equality-seeking women's groups.

However, no existing organization, identified by women's groups in the consultations, is broad enough to cover the mandates of national women's groups. And all women's groups state the need to own and control any new national collaborative fundraising endeavour.

Women's groups should create a new organization for this collaborative work.

• Women's groups should develop a new and separate organizational entity to access new donor markets in collaboration
• The structural model should ensure ownership of decisions and process by members

An exploration of the specific structures possible for this new organization reveals that:

The federation model is the only structure that allows women's groups to access workplace giving through payroll deductions. It is also ideally suited to the development of other fundraising techniques.

Women's groups consulted for this Project expressed a preference for a formal, incorporated structure for the new collaborative initiative. Given the recommended technique of workplace giving, the structure chosen must be capable of obtaining charitable status under the Revenue Canada guidelines and must provide a high degree of accountability to donors and member organizations.

U. S. women's groups are significantly advanced in the development of structures and strategies to access workplace giving. The research for this Project includes substantial material from WOMENS WAY USA, a successful U.S. national federation of women's groups which raises funds through workplace giving. Federations like WOMENS WAY USA have a great deal of expertise to share which would assist Canadian women's groups in this area.

The federation is a structure which satisfies these requirements and is, in fact, the only structure capable of housing the workplace giving campaign.

Chrow

Gibson

Omidvar