Visit the Staff section for a list of our current Board of Directors. Board members can be contacted through the VIDEA Executive Director, Lynn Thornton, at lthornton@videa.ca
Here are some of the answers to questions that come up quite often. If your question isn’t answered below do feel free to email one of our staff or volunteers.
There are many opportunities to get involved with VIDEA. Check out the Get Involved and Global Citizenship sections of the website for more details.
VIDEA has a full-time financial manager who, among other things, looks after the day to day running of VIDEA’s finances. VIDEA also has a Finance Committee that is chaired by the VIDEA Treasurer. We use Simply Accounting to track funds and direct all funds to the project for which they were intended, if a special designation was made.
VIDEA has an external audit completed annually and copies are available at the AGM or on request. VIDEA is a charity regulated under the BC Societies Act. Additionally, we report annually to the Canada Revenue Agency and VIDEA’s Charity Return is open to view at the CRA website.
VIDEA is committed to ending global poverty and creating a more just and equitable world. We live in a world where extreme poverty and a lack of access to education, health care, a clean environment, gender equality, human rights and economic opportunities are a reality for many. The challenges of poverty are exacerbated by corruption, a fundamental issue that afflicts the everyday lives of the very poorest and thwarts global efforts to lift countries out of poverty.
Not only does corruption affect development in terms of economic efficiency and growth, it also affects equitable distribution of resources across the population, increasing income inequalities, undermining the effectiveness of gender equality and social welfare programmes, and ultimately resulting in lower levels of human development. VIDEA seeks to prevent corruption through the nurturing of long-term and trusted relationships with overseas partners that are based on the notions of equality and transparency, and through the implementation of an anti-corruption policy:
VIDEA is a registered non profit and charity and as such is accountable to the BC Societies Act and Canada Revenue Agency. VIDEA has a regularly meeting Board of Directors elected annually at an Annual General Meeting. The VIDEA Board has a Governance Committee chaired by the Secretary that meets quarterly. VIDEA has a 5 year strategic plan, an annual budget and an experienced Executive Director who makes operational decisions within the strategic plan and agreed budget. VIDEA has a financial policy, anti-corruption policy, and conflict of interest policy, all updated in 2010 or 2011.
Yes VIDEA is a Canadian registered Charity # 0849182 – 20, and a Society registered under the laws of BC # 14089
VIDEA runs a very lean show, with a great deal of work being undertaken with a small staffing structure and the assistance of an awesome team of volunteers. This allows VIDEA to keep our costs as low as possible. However, we do believe that effective international development requires sound programme, financial and administrative back-up. What this means to us is that we have experienced and qualified staff who are paid living wages in line with our values. We support our overseas partners to also pay living wages to their employees.
All of our projects have gender and environmental analysis to ensure their sustainability and to support VIDEA values. We engage in comprehensive project planning and implement sound indicators, and monitoring and evaluating techniques to ensure VIDEA’s programming is effective and sustainable. Further, we ensure that we remain members of coordinating bodies such as BCCIC and CCIC so that we gain good training opportunities for staff and volunteers and that we benefit from the sharing of best practice and lessons learned. In order to achieve what we consider to be this essential back-up for sustainable and effective programming we allocate a maximum 10% of funds to administration.
Yes, but as we require all projects to be both sustainable and well managed we consider “a project” to include a gender and environmental analysis, project coordination, and timely monitoring and evaluation undertaken at times by volunteers and at times by staff.
No VIDEA is a secular organisation