Pillar Nonprofit rebounds from turmoil, seeks city funding boost

After emerging from the pandemic and a controversy over a departing director, Pillar Nonprofit Network was looking for stability and a growing partnership with the city and private sector.

Article content

It may have found both, said chief executive Maureen Cassidy, former city politician, who took the helm of the agency more than a year ago.

Article content

Innovation Works, the office space Pillar operates, has created the Forest City Landing Pad, a co-working office space it is using to incubate and grow new businesses in partnership with the London Economic Development Corp.

That has helped Innovation Works become fully occupied after about a third of its office space was vacant in 2022, Cassidy said. Pillar also has added about 100 members bringing it to more than 300.

“I wanted to focus on our core function, to go back to what Pillar was meant to be and that is a supporting player and never the star of the show,” Cassidy said of her first year on the job.

Article content

“We are a support network. We collaborate and work together to find solutions. We will not solve this alone.”

Cassidy was hired on an interim basis in October 2022 and made permanent in September of this year. Pillar became mired in controversy when its former chief executive, Mojdeh Cox, was fired in July 2022 and its board resigned after a public backlash against her removal.

“There was a lot of angst and sadness when I walked in the door. There was uncertainty,” Cassidy said.

Along with Cox, three other senior leaders left at that time. In 2022, there were 27 staff at Pillar. Now there are 17.

“It has been a curving road ahead, more people are doing multiple jobs,” she said.

Cassidy is trying to do more of what Pillar always has done, offer non-profits the opportunity to meet and network, hold workshops and offer various programs to non-profits. Pillar offers non-profits, notoriously under-funded and under-staffed, seminars on topics such as how to build a good board of directors, tax tips, budgeting, how to hire, train and retain staff and navigating new provincial legislation governing non-profits profits.

Article content

It is the kind of expertise for which social agencies cannot pay on their own.

But more change may be in store. It has an ambitious request before the city for funding as the municipality prepares its multi-year budget.

Pillar has received grants from the city of $42,000 a year for four years to run certain programs. Now, it is asking for $250,000 a year for four years as it wants stable funding to grow the non-profit sector in London, Cassidy said.

“This is about city building, about how we build a thriving non-profit sector. It is in the city’s interest to have a strong non-profit sector and that happens through our work, our networking, workshops and seminars,” she said.

Article content

Pillar has an annual budget of about $2 million and received money from government for individual programs it runs, but seeks stable operating funding. It now gets income largely from rent, and selling members on workshops and seminars.

Stable funding is important as the pandemic demonstrated how vulnerable the agency is.

“The pandemic really did a number on Pillar and Innovation Works. Tenants lost clients, they could not pay rent. We were losing a lot of money on the building,” Cassidy said.

“Everything was down; we were on a downward trend.”

To survive, Pillar received $240,000 from the Lawson Foundation during three years and $200,000 from London Community Foundation during two years, but hopes to avoid emergency funding in the future, Cassidy said.

Article content

Perhaps nothing illustrates the renewed focus on working with the private sector more than the landing pad. More than 30 users share the flex space, using it at different times, said Pillar board chairperson Kapil Lakhotia, chief executive of the London Economic Development Corp.

“It’s a good example of creativity to address vacations downtown. There are a lot of remote flex workers there coming in and out,” he said.

The space will also host some new small businesses moving to London. Andriani SpA, the Italian pasta maker, is leasing office space there for about six months as it builds a plant here, Lakhotia said.

“Pillar has come a long way over the past year. The new board has been working with the senior team.”

As for the budget request before the city, more will be asked of non-profits in 2024, especially with the city’s strategy on tackling homelessness and Pillar can offer support to many of those agencies, Lakhotia said.

“There is a growing need, there are dozens of groups relying on Pillar to help them deliver on their mandates.”

[email protected]

Article content