Our Mission and Story
Non-profits are vital to our communities – sparking change, inspiring creativity, and bettering lives.
Our Mission
Our mission is to transform non-profit organizations by convening, connecting, and equipping leaders to lift organizational capacity. Every client leaves our programs with resources to excel in their role and grow the impact of their organization.
Our Process
Vantage Point exists to support the people moving these organizations forward – Executive Directors, board members, senior leaders, managers, staff, and volunteers.
Non-profit professionals approach us for training and consulting in: governance, leadership, planning, and human resources. We are passionate about what we do, and as a non-profit ourselves, we will deeply understand your challenges, goals, and where you want to go next.
The majority of our programs are facilitated by our team of over 150 Knowledge Philanthropists – who volunteer their time to support your organization. These individuals are proven experts in their fields and are dedicated to sharing their knowledge with you.
Our Story
It is impossible to imagine British Columbia without not-for-profit organizations. Non-profits are our soccer teams and symphonies, hospitals and homeless shelters, foundations and food banks; they protect our environment and provide education; their work is international and local; and they are where we worship and work. Over 26,000 organizations build and shape our province every day and enable thousands of people to positively engage with their communities.
Vantage Point always has been, and remains today, an impact-driven and collaborative organization. It was founded as the Central Volunteer Bureau of Vancouver in 1943 to provide volunteer matching services throughout the city. We are proud of our heritage and our contribution to the amazing power volunteerism has in our community, but we needed to adapt to the changing times.
In 2002, we noticed two important changes. First, people were becoming less and less interested in fulfilling repetitive traditional volunteer roles. They wanted to contribute their knowledge in high-impact and meaningful ways. Secondly, the changing expectations of our sector required organizations to excel in governance, leadership planning, and people engagement. As a result, we questioned our role and value as a volunteer centre.
Vantage Point grew out of the desire to address the changing paradigm of volunteerism and our sector’s need to invest in capacity building. We believe that non-profits can achieve their goals – and long-term stability – by changing the way they view people engagement and by investing in their professional development. Transforming how the non-profit sector approaches governance, leadership, planning and people engagement can ultimately lead to greater impact and collaboration in the communities and causes they serve. We work with over 10,000 individuals from more than 1500 organizations every year delivering interactive learning that is readily put to use in the wide variety of organizations these people lead.
When non-profit leaders leave Vantage Point, they are confident in their abilities and empowered to lead their organization, support their team, deliver their mission and, ultimately, affect their communities in positive ways.
Meet Our Clients
Non-profits are vital to our communities – sparking change, inspiring creativity.
