Bhayana family foundation aims for national non-profit day

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Raksha M. Bhayana started out as a social worker. It was when she got an MBA and worked in the for-profit business sector that she realized how much better the private sector was in recognizing the work of employees.

Bhayana is now the CEO and co-founder, along with her husband, Madan Bhayana, of the Bhayana Family Foundation, founded in 2006, which works toward recognizing the transformational work of those in the nonprofit sector.

An immigrant from India, but with experiences around the world as the daughter of a diplomat, Raksha Manaktala Bhayana, principal at Toronto-based Bhayana Management, was the director of business development at office furniture and wall products firm Inscape Corp., where she helmed the information systems department.

She has also long been active in directing an array of nonprofit organizations, including Family Service Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children’s Hincks-Dellcrest Centre (now the SickKids Centre for Community Mental Health).

Bhayana and her husband, also of Inscape and Bhayana Management, were recently named among the 2021 Indiaspora Global 100 Philanthropy Leaders List.

Here, Bhayana shares how her education and experiences working with children with complex problems, as well as her family’s charitable traditions, shaped how the family foundation approaches its mission.

What are your memories of coming to Canada from New Delhi?

“We came in the middle of April expecting warm weather but instead experienced the cold chill of a Canadian spring. Shivering is putting it mildly. Early recollections of people we met were overwhelmingly positive – they were friendly and welcoming.

It took time to understand the culture, particularly its nuances. I had some familiarity with adapting rapidly to varied environments since I had lived outside of India most of my life. My father was a diplomat and I was schooled in different parts of the world, including Switzerland, the U.S. and Trinidad.

There was so much to learn about life and living in Toronto. My husband and I made a deliberate attempt to acclimatize ourselves to the culture by attending shows at the theatre, taking up winter sports, reading CanLit and socializing with our Canadian colleagues.”

You worked as a therapist for children with tremendous difficulties during your first years in Canada. What impression did that make on you?

“I was excited when I was hired to be a therapist at a children’s mental-health centre in Toronto. In India I had an internship at a mental-health centre for adults and children as part of my Master’s in Social Work program. I was drawn to working with children and their families.

Acculturation to the systems of care, like the school systems (public, private and Catholic), child protection services, and the juvenile justice system, took time, as they were all quite different from the ones I knew.

I was impressed with the range of services offered and the training for professionals at that time.

I grew professionally as a therapist and in a few years I was promoted to supervisory and management positions.

On the flip side, I experienced a relentless demand on my mind and heart from the children and their families who came with often very complex problems. I worked in the trenches of a challenging job, therapeutically surmounting family dynamics and resistance to change, overcoming obstacles within the school system, and fighting for justice for kids in conflict with the law.

I vividly recall that there was little understanding outside the sector about the intersecting challenges we faced and little valuation of the long hours we expended being on call to manage crises.

These early experiences planted the seeds in my unconscious for what eventually became the mission for the Bhayana Family Foundation.”

How did you and your family come to establish the Bhayana Family Foundation?

“For us there are multiple intrinsic motivators for giving back to society and they vary in intensity and priority. Our childhood upbringing was likely a key factor.

My husband and I both grew up in families where charitable giving was a strong value, embedded early. My husband’s grandfather had set up a memorial centre that was essentially a spiritual haven. This morphed over time into a community centre for training women and providing early learning experiences for children as well as childcare and many other activities for families.

My family financially supported impoverished children through school and university while I was growing up.

As parents of a young family, we tried to inculcate similar values in our children. We volunteered at homes for the elderly and at the food bank, prepared food for the homeless and helped to serve them during the winter months through the Out of the Cold program.

Volunteering was part of our family life. As a family we had always talked about establishing a way to give back to the country that provided us with opportunities for personal and professional growth. My husband’s business success gave us the means to get started and we incorporated the Bhayana Family Foundation in 2006.”

Why did you choose recognition awards for extraordinary performance in the non-profit sector?

“In mid-life I made a career change, got my MBA and became the director of IT at a manufacturing company.

My transition from working in the nonprofit sector to the for-profit sector was a revelation on many fronts, but most particularly in underlining the lacunae in recognition for nonprofit professionals.

I was astounded by the difference in the environment. It was amazing to see the incentives and bonuses for performance in the for-profit sector, the awards and recognition for the industry. Honestly, I couldn’t believe it. There was almost none of this in the nonprofit sector at the time.

Consequently, our initial focus was to offer recognition awards for frontline staff that would be peer nominated. There’s no tougher jury than one’s peers. I viewed it as an investment in nonprofits since the research evidence is clear: Recognition has a catalytic effect, enhancing motivation, engagement, productivity, and retention of talent.

Recognition is one of the most potent tools for motivating employees. In fact, lack of recognition is one of the main reasons Canadian employees are unhappy at work – beating out bad bosses, low pay, and even toxic work cultures.

While most nonprofit organizations do their best to recognize performance internally, their resources are limited. And there is something to be said for the benefit of being recognized for your excellence externally.

Qualitative research by our foundation has affirmed the powerful impact of the awards on individuals and teams, and nonprofit organizations as a whole. This then became our niche.

What were some of the challenges you faced in the first years of the foundation’s evolution?

“We faced several key challenges in the early years of the foundation. Our niche was distinctive and our mission and vision were clear. As we developed our strategic plan, we knew we had to identify a key partner. A milestone was forging a partnership with United Way Greater Toronto, and after six years, with other United Ways across Canada.

They have been invaluable partners in our foundation’s journey, administering the framework for the awards program impeccably and building a process that is arm’s length from the foundation and fully transparent.

One of the things that we learned in those first few years was that awards recipients valued the opportunity to be recognized in the presence of peers, politicians and influencers almost as much as receiving the monetary award. That led us to co-hosting high-profile award ceremonies attended by VIPs in upscale venues, sometimes with entertainment. Nonprofit staff began to refer to the awards as the Oscars of the nonprofit sector.

We also worked hard at attracting the media to report on the stories of the award recipients and the impact of their work. Storytelling is a powerful medium. Media coverage adds to the recognition of these social architects. It is also a valuable counterpoise to the relatively negative stories that currently occupy much of the news.”

How have the foundation’s initiatives grown and shifted since its inception?

“Over the years we have expanded geographically and created partnerships with United Ways from coast to coast – in Calgary, Lower Mainland and Halifax, in addition to Greater Toronto. It has been a privilege and an honour to collaborate with all of the United Ways. Together we have given out close to 1,600 awards to nonprofit professionals in Canada.

In 2018, I was invited to present to the Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector. This event was seminal for the foundation. One of my recommendations was to create a Canada-wide day of appreciation for the nonprofit sector to make people aware of the sector’s enormous economic and social impact. This experience and the feedback received led to an expansion of our niche to include advocacy for appreciation of the nonprofit sector at the provincial level.”

A major intent of the advocacy was to increase awareness of the enormous economic and social impact of the sector. The external world is all but oblivious to the work being done in our sector. Personally I can relate to this. .I have worked in the sector for close to 25 years and have volunteered on boards for almost as long. And yet when I meet people socially and the conversation turns to work, there is a dramatic change in the interest level when I talk about my business versus when I talk about what I do in the nonprofit world.”

What feedback have you received from award recipients?

“From one executive director: “This fantastic award is the only one we are aware of where an outside body celebrates frontline dedication and achievement. For our frontline winner it was the external recognition that we, no matter how much we appreciate her, could not convey alone.”

Based on the responses from our qualitative surveys, most of the award recipients feel honoured and valued, and talked about how it re-ignited their motivation. Another key aspect was the importance of recognition in the presence of their peer organizations.

At the same time some issues were raised about the overall lack of social esteem for their work at a societal level.

As one award recipient said, ‘The respect is missing when there is talk about the nonprofit sector. I’m regarded as a loser compared to my brothers who are investment and real-estate professionals.’

And, as Rocco Rossi, former CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce eloquently says, the nonprofit sector is the ‘For Impact Sector.’ Few people know that it contributes over 8 per cent to the GDP and close to $200 billion annually to the economy, employing 2.4 million people and engaging 13 million volunteers. Nonprofits are trusted by 86 percent of Canadians.”

Was there advice along the way that helped you to build your recognition system?

“Advice from a key senator in 2018 was to begin by creating recognition days at the provincial level. Thus, at our next awards event, which happened to be in Halifax, we began the advocacy with the stellar leadership and kind assistance of Myra A. Freeman, the former Lt.-Governor of Nova Scotia. Within months, Nova Scotia became the first province in Canada to proclaim a Day of Recognition for the Nonprofit Sector.

Consequently, the awards were expanded to all of Nova Scotia and rebranded as The Invisible Champion Awards. We celebrated the inaugural Day of Recognition in October, 2020, during the [early phase of the] pandemic with a flag raising at the legislature, speeches by politicians, and entertainment.

The next major milestone was in December, 2021, when Ontario legislated a Nonprofit Appreciation Week for the third week of February every year. Just this past fall, British Columbia proclaimed a BC Non-Profit Day on October 30. We were thrilled.

We have been fortunate to receive the endorsement from many corporations for these recognition days, and we would welcome additional ones. Most businesses in Canada support individual charities and nonprofits. We invite them to join this important (and non-budgetary) opportunity to recognize the people who power the sector for the good they do. Anyone who is interested can contact our foundation.

When your family became part of the foundation, how were they prepared for their roles?

“My husband … co-founded the foundation with me and has been my partner throughout its evolution.

Our adult children have been active supporters, as well. They have attended numerous award ceremonies, presenting awards to the recipients and giving keynotes.

Behind the scenes they have been my indispensable supporters, providing strategic advice, direction and critique (sometimes brutal), as well as marketing counsel and administrative support when needed.”

How do you approach any differences of opinion you might have as a family when it comes to setting or maintaining new initiatives within the foundation?

“We are a ‘talking’ family and of course there have been disparate opinions on the goals and reach of the foundation and its geographic scope over the years.

When we disagree, sometimes heatedly, we do take time to reflect and then sort out the differences of opinion. I would say that the advice they have given me as the lead for the foundation has been invaluable. We could not have accomplished what we have without their active involvement, engagement, and constructive criticism.”

Can you share with our readers any new projects you’re excited about for 2024?

“At present we are in the early stages of advocating for a Nonprofit Day of Appreciation in Canada.

Our leadership group includes Imagine Canada, Community Foundations of Canada, Philanthropic Foundations Canada, United Way Centraide Canada and Volunteer Canada.

We also have support from Canadian Chamber of Commerce, RBC Bank, TD Bank, Telus Foundation, Senators Lankin and Omidvar, MP Michael Coteau, MP Michael Chong, MP Rob Oilphant, MP Len Webber, MP Blake Desjarlais, Association of FundRaising Professionals Canada, Canadian Council for Christian Charities, Canadian Mental Health Association, YWCA Canada, Big Brothers Big ,Sisters of Canada, Canada Helps, Capacity Canada, Canadian Women’s Foundation, Ideal Supply LEAP Pecaut Centre for Social Impact, Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations, Charity Village, Canso Investment Counsel [the parent company of Narrowcontent, a partner in Canadian Family Offices], Canadian Women’s Foundation, Definity Insurance Foundation, Inspirit Foundation, Laidlaw Foundation, Toronto Metropolitan University, United Way Halifax, United Way Calgary, Rise, Alzheimer’s Society of Toronto, The Neighbourhood Group Community Services, Volunteer Ottawa, Abundance Canada, Covenant House Vancouver, KW Habilitation, Vantage Point, Impact Bridges Group, Ralph Thornton Community Centre, Indus Community Services, Blue Door, Reena and Scadding Court Community Centre, amongst over 250 organizations and influencers.

MPs Karen Vecchio, Niki Ashton, Francesco Sorbara, and the Hon. Elizabeth May are planning to lead a Unanimous Consent Motion in the House of Commons to create the Nonprofit Day of Appreciation in Canada.

We are looking forward to a busy year ahead with much more to do to make a Canada-wide Nonprofit Day a reality. It is a foundational step to educate people about what nonprofits do. We can build on that to address many of the glaring issues like low salaries, working conditions, and burnout in the sector, as well as difficulty in attracting and retaining young people.

People who work in nonprofits provide value beyond money; their talents and skills literally transform the lives of individuals, families and communities.

Our foundation’s passion is to make these ‘Invisible Champions’ visible.”

Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.

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