MakeWay has developed Return to Work Guidelines. See below for some key points from these guidelines:

• There will be no obligation for team members to have to come into an office or other place of work–those who want to continue working remotely can do so for the foreseeable future. Presence at work for roles requiring physical presence (i.e. summer camps) will be requested only if health and safety can be assured. These guidelines are for those who would like to ease back into workspaces when it is safe
• Staff must follow the restrictions and guidelines in place for each jurisdiction with regards to when it is safe for teams to begin working in shared spaces.
• All workplaces are required to complete a safety plan (may have a different name depending on the jurisdiction) before reopening. This plan should detail the controls in place to protect the safety of workers and control the spread of COVID-19. It should be shared with all workers and displayed publicly, e.g. on a website, at office locations.
• If an in-person program or activity is determined to be necessary at this time, a safety plan should be developed. Shared platform projects will not have to obtain permission; however, it is mandatory to complete a safety plan.

If you have questions about any of these guidelines, please reach out to the People Engagement and Learning team at MWP&[email protected]. Projects may choose to implement additional procedures/protocol based on your programming, location, team, etc.

Vancouver, Toronto, and Yellowknife offices are now closed, and staff are working from home. As a result, many of our usual processes are being disrupted and projects can expect to experience delays. Below is an update on what we know:

1. Asking vendors to move to EFT. Finance is contacting all vendors not yet set up for EFT to help them transition. If you are submitting invoices from new vendors, please complete and attach the Vendor EFT set up form. Cheques will only be sent in exceptional circumstances.
2. Encouraging funders to move to EFT. We will work with Foundation funders as appropriate and on a case by case basis. Your support encouraging donors to give online would be much appreciated.
3. Cash donation drop-off. Please don’t mail cash to our offices. If you have cash payments, contact your Project Specialist and Finance Specialist who will discuss how to support collection and deposit on a case-by-case basis. You can mail in cheques, though there will be a delay in receiving and posting them (see next).
4. Delayed cheque deposit. Where funders mail in cheques, there are likely to be delays throughout the process, from their payment process, to mail delivery, to our mail forwarding. We are set up for e-deposit now, so once the cheque arrives deposit times should be typical.
5. Hard copy funder notifications. We will be having mail forwarded, but it is always preferable to receive funder correspondence electronically. It is faster and saves us having to scan things and results in better image quality. We will communicate that in our conversations with funders, and ask that you please do the same.
6. Hard copy signatures. If your project has an agreement that absolutely requires a hard signature, the process will be time-consuming and will likely involve multiple couriers and/or signing in counterpart (particularly for amounts over $100,000). Please allow extra time for us to finalize proposals and reports that require hard signatures to accommodate these logistical challenges.

We are doing our best to communicate any changes with you as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience as we all grapple with an unprecedented situation.

The People, Engagment, and Learning team has emailed every Project Director directly to confirm current sick leave/benefits coverage for employees and to discuss support needs. Please keep them in the loop with your plans regarding team members, and don’t hesitate to reach out to them if with any questions.

MakeWay is conducting daily reviews to stay up to date with relevant federal, provincial/territorial, municipal and non-government programs for supporting individuals/charities during this time, and how to access them. You can find more about this here. 

We have set up a COVID-19 Working Group for departments across MakeWay to come together specifically to discuss and move forward the above priorities. Key decisions and outcomes will be added to this page.

We're working on a coordinated strategy for reaching out to MakeWay Charitable Society funders to discuss process and timing related to grant decisions, reporting and payments so that projects have a better understanding of the impact on programming and staff.

• Some funders have reached out to us proactively, and many are offering flexibility of both spending and reporting. Project Specialists are reaching out to all impacted projects as soon as we hear from a funder
• Other funders are understandably still ironing out their approach. We will be reaching out to those we haven’t heard from in the next 1-2 weeks to offer support and ask for information
• The CEO and Senior Management team at MakeWay are committed to advocating to funders on behalf of projects and grantees if needed

All Project Directors will receive an email from the Director, Shared Platform as needed, which will contain updates from the latest COVID-19 Working Group as well as other pertinent information as we have it. There may be weeks we need to send out additional communications as context changes, though we will be respectful of your inboxes. You can view these weekly updates here.

In addition to weekly email updates, please keep lines of communication open with your Project Specialists and other team members as you need, including the People & Culture team. Let's support each other.