Volta is pleased to announce a partnership with The Upside Foundation of Canada, a registered charity. The Foundation provides an innovative platform for corporate philanthropy: donate options or warrants, not cash. Earlier-stage and high growth private companies pledge stock options or warrants to the Upside Foundation, convertible into a small portion of equity. When the company has a liquidity event (e.g., IPO, acquisition), the Foundation sells its options for cash and donates the proceeds to registered charities in Canada in the areas of poverty, education and technology. The Foundation has no involvement in the donor companies’ operations.

It’s an innovative and easy way to create a corporate social mission and give back to our community without spending any cash or time. It’s a platform that’s new to Canada but modeled after successful organizations in the US and Israel which have raised tens of millions of dollars for their local communities. The proven platform is supported by the leading Canadian VCs, incubators and accelerators – and now us.

The charity is Canada-wide and the East Coast is currently represented by Gerry Pond, Co-Founder and Chairman of East Valley Ventures, who has been on the Board of The Upside Foundation since inception.

We at Volta believe in the importance of supporting our community and we encourage our Resident Companies and network members to consider donating options or warrants to The Upside Foundation. To learn more about The Upside Foundation, you can watch a one minute video on the website by clicking here.

We are proud to support this very worthwhile Canadian initiative and encourage you to spread the word (you can just send the link to the video or forward this blog post). For more information, please email info@upsidefoundation.ca or check out the website at www.upsidefoundation.ca.

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