Turning $1 Into $3: How OCHF Builds Real Community Impact

This episode of The Unfiltered Nonprofit Podcast features an honest, open conversation with Traci Spour-Lafrance, Executive Director of the Ottawa Community Housing Foundation — the team supporting 33,000 people across 155 communities, including 12,000 kids and youth. Traci walks us through what it really looks like to keep programs running at that scale, especially when funding shifts and the needs in the community keep growing. 

A few years ago, their biggest programs were funded by government grants that suddenly disappeared. Instead of cutting back, Traci and her team rebuilt their whole model. Now they stretch every donated dollar into $3 of programming by stacking subsidies, partnering with local recreation providers, and working with corporate groups who actually build the bikes, pack the backpacks, and help fund the programs they're supporting. Their leadership program brings in 150 youth a year, and their recreation program gets kids into activities they never thought they'd access. 

Traci also shares a moment many nonprofit leaders will relate to — realizing not enough people even knew the Foundation existed. That pushed her to join AFP Ottawa, start showing up at events, and talk about their work one conversation at a time. The result? Their fundraising revenue has more than doubled, their donor base is stronger, and the team has grown from "fundraising on the side of a desk" to a full resource development crew. 

We wrap the interview with a very real conversation about balance: leading a busy nonprofit, raising two kids, and finding routines that keep her grounded. It's a down-to-earth look at what nonprofit impact really takes when the need is huge, the dollars are tight, and you decide to keep going anyway.