What Windsor manufacturers Solcz family did after sale of global firm

Article content

When the Solcz family sold their Windsor, Ont.-based business in 2016, they moved management of their assets to a family office, and also created the Solcz Family Foundation to benefit the Southern Ontario community that had nurtured the family business.

While the foundation – founded by Michael G. Solcz, his wife, Doreen, sons Len, Marty, Michael Jr., and Mark, and their sons’ families – was incorporated in 2016 as a registered charity, it took time and help to work out governance and giving strategies to last generations.

Avco Tool & Die Limited, founded by Michael G. Solcz in 1959, incorporated as Valiant Machine & Tool Inc. in 1963. It grew to a global scale, supplying companies such as Boeing and Ford, and operating in countries ranging from Canada to the United States, Germany and Mexico, among others.

Early years saw the Solcz family supporting local charitable causes within the Windsor-Essex community, with a focus on helping children and youth. The Solcz family foundation, with a board of directors formed with committees of three generations of family members, including executive director Kyrsten Solcz, continues its support of the Windsor-Essex community. It has awarded more than $7.8 million to over 50 charities.

Here, the family shares their journey working together to benefit their community and create a sustainable strategy of giving.

How did the Solcz Family Foundation come to be?

Michael G. Solcz founded Avco Tool & Die Limited in 1959 in Windsor, Ont. In 1963 the business incorporated under the name Valiant Machine and Tool Inc. and, with Michael and his four sons, the company grew to a global scale.

Michael and his wife, Doreen, instilled in their family and company, the importance of being good to people and always giving back to the community and those less fortunate. This mindset led to Valiant becoming one of the leading charitable giving corporations in Windsor-Essex.

While the Solcz family actively supported the charitable sector through its company, they also continued to give back personally, so when the company sold after 57 years, it was a natural progression for the Solcz Family to incorporate a family foundation and continue their giving in perpetuity.

The goal was to have a lasting impact and create change in the Windsor-Essex community, while also engaging next-generation family.

The Solcz Family Foundation was established in 2016 in equal partnership between Michael and his four sons – Len, Marty, Michael and Mark.

Simultaneously, they operated Solcz Group Inc., also continuing to work as a family within a formal family office structure.

Realizing the need to bring more knowledge to the family on proper organization, governance and processes for running an effective foundation, the family hired consultants on the recommendation of the Bank of Montreal out of Toronto to assist the family in developing a mission and direction for the foundation.

In 2017, the Foundation hired its executive director, a third-generation family member with a background in the charitable sector, to lead the groundwork of developing the grantmaking and administration processes for the foundation.

Today, the Solcz Family Foundation has a six-person board of directors, including first-, second- and third-generation family members, and two committees involving multi-generation family members, as well.

The Solcz Family Foundation has now … awarded over $7.8 million to over 50 charities since inception.

As a family, how did you decide what roles you would play in the earliest days of the foundation?

It was always the vision that the Solcz Family Foundation would involve the entire family and that the founders would participate on the board of directors. The intent was to demonstrate to younger generations of family the importance of supporting those in need, volunteering, and working together as a family, and it was the hope that the younger generations would eventually become board members to continue the legacy of giving within the Solcz Family Foundation.

To help prepare the younger generations for this, second- and third-generation family were invited to participate on committees and involve themselves in charity site visits to become more experienced with the needs of the local charitable sector.

Today, the foundation is led by its board of directors, which includes the five founding members, as well as a third-generation family member.

The next steps for the foundation have involved preparing a succession plan for the inclusion of the fourth generation.

Why is the Windsor-Essex community unique?

Windsor-Essex is unique in many ways, but what sets Windsor-Essex apart is that it is home to the most generous, community-minded people. When there is a need, there is never a shortage of those that are willing to give back.

When our family’s company sold after 57 years in the Windsor-Essex community, we felt it appropriate to continue to give back to the community that provided the opportunities that enable us to operate a successful business and we are proud to be a member of one of the most charitable communities in Canada.

Our family has roots in the Windsor-Essex community – we were raised here, we operated our family business here, and we give back here – continuing to support the community that has always been so good to us.

Describe the Windsor-Essex community.

New investment is abundant, with construction of the $6.4 billion Gordie Howe International Bridge, $5 billion NextStar Energy Battery Plant, and $2 billion state-of-the-art Windsor-Essex Hospitals System.

Windsor-Essex is a leader in EV, next-generation vehicle production, agribusiness (we have the largest vegetable greenhouse cluster in North America and second largest in the world) and pharmaceuticals (we are the largest soft-gel capsules producer in Canada).

Windsor-Essex has always been known as the birthplace of Canada’s automotive industry, home to Canada’s largest auto cluster with more than 90 automobile and parts manufacturers. Windsor-Essex’s strategic location on the border of the U.S., across from Detroit, Mich., offers a significant cross-border logistics industry. The Windsor-Detroit border crossings handle about one-third of all trades between Canada and the U.S (about $5 million per day).

Windsor-Essex is recognized as one of the most culturally diverse communities in Canada where over 100 different cultures are represented.

Windsor-Essex is experiencing many of the same issues that cities across Canada are experiencing such as a rise in homelessness due to lack of affordable housing (even though Windsor-Essex has some of the most affordable housing in Canada), food security, mental health and addictions, and trafficking is also very prevalent being a border city.

But again, we consistently re-evaluate the issues in our community so we always know what the current landscape looks like so we can give where there is the most need.

How have your initiatives evolved since the foundation was established?

From the very beginning, we knew we wanted to be different in the way we approached giving. We’ve never wanted to just be cheque writers and that be the end of it.

We take a more personal approach to working with local charities. We build a relationship with them, give them a platform to tell their story and help them to carry out their valuable work. At the end of the day, we want our giving to be meaningful and impactful. We want to know we’re changing lives.

While we still have an application process, we’ve worked hard to streamline that process to make it as easy and as accessible as possible for charities to apply for funding. It can be an intimidating process applying for grants, so we wanted to make it a more approachable process. We recognize the many hats charities must wear in order to meet the day-to-day demands of the charitable sector, so we want to be sure that applying to the Solcz Family Foundation isn’t onerous for them.

Working one-on-one with charities and having open discussions about current issues in our community also helps us to be more proactive with our giving. We spend a lot of our time visiting charities and getting to know them and the services they provide, and learning more about the current issues in our community.

Education will always play an important role in the work we do. We believe that with more education, we can help better address the issues in our community and better direct where the foundation’s funds will produce the most impact. Our priority areas have also been adjusted over time to meet the needs of our community.

We know that running a foundation is an ever-evolving learning process. The local landscape in which we give is continuously changing and we must react in a timely manner in order to effectively help our community. As a family foundation, we don’t have all the solutions to every problem in our community, but we work hard to ensure we can at least help in some way.

How do you involve the Solcz children and grandchildren in the foundation as they grow and learn?

One of the main goals when establishing the Solcz Family Foundation was to ensure next-generation family members were included in the work of the foundation to continue the family’s legacy of giving.

Next-generation family members and their spouses are involved in the work of the foundation through its committees, board, and other activities.

Every year we host our annual meeting of members in which the entire family takes part. Annual meetings can sometimes seem intimidating to some when there’s a formal agenda. To combat this, we introduced a more informal get-together in which we enjoy a meal and also take part in a family game to promote bonding.

While the formal meeting business does get done, we put more of a focus on the more informal aspects to make the annual meeting more fun. Last year we came together at a director’s home, had an informal meal, and played family jeopardy with questions around family history and facts, our own charitable giving history, general charity facts, and Canadian charity law.

This was a great way to get everyone of all ages involved in a casual and fun way. Each year we also give out a book on philanthropy to family members to promote education on the topic.

With our fourth generation ranging from 2 to 16 years old, we’ve started thinking of how to best introduce them to the work of the foundation.

Succession and incorporating multi-generational participation has always been a challenge. Everyone wanted to be involved in the earlier stages when the founders asked them for their participation because no one wanted to say no, but doing things the right way requires a lot of work, and, as time goes on, we’ve noticed that participation has petered off with some.

When family decides not to be involved, we don’t take it personally. We understand that philanthropy is a personal journey and some may just not be interested or have the time to commit to it.

As a result, our foundation now has a group of hard-working and committed family members who are fully engaged in the work of the foundation. Looking to the future, we have had conversations about eventually incorporating community members (those outside our family) into our governance structures.

How have you overcome challenges as a family, within the foundation and as a business family?

We believe that our ability to acquire, and subsequently listen to, professionals, consultants, and national philanthropic organizations (National Center for Family Philanthropy and Philanthropic Foundations Canada) to assist us on this journey, has been instrumental in achieving our respected results.

It’s important to realize what you know and what you don’t, and when you sell a family business, you become a very different organization overnight, and for us, it was important to bring in the right knowledge at the right time that could assist us in making the right decisions about succession and governance as a family office and family foundation.

Having a family foundation is a continuous learning process, and working with family and multi-generations is never an easy task. This is why we always keep the community top-of-mind with any decisions we make. In this way, we limit any personal conflicts because at the end of the day, it’s not about us – it’s about the community we serve.

We keep in mind that the money within the foundation is no longer “ours” but now that of the community we serve, and with that, we’ve made sure to always direct our grants to where they can best serve the Windsor-Essex community.

This is why we have a formal application and review process, as well as a reporting process. It’s not just about giving; it’s about giving the right way in order to maximize impact. When the focus is always on the community, it leaves very little time for conflict.

What are some initiatives you feel most proud of or excited about?

Our foundation always has something in the works to benefit our community. We are most proud of the unique opportunity we have as a foundation to fund pilot projects and programs. This allows charities to experiment with new ideas to help better the populations they serve.

More often than not, we find pilot projects and programs tend to have positive results. By funding pilot projects and programs, we’re able to help charities secure future funding, whether it be from other partners or charities, or bodies of government, as some funders are hesitant to fund pilot projects and programs without first seeing results.

Here are examples of some of the pilot projects and programs we have funded:

Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare in partnership with the Ontario Telemedicine Network – “Breaking Free Online”: A virtual care solution for those experiencing substance use disorder in Windsor-Essex. Breaking Free Online is a digital platform available 24/7 to residents in Windsor-Essex. This virtual tool reduces barriers to treatment and empowers people to take control of their recovery journey.

Pozitive Pathways Community Services (formally the AIDs Committee of Windsor) – “Label Me Person Anti-Stigma Awareness Campaign”: The purpose of this campaign was to increase awareness about the opioid crisis through personal narratives of people impacted by substance use. The campaign and display also provided opportunities for the community to participate in educational workshops addressing topics of harm reduction, opioids and naloxone, and consumption and treatment services.

Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative – “ACCEL Teen Program by RE/Act”: This program focuses on youth ages 12-17 in Windsor’s downtown core. The strategy includes consistent presence in the neighbourhood to develop friendships and trust; 20-30 youth gather weekly for a lesson on complex trauma, while simultaneously engaging in a fun activity.

Multicultural Council of Windsor & Essex County – “Youth Work Ready Program”: This programming is offered free of charge to youth ages 18-30. Participants learn the skills necessary to navigate the Canadian labour market and gain employment. The program is three weeks, full-time immersive training which includes resume and cover letter support, interviewing assistance, individualized support and job coaching, and certification in six in-demand industry-specific designations.

Canadian National Institute for the Blind – “Child and Youth Programs Windsor-Essex”: In Windsor-Essex there was a service gap for children, youth and families impacted by blindness. This grant allowed for the expansion of CNIB’s programming in Windsor-Essex to offer additional child and youth programming, particularly those under the age of 17.

Windsor Residence for Young Men – “Family Violence Recovery Project”: This project provides specialized trauma informed care and stabilization for male youth (between 16 and 24 experiencing homelessness) who are survivors of abuse and domestic violence.

Windsor Family Homes and Community Partnerships – “Kids First: Grow Program”: This weekly program provides socialization, life skills, creative development, mindfulness and motivation to youth. There is a new topic each week that cultivates motivational and educational, fun experiences for these youth. This program was created to put a wedge in the cycle of poverty, lack of opportunities and trauma. This programming is led by professionals in specialized areas to teach youth about topics they would not learn in their home environment, providing important experiences in a safe environment, allowing them space to grow.

Here, as well, are three of our larger projects that we are very proud to have been the fundraising campaign igniter for.

Family Respite Services – “Solcz Family Foundation Respite Home”: A brand new home was constructed for families of children with disabilities. Parents/caregivers are able to bring their child to spend the weekend at the home and it provides the parents/caregivers with a much needed time of respite.

Canadian Mental Health Association, Windsor-Essex County Branch – “Youth Wellness Hub Windsor-Essex, Solcz Family Foundation Site”: A one-stop shop for youth between 12 and 25 to access services without a wait list or referral. This allows for youth to access a multitude of services under one roof in a warm and welcoming environment, designed for youth by youth. This is part of an Ontario-wide initiative that aims to bring the right services to youth and their families at the right time and in the right place.

Farrow Riverside Miracle Baseball Park – “Solcz Family Foundation Field”: A completely accessible park for all people including a baseball field, playground, upgraded accessible washrooms, and a walking track.

Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Please visit here to see information about our standards of journalistic excellence.