ENGINEERING GENEROSITY: Start-up success gives young family chance to help community for years to come with WRCF fund

Jessica and Pat Martinson with their family

Creating a start-up company wasn’t something that was on Pat Martinson’s radar. But when a fellow University of Waterloo engineering student approached him about being part of an ambitious start-up robotics company, Martinson said yes to the stress.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be wildly successful or a failure, but I’m along for the ride,” Martinson, 37, recalled thinking at the time.

Clearpath Robotics opened for business in 2009 and to say the company has been wildly successful since then would be a significant understatement. The autonomous robot-maker, formed by four University of Waterloo Mechatronics Engineering grads including Martinson, was recently sold to U.S.-based automation giant Rockwell Automation for what is perhaps best described as a life-altering financial figure.

“Our lives have pretty much changed. We’re able to do work that is more passion-focused rather than financially motivated,” Martinson’s wife, Jessica, 35, said.

The Kitchener couple had always shared a passion for giving and knew that would be part of their plan going forward. Jessica worked as an academic advisor at the University of Waterloo where a friend who worked in fundraising there recommended Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF). A neighbour of theirs also serves as a Board Member at WRCF, so they decided to reach out for a conversation.

“We had done small amounts of charitable giving before. Five hundred dollars up to maybe a couple thousand a year. But that had always been something that I’d always wanted to be able to do more of and focus on. We tried to minimize our needs so that we were able to give back to the community. We had enough for ourselves, and it just felt like the responsible thing,” Pat said. “With our change in situation, setting up a fund made sense.”

“What we received was a life-changing amount on its own. For us, because we try to live frugally and live well within our means already, we could take a pretty large portion of that, and set up the fund,” he added.

The Martinson Family Fund was recently established with a $1 Million initial donation.

“I think we’re both aware of how fortunate we are, and we’ve been able to take care of some really big goals a lot earlier than we thought we’d be able to,” Jessica added. “We also consider it a responsibility to help as much as we can.”

The Martinsons plan to keep an open mind about who they support through their fund. The Kitchener-based not-for-profit The Working Centre was an easy early choice. Before they knew each other, Pat and Jessica both volunteered with the organization. Pat helped with the Recycle Cycles program, while Jessica assisted with the Green Door Arts Space. In place of gifts for their wedding, they requested that guests make donations to The Working Centre.

“I think it’s going to be one of the cornerstones that we give a fair bit to, but we want to support other causes,” Pat said. “We want to support what’s needed at the time as well.”

Through WRCF’s granting streams and Do More Good Dialogue conversations, WRCF exposes Fundholders to the needs of the community, showing them some of the ways they can make the most impact.

Added Jessica: “We’re excited about the possibilities of where we can help. We can both think about causes that are important to us but also as individuals and how we want to express that through the community.”

More broadly, the couple plans to continue to support Waterloo Region’s tech and innovation community that helped pave their way.

“I want to help start-ups in the ecosystem. Help people who are thinking about startups, which is kind of more of that human aspect,” Pat said. “It’s paying back the support that we had from mentors and advisors through the community and beyond, just the whole ecosystem, so I want to give back to that.”

On WRCF: “I’ve been impressed with every interaction. They say, ‘we’re so honoured to have the responsibility to help you with your charitable giving,’” Pat said. “That attitude and how it permeates through the whole organization has been impressive to me. It just shows how seriously they take this work.”

WRCF’s funding and distribution model was also attractive to the young couple.

“This gets us thinking about it now,” Pat said. “It’s not just money that’s growing in a pot that at some point down the road we’re going to figure out what we want to, like pick one or two causes and give it. This gets us thinking about being more engaged in our community.”

Working with the community foundation, they basically give you the benefits of (having a charitable foundation) without having the administrative overhead for it, so it both made a lot of sense,” Pat added.

As for any advice they might have for anyone considering creating a fund through WRCF?

“Try to make a donation that’s a little bit bigger than you’d be used to and just experience what that’s like,” Pat said. “For me, there’s a tangible feeling when we can make a gift or see that gift in action or get a response from someone at an organization. There’s just a quality of life that comes from that. Of knowing that you did some good. And it can kind of just make your day a little bit.”

WRCF offers a range of fund types to choose from, depending on philanthropic interests and desires for specific levels of involvement in annual granting decisions.

Funds can be established in your name, or in the name of your family, your organization or anyone you wish to honour. If you would like to learn more about setting up a fund, contact Dan Robert at dan@wrcf.ca or 519-725-1806 x 205.

For more information about WRCF, visit wrcf.ca.