Lawyer Helps Donor Leave a Legacy of Support for Ottawa’s Immigrant Population
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As a devoted employee at the YM-YWCA for more than two decades, Ann Louise Pearson was well known for her work with new immigrants and refugees in the city. She was also a dedicated volunteer who traveled extensively, working on development projects in South America, Africa and Asia. Following the Vietnam War, Ann Louise was one of the many Ottawa residents to step forward and sponsor a Vietnamese family, with whom she maintained close ties until her death in 2002.
Working with her lawyer, Ann Louise left a bequest in her will to the Community Foundation of Ottawa specifying that it was to provide ongoing funding to local organizations and projects that would support community housing and the integration of immigrants and refugees into the community. This is the type of charitable objective the Community Foundation is uniquely equipped to meet. Few other organizations can assess the community’s requirements from year to year in a broad range of areas, matching donors’ interests with those needs as they evolve.
Received in 2003, the bequest was used to set up the Ann Louise Pearson Fund, which has since been used to make grants to such organizations as the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization (OCISO), Rwanda Social Services and Family Counselling, Sage Youth and the Somerset West Community Health Centre.
With its deep knowledge of the community, the Foundation has been able to use its awareness of the donor’s intentions and apply her generous gift to fund such projects as the New Canadian Literacy Achievement Project, which provided literacy and mentoring programs to children from refugee and immigrant families, and the Cambodian Community Developer initiative, which unified community leadership around building a healthy and sustainable Cambodian community in Ottawa.
Most recently, Ann Louise’s fund contributed to the publishing of “Gift of Freedom” a book commemorating Ottawa’s Project 4,000. Often described as Ottawa’s finest hour, the book is the first account of the significant role Ottawa residents played in aiding Southeast Asian refugees in 1979 and '80.
“When we receive a call from a lawyer advising us that a client has left a bequest to the community through the Community Foundation of Ottawa, we are first of all touched and humbled by the generosity of the donor,” says Barbara McInnes, President & CEO of the Foundation. “When, as was the case with Ann Louise Pearson, the purpose is broad enough to allow us to meet emerging needs over time, we are deeply grateful and consider it a significant responsibility to carefully steward this precious gift in perpetuity.”
For more information specific to the Community Foundation’s work with professional advisors, including lawyers, accountants, investment advisors, financial planners and insurance agents, click here, or contact Bibi Patel at 613-236-1616 X226.
