The Globe and Mail
April 21, 2005
Oliver Moore
Canadians put a record $210-million
into community foundations last year, more even than during the
tech boom of the last decade.
This largesse let these local foundations, nearly 150 of them,
dole out $95-million to thousands of charities across the country.
Monica Patten, president and chief executive officer of Community
Foundations of Canada, said yesterday that the figure demonstrates
the number of deeply philanthropic citizens with increasing wealth
who are eager to help but want to keep some control of their charitable
donations.
Her organization is an umbrella group for local community foundations,
which allow citizens to create a low-hassle endowment by donating
money, receiving the total tax write-off and then leaving the
money management to the experts.
Some
donors are completely hands-off once they sign over the money,
she said, but others want to keep in close touch and take advantage
of the research these local foundations provide.
"People say: 'I can be helpful here, and if I am helpful
here it makes for a stronger community for me and the next generation,'
" Ms. Patten said from British Columbia.
One such recipient, the Dial-a-Story at the Toronto Public Library,
will be officially told today that they are to receive $15,000
through one of these endowment funds.
This funding will allow the program, which currently provides
stories in eight languages to the 180,000 children who call annually,
to hire more storytellers and to promote the service.
Promotion is key, said 12-year-old Madeleine Ross, an avid listener
of these stories. She said that she's been listening for as long
as she can remember and expects to be calling a decade from now.
"It's a really cool program and I don't think that many people
know about it," she said in a telephone interview from her
Toronto home.
Charitable works such as Dial-a-Story are the ultimate recipient
of the money these endowments disburse, a number which is growing.
In this case, the money will come from the Toronto Community Foundation,
one of 18 grants to be announced today under the foundation's
Vital Ideas program.
"We empower generous individuals to establish the equivalent
of a private family endowment for as little as $25,000,"
said Anne Swarbrick, president and CEO of the Toronto organization.
"We take care of all the work and they get all the fun of
supporting the charities or causes they care about."
Donations of $210-million last year pushed the total amount managed
by these foundations to more than $2-billion, making them a major
player on the philanthropic scene. They gave out about 5 per cent
of their total value.
"Over the last few years Canadians are increasingly aware
of the urgent issues in the community, some of which aren't being
addressed by government," said Ms. Patten, the head of the
national umbrella body.
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