Mystery Woman Leaves $2.5M to Community Foundation

Anonymous donor led 'modest life'

Ottawa Citizen

January 16, 2004

by Michael Prentice

A woman in her early 80s who lived "a rather modest life" has left $2.5 million to the Community Foundation of Ottawa.

It is the fourth-largest gift ever made to the foundation, which distributed $5.8 million to more than 100 charitable groups in Ottawa last year.

The woman requested anonymity, even in death, because she did not want to be a focus of attention.

Barbara Mclnnes, foundation president, said it was not unusual among those of the woman's generation to accumulate large wealth. "She lived a rather modest life," Ms. Mclnnes said. "She and her late husband were never spendthrifts.

"She had no children. She was a widow, with no brothers or sisters. Several years ago, she started to think about who would best manage her money and make the best use of it when she died."

Five or six years ago, when she was making her will, her lawyer suggested she discuss a bequest to the community foundation.

"At that time, she was already getting on in age, and not particularly well," Ms. Mclnnes said. "She got the chance to see how we deal with money, and, as the years went by, her comfort level with the foundation grew."

Ms. Mclnnes added: "She was typical of a generation of women who feel they don't own their wealth, but are somehow custodians of it. This is partly a generational thing."

The $2.5-million bequest represented the bulk of the woman's estate.

She also left small sums to family members.

The community foundation was established 15 years ago to collect and invest charitable donations. It distributes income from the investments to charities. The funds frequently go to charities designated by the donor. Where a donor has not specified which charities should benefit, the foundation board decides where the money goes.

The foundation now has $70 million in assets, and last year it gave away $5.8 million, which it had earned by investing its assets, Ms. Mclnnes said.

Four years ago, when the technology boom was at its height, the foundation received three gifts totaling almost $40 million from three living donors, who all insisted on anonymity. One of them was believed to be JDS Uniphase founder Jozef Straus. At the time, he did not deny a Citizen report that his gift was $18 million, which would make it the largest charitable donation by an individual in Ottawa.

Apart from those three anonymous gifts, the next largest gift to the foundation, until now, was $2 million. It was willed to the foundation by Svend Pedersen, who died of cancer after looking after the finances of the Giant Tiger chain of discount stores.

Ms. Mclnnes said she believes people choose to give or leave money to the foundation because "we have a very, very solid reputation, which we guard jealously."

Former city councillor Alex Munter recently joined the foundation's board. Other new members are Abla Sharif, director of the Education Centre at Algonquin College, and Coralie Lalonde, founder and chief executive of Katsura Investments.