Most people know that Canadians like donating to causes that help improve their community’s quality of life. However, sometimes it is not very clear how local charities receive the necessary resources so they may continue to do their good works.
I, for example, didn’t know what Community Foundations were until I started my career practicum in public relations with the Community Foundation of Halton North.
After learning what CFHN does, I started understanding that a Community Foundation is an institution that takes care of its community by collecting donations from people who want to help charities in their community.
The Community Foundation of Halton North is a registered charity responsible for collecting, investing and managing donations. Those donations are invested and grow. Then the revenue generated from the investments is used to distribute as grants to the charities.
Additionally, CFHN reinvests part of the revenue generated to increase its capacity to continue transferring everlasting support to the caring communities, ensuring that there will always be financial resources available.
This way, endowments will increase, as will the revenue, ensuring grants will continually benefit the community.
Besides ensuring that the community foundation’s endowments, or money, will continue growing to generate revenue to distribute grants. CFHN is also responsible for knowing the community’s needs.
Therefore, another critical role of CFHN is to provide its donors with the information they need when deciding which cause they would like to support. Across the nation, CFs organize a range of different funds so donors can choose those they would like to help the most.
Thanks to a structured system of funding designed to support the community’s more prominent needs, a CF also holds the capacity to help during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on charities.
I’ve always known that a job for me had to be helping people. Therefore, working with an institution that can help several causes simultaneously is exciting. I can’t wait to learn more.