We are all familiar with single purpose charities who can explain their mission in one meaningful sentence. It’s a bit more complex for community foundations!
All community foundations can confidently say that we exist to improve the quality of life in our communities, today and forever. That’s a very general statement, and even if that goal is understood, the next question of “how?” gets more complicated.
Community Foundation of Halton North
Community Foundation of Halton North (CFHN) is non-profit charitable organization. CFHN is managed by a volunteer Board of Directors comprised of representatives from across the communities that make up Halton North. CFHN is one of 191 Community Foundations in cities, towns and rural areas across the nation. Community Foundations are celebrating 100 years in Canada in 2021. These locally run, public foundations play a critical role in supporting community causes.
How do community foundations and donors work together?
There are two aspects to a community foundation:
- Community foundations, like CFHN, take care of all the administrative work so donors focus only on their charitable interests and desired community impact.
- Donors can give to any registered Canadian charity from their fund.
- When donors want guidance, the CFHN can use their deep knowledge of the community to connect them to charitable organizations in their areas of interest.
The way donors give is tailored to their needs
CFHN offers a range of options tailored to a donor’s needs, their charitable interests, their impact timeline and their desired degree of involvement:
- Donors can give an unrestricted gift. In this case CFHN makes decisions about how to allocate distributions from the fund towards the greatest needs and priorities.
- Donors establish their own fund in their name or the name of someone they wish to honour, similar to a family foundation. Assets are pooled alongside others at CFHN and invested professionally.
- Donors can choose to distribute grants to any registered Canadian charity or seek assistance from CFHN for more giving ideas.
- Donors contribute to an existing fund. There are existing charitable funds already set up at CFHN that anyone can contribute to at any time. Proceeds from the fund are used to support the area of need outlined from that particular fund.
How endowed giving works
People with a philanthropic desire to give back to their community make a contribution to CFHN. Then what happens?
- Contributions are pooled and invested
- The pooled investment grows through careful stewardship
- Income is generated and used to make grants, as directed by the donor
- CFHN makes sure donor wishes are fulfilled every year, now and forever
Endowment allows for continuous growth and giving
Explained in 95 seconds… What is a Community Foundation?
For more information about the Community Foundation of Halton North, go to our website at www.cfhn.ca or contact CFHN’s Executive Director Sue Lawrenson at slawrenson@cfhn.ca or 905-864-9211.