News of the $1.9 million donation to the Sunshine Coast Community Foundation (SCCF) got the attention of Community Foundations of Canada CEO Ian Bird, who was on the Coast for the important announcement last week along with director of regional strategies Barbara McMillan.
"We're here because there is some exciting news and because the Foun-dation's efforts over the last decade are really starting to show. The kinds of things that are going on here take time to cultivate, and I think the Foundation's a real example for how a coastal community can achieve something important," Bird said, adding coming to the Coast to see the impact of the local foundation firsthand was also important. "Because trying to understand the Sunshine Coast from my desk in Ottawa or elsewhere is not going to do it."
McMillan has been in contact with the SCCF since they first started talking about forming a group back in 2002. She said she has great appreciation for the work the SCCF has done to date.
"In those early days they didn't have a lot of money to grant with, still pretty small, but they really exemplified that 'more than money' phrase by going out and undertaking a lot of different kinds of leadership activities," McMillan said, "everything from the basic grant writing workshop that they hosted for other organizations in the community to starting to look at their neighbouring Community Foundations and how they could start connecting with them and working with them to increase the impact of all of those foundations in the Sea to Sky corridor. And they continue those meetings today."
Bird echoed the sentiment that Community Foundations do more than just grant money to deserving charities: "More and more I think what's valuable in this is everything that's beyond the money. It's the people and what you do in bringing people together in places like this, but in much quieter settings.
"Behind the scenes we know of what goes on in order to make a difference in a community," Bird said. "It's what the academics call social capital but what my Grandma would just call straight trust. You know that creating a sense of trust in the community allows it to achieve things that you can't when you don't have it."
Community Foundations have been creating that sense of trust in Canada since 1921 when the first Foundation was formed in Winnipeg with a $10,000 donation from William Alloway. That generous donation was soon followed by three gold coins from a widow who saw the merit in Alloway's plan.
Fast forward to 2012 and there are now 181 Community Foundations across Canada, all with the same purpose: to build stronger communities by enhancing philanthropic leadership.
To find out more about Community Foundations in Canada, go to www.cfc-fcc.ca.
