Philanthropy? Whoa! That’s a big word.
Is philanthropy a disease? Is there a cure? If I told you philanthropy is simply thinking about what CAUSE is close to your heart, and then putting some of your MONEY to WORK so that THINGS GET BETTER in that area—would you say “Yeah, I get it”?
The Phoenix Foundation of the Boundary Communities exists to do exactly what I’ve described. We are NOT the ski hill. We receive donations from all sorts of people (like you). And local businesses like Unifab, Interfor and Roxul. And registered charities: small ones like Boundary Women’s Coalition, Grand Forks Art Gallery and bigger ones like the Vancouver Foundation. And other organizations like the USCC, the Rotary Club of Grand Forks, and Grand Forks Gyro. We have partnership funds with Greenwood Improvement Society and the Village of Midway.
We invest the money we get, whether it’s $100,000 from the Grand Forks Credit Union, $25,000 from a person’s will, or $25 a month from a monthly donor.
We choose low risk investment options so that the money is as protected as possible. We want to have that capital FOREVER.
Then, once a year, after we have received the revenues (the interest our money has earned) we give back to the community—helping causes important to the people who gave us the money in the first place.
We provide scholarships to students carrying on their education. We give money to organizations who have created funds with us to help with their work (more on that in another column.) We encourage local charitable groups to apply for grants, and our grants committee meets to consider which proposals we can afford to fund.
The Boundary is not known for being a wealthy region. We don’t have a lot of rich corporations, or a ton of individual millionaires, for that matter. So it is pretty amazing that the Boundary has a community foundation in the first place.
Now, why is this column called Million$ + Change? Because we want to increase our CAPITAL so we can do more granting to local CAUSES.
We currently hold about $2.5 million. We want to have at least $4 million working for the community. And we’ll accept millions and we’ll accept pocket change.
PLUS the revenues we receive from our Million$ will help create positive CHANGE in our Boundary communities. Check out our website: www.phoenix-foundation.ca
Next column: How critical is the Boundary’s need for the Phoenix Foundation? And how much money gets distributed each year?
