The Columbia Valley Community Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for the communities in the Columbia Valley in British Columbia, Canada, from Canal Flats to Spillimacheen, including Fairmont, Windermere,  Invermere,Radium, Edgewater, Brisco

Nicole Pawlak accepting cheque for the Canal Flats Community Facility!

The Columbia Valley Community Foundation is entering its first decade of operations and we are happy to be the guardians of $800,000 of assets in our endowment funds.

The Columbia Valley Community Foundation is a member of Community Foundations of Canada (CFC)

The Columbia Valley Community Foundation is grateful for the support we get, our community gets, we all get, from the Columbia Basin Trust!

The Columbia Valley Community Foundation is thankful to the Kootenay Savings Foundation for partnering with the CVCF so that together, with the support of the good and giving people in our community, and those part time residents that we embrace and who make our community their community for part of the year, we can make the Columbia Valley the best place it can be!

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The Foundation invests gifts from donors, primarily in permanent endowments funds, and distributes income to deserving, worthwhile charities.

The principles of compassion, fairness, integrity, accountability and approachability guide the Foundation. 

1. For our philanthropic donors this is a permanent organization with a broad, dynamic mandate, which is used to channel the income from tax-deductible donations into areas of the community with the greatest needs.
2. This is primarily a permanent pool of capital from which the investment income is deployed to various charitable organizations in our communities that satisfy important local objectives, and meet the granting qualifications.
3. Because of its large overall view and permanent long-term nature, the Foundation is well suited to work on a local basis to identify community values, support human development, provide influence for positive change and enrich the diverse life of the Columbia Valley.

Message from the Chairman

Historically Community Foundations have had three functions: raising money, investing money and distributing money in the form of grants. In this past year, 2008, on the local level and on the national level another function emerged to the fore, that of “Community Leadership”. With the financial crisis looming large over the later part of 2008, “tying the proverbial hands”of the traditional functions of Foundations , it became apparent that to have an impact through non grant making and remain a force in a community's landscape, foundations would need to looks at leadership through partnerships and advocacy. Put simply, if we couldn't give back to the community in grants what else could we do to stay relevant?

Community Leadership is still a concept new to our foundation and what it will look like this year and in the future is not yet known. Events and activities in 2008 indicate however that the CVCF and community foundations in the East Kootenays were naturally moving in that direction. In the spring of 2008, community foundations from our area met in Kimberly to discuss how to manage funds that were currently flowing from the Columbia Basin Trust to the Regional Districts and municipalities if the foundations were given the opportunity to manage those funds. This partnering idea had been discussed in the past, and while is was not to change in 2008, it is something that will be reviewed again.

In April the CVCF was represented in a regional meeting of community foundations in Creston where the main topics were examining ways that proximal foundations could work together and collaborate on projects to benefit from economies of scale, while still considering the individuality of each community. This would involve identifying needs in the different communities and working together to address those needs. As well as efficiency, the meeting looked at sustainability and as is always the case, how to do this with the smaller foundations that have little to no paid administrative support, and how to move forward as a foundation without it.

Two meetings resulted from the focus on collaboration and sustainability. A regional meeting in August was hosted by the CVCF and looked at the relationship between community foundations and local environmental organizations. The purpose was to find out if there was readiness for community foundations and environmental organizations in the region to work together to address local priorities while working together to build endowment funds and undertake environmental grant making. The second meeting was in September as part of a “tour”, a seminar on Wills and Shared Giving, funded by the Law Foundation of B.C., and hosted by each of the community foundations in the East Kootenays.

I was fortunate enough to attend the Community Foundations of Canada Annual Conference in Montreal in November with two youth delegates, our travel funded by the Columbia Basin Trust. The national conference confirmed the new direction of community foundations not only in Canada but in the United States and the world, and with 650 delegates from Canada and 29 other countries.

The past year has certainly been challenging for the CVCF. Our Board has required in the past that the operating costs not exceed 1.25% of the previous year's year end total endowment funds, that the endowment funds be invested 35% in equities, 60% in bonds and GIC's and 5% in cash, and that the gifts ( the principal) of each individual fund be protected against inflation by targetting a  2% growth in the principle each year. The guidelines imposed on community foundations by Canada Revenue Agency require the community foundations disburse grants every year totalling a minimum of 3.5% of the previous two years' year end total endowment funds, plus 80% of any flow though funds. The investment committee has an objective of achieving a 7% rate-of return on CVCF investments. These requirement, guidelines and principles have been seriously challenged as the foundation carries forward in this economic climate.

We found that we had funds to grant for only one cycle in 2008, when for most years our goal was a spring and a fall granting cycle, giving back over $200,000 to our communities in the last seven years. Understandably, donations were slower to come in. I would like to thank the members of the board for staying positive and creative during this difficult time. I am confident that 2009 will benefit from our reflection.

We at the CVCF will continue “Working Together for Community Success ”

In closing, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to all of the directors and members who so generously donate their time and energy on an ongoing basis to ensure our success and without whose help none of our accomplishments would be possible.

To our financial donors, past and present,thank you very, very much. We look forward to continued growth in  our capital and support to our valley year in the future

Respectfully,

Seona Helmer, Chairman