An idea that sprang from the South Cariboo Joint Committee is building momentum with the formation of a new non-profit funding organization.
At $25,000, the South Cariboo Community Foundation (SCCF) will receive the largest grant by far from the Cariboo Regional District’s (CRD) 2011 grants for assistance.
However, CRD chair Al Richmond says the SCCF is different from most other grant recipients because the funds will eventually be dispersed to a variety of other non-profit organizations.
“To get away from grants for assistance, we’re trying to set up a South Cariboo foundation where people can contribute to that, so we’re looking at putting some money in by collecting from the three [electoral] areas.”
This could then be combined with contributions from the District of 100 Mile House, Richmond explains.
He says an opportunity has arisen that could have a big benefit in reducing the impact on taxpayers, who fund the grants now, through self-funding by using investment interest.
The Northern Development Initiative Trust (NDIT) will provide up to $50,000 for each electoral area or municipality that sets up a foundation.
Richmond says the CRD wants to set up the foundation and see how it works out over the next few years, and is seeking public input on the plan.
He notes that between the CRD
electoral Areas G, H and L and the District of 100 Mile House, $400,000 could be invested together. Then the interest gained from the investment portfolio would be used to fund grants, rather than help pay for capital projects.
The hope is that people may choose to contribute to the SCCF to help organizations and
groups in the South Cariboo, with those funds then also giving a boost to the available funding from the interest income, he explains.
This format has been successful
for other community foundations throughout the province, such as the Kamloops Community Founda-tion and the Vancouver Foundation.
While it would
take some time to build up sufficient funding from the investment growth, especially at the current low interest
rates, Richmond
says there is good potential in the long term.
“It’s like when we changed how we financed the hospitals’ contributions.
“When I put that [change] forward in 2000, we were putting $1.25 million in interest annually because we were borrowing money all the time. Today, we are paying about $800,000 annually and we’ll be out of debt within five years.”
Once the foundation is set up, Richmond says its members will oversee the grant process, rather than the CRD.
