Community foundations merge to create single entity
Community foundations merge to create single entity
Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative reporter
editor@qctonline.com
The Jeffery Hale Foundation, the Saint Brigid’s Home Foundation and the Citadel Foundation have merged their operations to form the Quebec City English-speaking Community Foundation, representatives of the merged foundation announced last week. The amalgamation had been in the cards for the last several years and had been approved by the memberships of all three foundations, they said. The three foundations have shared a single executive team since 2007 and a single investment committee for at least two decades.
“We’ve co-operated and co-ordinated on many projects over the years, all three foundations, and we serve the same clientele – that is, the English-speaking community, its institutions, its elderly, health and social services, education, heritage and community development,” explained Martin Edwards, board chair of the new foundation.
Edwards said the merger will simplify the day-to-day philanthropic efforts of all three foundations. “We [used to have] the same staff, similar memberships, same bankers, same auditors, et cetera, but … three annual general meetings, three audited financial statements, three tax returns … three channels of communication for every joint project that we worked on, three brokerage statements, three bank statements, three of everything. Costs and expenses were multiplied by three. What we are targeting in this amalgamation is really unity, efficiency and improved investment opportunities.”
“We will continue to honour the commitments of those three foundations and pursue and improve on their work going forward,” said Edwards, adding that donors will still be able to specify which project or organization under the foundation’s umbrella their donation will fund.
Edwards, executive director Michael Boden and assistant executive director Julie Sauvageau presented the amalgamation as a natural progression. “Pooling financial resources, pooling expertise, pooling human resources just seemed to be the logical step,” Boden told the QCT. In recent decades, the three foundations have gradually absorbed the assets of smaller community foundations and philanthropic funds and taken responsibility for administering their assets. Edwards said the merged foundation would continue its predecessors’ work in many areas, including the administration of the Citadel Foundation and Quebec City Women’s Club bursary programs for English-speaking students, and administrative support for organizations serving the English-speaking community.
Edwards said the merger would eliminate competition and overlap between the three foundations and make it easier to fund large projects. The new foundation will have combined assets of $87 million, Boden said, and an estimated $4 million will be distributed to projects in the community in the coming year. Major projects on the foundation’s funding agenda include the Cathedral Gardens at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity and the sports field at the yet-to-be-named consolidated English high school. The foundation also aims to provide ongoing support to Mount Hermon Cemetery, Jeffery Hale Community Partners and the Fraser Recovery Program, which supports English-speaking youth recovering from substance abuse issues and their families, among others.
Anyone interested in donating to the Quebec City English-speaking Community Foundation or sharing comments and suggestions is invited to email contact@qcesf.org.
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