The Quesnel Community Foundation’s $50,000 challenge is underway !
Sandra Lewis, the President, says the campaign got underway on October 15th and will continue through December 15th.
“When the community donates 50 thousand, then we have a an anonymous donor that matches our donations. So we get the 50 and then our anonymous donor gives us an additional 50.”
Lewis says there a few ways people can donate.
“They can donate online. If you go to our website, they can e-transfer. The Quesnel Community Foundation website has all of these instructions. You can also send it a cheque payable to Quesnel Community Foundation, and send it to our office or drop it off at our office or send it to box 4158. Our email for e-transfer is quesnelcommunityfoundation@gmail.com.”
Lewis says Rocky Mountaineer made a nice donation this year.
She says they have come along way since starting the foundation with $50,000 as a legacy fund from hosting the 2000 BC Winter Games.
“The city matched us with $50,000 and the Vancouver Foundation gave us $50,000. So we started out with 150 thousand in the bank, very hard to try to give out just the interest off that in grants so you can imagine how it increased. And now we’re at I think 7.1 million dollars in our endowment, so that enables us now, last year we gave out $240,000 in grants, and that’s directly back to the community for programs that couldn’t really survive if it wasn’t for grant money.”
Lewis says the interest and earnings from the endowment is what goes out to local community groups each year, so the amount that they give out each year should continue to grow.
She says they are now able to give out bigger grants as well.
