Federal program stretches gifts to select Agency Funds.

A federal program is helping local arts organizations have reliable revenue streams by stretching gifts made to charities’ Agency Funds. Since 2001, this has resulted in close to $18 million in federal payments to our community. These endowments provide greater capacity for realizing artistic expression.

The Winnipeg Foundation’s Agency Endowment Fund program also provides charities with annual payments over which they have discretion. Agency Funds are typically part of a charity’s longer-term strategy to ensure stable core funding.

The Winnipeg Folk Festival established its Agency Endowment Fund at The Winnipeg Foundation in 2000.

“It creates stability, it creates consistency, and it really lowers my stress level a lot to know that I’ve got this consistent money coming in,” Folk Fest’s Executive Director Lynne Skromeda says of the organization’s Agency Fund.

Through the Endowment Incentives component of the Canada Culture Investment Fund program, Canadian Heritage encourages private donors to contribute to arts organizations’ endowment funds. There are more than 20 qualifying arts organizations in Winnipeg that have Agency Funds at The Foundation.

The Foundation’s own stretch program adds additional revenue to these Agency Funds, and then this total amount is stretched by funding from Canadian Heritage. In some years, this is matched dollar-for-dollar. The Winnipeg Foundation works with Agency Fund holders to submit applications to the Federal Incentives program annually.

Since the program’s inception in 2001, a total of $23,439,310 has been raised by the community, The Winnipeg Foundation has contributed $1,402,188 in stretch funding, and $17,853,494 has been received in federal stretch dollars, bringing the total impact to $42,694,991.

Learn more: wpgfdn.org/agencyfunds

DOLLARS AND SENSE

Here’s the impact the Canada Culture Investment Fund Endowment Incentives program has made in our community since 2001:

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PARTICIPATING CHARITIES

$23.4 million

RAISED BY THE COMMUNITY

$1.4 million

STRETCH FROM THE WINNIPEG FOUNDATION

$17.8 million

FEDERAL STRETCH FUNDING

$42.7 million

TOTAL IMPACT

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This story is featured in the Fall 2019 issue of our Working Together magazine. Download or view the full issue on our Publications page.