Community
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. The Winnipeg Foundation has passed an incredible granting milestone: $500 million in cumulative grants to the community, which it announced at an event today at The WRENCH.
“This type of support is possible thanks to our generous donors,” says Foundation CEO Rick Frost. “Community foundations are built on the premise that it’s not the size of the gift, but that act of giving that matters. In this way, a community foundation embodies community empowerment. Plus, gifts are endowed, so a gift today will support our community For Good. Forever.”
The Winnipeg Foundation is Canada’s first community foundation, established in 1921.
“It took us 80 years to reach $100 million in cumulative grants back to the community. When we reached that benchmark in 2001, we never imagined how quickly our granting would grow!” says Foundation Board Chair, Doneta Brotchie. “It was just three years ago when we celebrated $400 million in cumulative grants to the community. And today, we’ve surpassed the incredible $500 million cumulative granting mark – that really demonstrates the power of endowment.”
The distribution which took The Foundation over this milestone was a $21,000 grant to The WRENCH – which stands for Winnipeg Repair Education and Cycling Hub – in support of an Administrative Assistant position. The Foundation provided a start-up grant to The WRENCH in 2010, so it seems fitting that this most recent grant was also special. Since its inception, The WRENCH has distributed more than 12,000 bikes, and facilitated more than 43,000 participant visits, where people learn the skills necessary to care for a bike and gain independence; the new position will help the organization have an even greater impact.
“It’s so exciting to think about the capacity and what it creates,” The WRENCH’s Managing Director Pat Krawec says of the new position. “We have highly impactful programming and we want to get it to kids who need it the most, for the biggest impact, as much as possible.”
The WRENCH provides an inclusive environment that offers educational services to everyone, including low income youth and newcomers. It helps reduce our carbon footprint by increasing access to efficient modes of transportation and improves people’s physical and mental health. For more information about The WRENCH and its services, head to thewrench.ca
The Winnipeg Foundation is For Good. Forever. We help people give back to our shared community by connecting generous donors with causes they care about For Good. We’re are an endowment-based public foundation, so gifts are pooled and invested, and the annual earnings are distributed back to the community Forever. Formed in 1921, we are proud to be the first community foundation in Canada.
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Media inquiries/questions:
LuAnn Lovlin, CFRE
Director of Communications & Marketing, The Winnipeg Foundation
Email LuAnn
T: 204.944.9474 ext. 232 C: 204.781.9336