CommunityCommunity foundations across province benefit from $10 million endowment
Community foundations throughout our province help their local communities flourish. A new endowment is ensuring the community foundations themselves can flourish, through access to responsive and proactive programming delivered by Endow Manitoba.
The new, $10 million endowment in support of Endow Manitoba was created by the Manitoba government and will ensure foundations have access to more training, technology, research and resources.
“Endow Manitoba is excited to continue working closely with Manitoba’s network of 56 community foundations to advance the sustainability and growth of the movement in our province,” says Alan Goddard, Director of Endow Manitoba. “This new endowment will enable us to deliver the responsive programming community foundations want and, working together with our network and other stakeholders, develop the proactive programming community foundations need.”
There are several priorities supported by the new endowment, which currently include capacity-building foundation board workshops delivered in each of the province’s 56 foundation communities; research and development projects in partnership with Manitoba universities aimed at advancing the movement through “made in Manitoba” innovations; and an Information Technology (IT) enhancement program that will provide each Manitoba foundation access to laptops, software, and training. There are several more priorities under development, which will be revealed as the program evolves.
“Manitoba’s community foundations are known throughout the global movement for their commitment to community vitality. The Winnipeg Foundation is Canada’s first foundation, and per capita, Manitoba boasts more community foundations than anywhere else in our nation. This new $10M endowment from the Manitoba government is a testament to the value we all see in community foundations – for our communities and for our province as a whole,” Goddard says. “This endowment will be used to both sustain and grow our foundations into the future.”
The Winnipeg Foundation has been supporting the community foundation movement across Manitoba through capacity building programs and activities for more than two decades. In 2018, it expanded the Endow Manitoba team to help focus and enhance efforts.
Learn more: endowmb.org
This story is featured in the Spring 2020 issue of our Working Together magazine. Download or view the full issue on our Publications page.