Background for all Foundations

The first Canadian community foundation was created in 1921 in Winnipeg. By 2005, Canada had approximately 150 community foundations holding aggregated assets of $2 billion. The grants from the investment income are affecting millions of Canadian lives. Community foundations are the fastest growing, most dynamic form of philanthropy in North America.

A community foundation is a collection of endowed funds established by individuals and corporations – a community of donors – to enhance the quality of life in a particular area. These funds are pooled and a board of directors supervises the resulting investment portfolio. The income from the portfolio is made available for distribution to support charitable activities in the local community.

The Lac du Bonnet & District Charitable Foundation, Inc. is dedicated to improving the quality of life in the Town and RM of Lac du Bonnet and the adjacent area of the RM of Alexander through the creation and management of funds gifted in perpetuity and the distribution of investment earnings for local charitable purposes.  The Lac du Bonnet & District Charitable Foundation is a philanthropic organization focused on building permanent endowments to address long-term community challenges as well as meeting immediate needs in the community.  

Every donor must know and appreciate that a gift to the Foundation is a gift to the community of Lac du Bonnet.  Your gift to the community is invested and the yearly investment proceeds of that investment will be granted to qualified donees to address charitable needs in the community of Lac du Bonnet.   This will be your contribution to make Lac du Bonnet a better place to live every year in the future whether you are here or not.

How did our Foundation get started?

The Lac du Bonnet & District Charitable Foundation resulted from the vision of a number of community-minded people.  These people noted how hard the Lac du Bonnet volunteer organizations worked to provide and raise funds for important charitable purposes within the community.  See frequently asked question (FAQ) for more details about the origins of the Foundation.

They were also aware that other communities had started community foundations with the purpose of generating a capital development fund.  The investment earnings  from these funds could be used to support community charitable projects.  They realized the investment earnings from the invested capital raised by these foundations was creating significant funds for charitable purposes in their communities.  These earnings often rivalled the funds generated from the hard work of the many people working within other volunteer organizations within the community. 

In 2001 the Director of the Thomas Sill Foundation was invited to speak to interested residents of Lac du Bonnet and surrounding district about the concept.  However, it was not until 2007 that the idea really caught on.  There was sufficient interest in the community  to make the idea a reality.   In 2007, a group of Lac du Bonnet residents formed a group to look at the possibility of setting up a Foundation in the Lac du Bonnet area.  With financial support as seed money from the Town and RM of Lac du Bonnet, the Foundation became a reality.

The Foundation was incorporated and achieved charitable status in 2008.  Charitable status allows the Lac du Bonnet & District Charitable Foundation to issue tax receipts for any donation received.

The Lac du Bonnet & District Charitable Foundation:

• is officially registered as a charity and has been designated by the Canada Revenue Agency as a tax exempt Public Foundation and has been assigned a Business Number /Registration Number: 823854559RR0001 that identifies the charitable status of the Foundation;

• is independent and autonomous and it is governed by a body of volunteers, that will usually be independently appointed, which represents and is accountable to the community it serves;  

• is not controlled directly or indirectly by any government, corporations, associations, individuals, related family members, or particular religious, cultural or ethnic groups;

• will maintain a broad grants program providing funding to many different grantees in a range of fields of interest and segments of the population in the Lac du Bonnet area.  Grantees must be "qualified donees" as defined in the Income Tax Act;

• will be structured primarily as a growing collection of permanent and non-permanent endowment funds, which includes a pool of unrestricted dollars, that support the diverse charitable purposes specified by the governing body and by its donors;

• will focus its grant-making and charitable services primarily in the commercial trading area around Lac du Bonnet;

• will be a prudent and responsible steward and investor of charitable funds, while maintaining complete and accurate financial records;

• will regularly monitor its internal processes and activities with the goal of meeting the highest standards of practice in all its activities.

The Foundation and Leadership

Working with all like minded charitable, philanthropic groups and the citizens of Lac du Bonnet & District, the Lac du Bonnet & District Charitable Foundation will:

(1) establish a clear vision of our community as a better community for today, tomorrow and forever

(2) work to achieve that vision in the community by following our mission. The Foundation will constantly consult with the citizens and other community based organizations of Lac du Bonnet to insure that Community needs and aspirations are understood and that the Foundation’s vision is the shared vision of the whole community.,

(3) provide the information, knowledge, and recommend methods that can be followed to realize the vision for the Foundation and the community, and

(4) work to coordinate and balance the interests of all members, residents and stakeholders in the community. The Foundation will only operate by following our ten operating principles or values to achieve our vision.

In summary, the Lac du Bonnet and District Charitable Foundation will act and provide support in the community to achieve the shared vision by following our mission and exercising our expressed values within our structure using the resources of the organization.

In November of 2009 the Foundation went through the process of developing a Strategic Plan for the Foundation. This Strategic Plan is available at the following link.  This Strategic Plan will serve as working document in the coming year.

Updated Strategic Plan for 2011