Where to Start

Your Philanthropic Journey

Philanthropy doesn’t come in just one shade or size. People worldwide donate what money and time they can to further the well-being and creative endeavours of others. Through their generous donations, the marginalized are helped, our cultural life is vibrant, scholarships and bursaries build productive students and universities, and hospitals are better equipped.

Your decision to donate is the first step in your philanthropy journey.

What Are Endowment Funds?

In your giving plans, you may wish to establish your own Endowment Fund. A minimum gift of $1,000 is required to establish the fund. You can continue to grow this legacy throughout your lifetime with a possible added consideration of building it more with a bequest from your estate.

The Fund must be at $10,000 before income will be paid out in grants as you will have outlined in a Deed of Gift.

Guide to Giving

For Individuals and Families

We care about our homes, our communities, the places we have lived, worked and raised a family. Many of us want to find a way to give back to these places. As you embark on your giving journey, our dedicated team will help you explore your personal reasons and motivations for being philanthropic.

Guide to Giving

For Charitable Organizations

For charitable organizations, securing sustainable financial resources to support the organization can be an on-going challenge. Working with SCF, charities can establish a fund to assist in providing undesignated annual income to support their charitable goals, as part of its long-term plan for creating financial stability.

Guide to Giving

For Corporate Donors

Shuswap Community Foundation can assist your organization to develop and administer a strategic giving plan that creates a measurable impact in the community. Companies can outsource their entire charitable giving program, or a particular part of it to SCF for expert management and maximum impact.

Guide to Giving

For Professional Advisors

At SCF your clients have the flexibility to shape their own charitable giving to reflect their personal goals and desires. Whether they want to address an urgent need in the community, memorialize a loved one, or help out a charity with a project, we have a giving option to help them make an impact and improve the lives of others in the community.

Why a Community Foundation?

Many organizations are working to create better communities. A few important factors make the community foundation approach different.


Long-Term Vision

Because community foundations focus on building permanent endowments, we are able to tackle long-term community challenges as well as immediate needs.

Permanence

Gifts to a community foundation endowment work to meet community needs in perpetuity.

Local Expertise

Community foundations are uniquely equipped to help individual donors meet their particular philanthropic goals by providing in-depth knowledge of their community along with expertise in a wide range of flexible charitable giving options.

Broad Perspective

Community foundations make effective grants and develop networks in a wide range of sectors. With this in-depth community knowledge, we can identify opportunities in many fields and build on existing community strengths. We are also well placed to make simple, but often powerful, connections between people and organizations in the community.

Commitment to Community

Community foundations are broad-based, volunteer-driven local organizations. Because our view of community issues and priorities is independent and crosses many sectors, community foundations have an opportunity for collaborative leadership that reflects the interest of the community at large.

Accountability

Community foundations believe our values and way of working, not just our work, can be a powerful tool for building social capital. As responsible members of the charitable sector, community foundations strive for flexible, transparent governance and leadership practices that welcome volunteer involvement, encourage dialogue among diverse voices in the community, and inspire commitment to philanthropy.

Online Donations

SCF has joined up with CanadaHelps to make donating to your favourite cause or charity quick, convenient and secure.

Written requests to have your donation endowed in perpetuity are not required. The Canada Revenue Agency supports this method of making gifts to your community.

Brought to you by the 191 Community Foundations of Canada
Brought to you by the 191 Community Foundations of Canada
Community Foundations of Canada
Community Foundations of Canada