Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Manda Aufochs Gillespie announced two new grant offerings, the new shared workplace in the Village Commons and much more, in a Cortes Island Community Foundation update yesterday.

“It has been a really busy year,  and I am so excited about where we are,  and this community that we get to serve. I'd love to tell you about some of the things that maybe you've been hearing about that are happening right now and some of the things that you and everyone can look forward to hearing more about this summer and as the year progresses,” she began.  

“We are very excited to again have some funds that we're getting to grant into the community.”

“As a community foundation, we are still finding our way as to what that means and how we are most relevant to this community. The longer we're doing this, the more that we realize that we're a pretty different community foundation than most of those community foundations that are out there.”“For instance, the Vancouver Foundation has I'm not sure how much money, but I think in the matter of billions in their endowment. They're able to use that endowment to support the good works of many, many different community organizations, particularly those based in and around Vancouver, but also throughout the province.” 

“The Cortes Island Community Foundation does not have an endowment of any size. We don't have money that is sitting in a bank, or that is invested, that earns a bit of principle that then we grant from.  From the beginning we decided we can wait or follow a model of a community foundation that is about earning money,  saving it up, investing it well, and then spending it out. When we look around us,  it's clear that the organizations in our community need resources now. They need human resources, financial resources and social resources today.” “Since our founding just a few years ago, we have managed to leverage over three and a half million dollars directly into the community without needing to have an endowment. This has been in no small part because of luck.  I would like to say it's because of the genius of all those involved, which I'm sure has something to do with it, but mostly it's been luck. We've come into existence at a time when the government of Canada has made available, pretty much for the first time ever,  a series of funds aimed at helping smaller community foundations immediately have impact in their communities.”