A Scan of Community Foundations in Manitoba: Understanding Challenges, Opportunities, and Contributions to Communities

Funded through The Winnipeg Foundation

Philanthropy, especially through community foundations, is a powerful catalyst for strengthening communities in Canada. Community Foundations and their board members are interested and engaged in finding ways to make their community a more vital place to live, work, and play. Foundations also strive to build stronger communities through philanthropic leadership. Community foundations throughout Manitoba are diverse, representing a large cross section of communities in urban, rural, and northern areas. Manitoba is unique with a disproportionately high number of community foundations in relation to Canada. Of the 164 community foundations in Canada, 40 community foundations are in Manitoba representing urban, rural, and northern communities.

This project aims to understand the diversity that exists among Manitoba community foundations. The project will achieve an increased understanding of community foundations, their organizations, their structures, their endowments, their community grants, and local benefits. Opportunities and challenges of community foundations, both current and anticipated, will be captured. Information generated will assist community foundations, government policy and programming, and academic institutions concerned with community development.

The Rural Development Institute will dialogue with members of community foundations to identify their organizational structures, endowments, and community grants. Through discussions with community foundations, the Rural Development Institute will determine the opportunities and challenges being encountered among community foundations.

The project will contribute to a subsequent proposal focusing on building a methodology for wealth transfer. The two proposals should be viewed each as independent of the other; however, information generated from each will compliment the other proposal.

Links

The Winnipeg Foundation

Project Publications

Community Foundations Innovative Vehicles for Rural and Northern Development.
(2010). Presented at the Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development’s Synergy Series, St. John’s, NL. Gibson, R.

Diverse, Dynamic, and Dedicated. Scan of Manitoba’s Rural and Northern Communities. 2009
(2009). Gibson, R., & Shanghvi, I.

Transfer of Wealth: Motivations and Important Lessons For Canada From the United States.
(2009). Shanghvi, I.

Manitoba’s Rural and Northern Community Foundations Survey
(2009).

A Scan of Community Foundations in Manitoba Fact Sheet.
(2009).

Legacies that grow communities. (April).
Presented at the 2009 Capturing Opportunities Conference, Brandon, MB. Yost, J., Gibson, R., & Frost, R.

Understanding Manitoba’s community foundations: Preliminary analysis
(April, 2009). Presented at the Community Foundation of Canada Regional Meeting, Brandon, MB. Gibson, R. and Annis, R.

Regional Issues and Knowledge: Scan of Community Foundations.
(April). Presented at the Community Foundations of Canada Regional Meeting, Brandon, MB. Gibson, R., Ferguson, L., & Shanghvi, I.