THE TERRACE Community Foundation is here to help out a variety of groups with financial assistance.
The foundation comes about now as there was seed money in the form of grants that were matched.
“I think out biggest thing is we want people to know that we exist, that we are totally philanthropic. We are not in competition with any community group, in fact we want to work with them and hopefully maximize the return for ourselves and them, and it allows people to give back in perpetuity to the community,” says chair Sandy Glendenning.
The city provided $50,000 that was matched by northern Development Initiative Trust from its regional development account to assist with establishing an endowment within a community foundation, she explained.
The foundation also received an additional $10,000 from city grants.
And the principle amount will not be used, rather the interest it makes will be the money given to groups and organizations.
“We’re just getting started. We plan to hold one or two major fundraising events a years,” said Glendenning, adding right now the foundation committee wants people to know that organizations, services clubs or even people like lawyers can encourage their clients to make bequests.
Criteria for grant money will be set up in future as will the decision on what types of events to hold.
“We’re not to the stage yet of granting money so when the time comes, we’ll probably put out a call of what the specifics are,” she says about the criteria to apply for money.
Businesses or people who want to contribute up front can be on the founding donors list.
“A lot of people are very involved in helping the community in a lot of different ways and like to continue it on after they’re gone and this is a way of doing it,” said Glendenning, adding that the benefits go on not just for today and tomorrow but for 10, 20 or 30 years into the future.