Whenever something positive takes place on Salt Spring, there’s one group that likely played a part in making it happen.
It could be the purchase of a 10-acre parcel of land for the Stqeeye’ Learning Society’s Coming Home campaign; a major contribution to an off-road trail; and donations to causes as diverse as choral music workshops and youth sports subsidies.
Then there are the Vital Signs surveys and reports undertaken every five years; the Living Wage reports; its Foundation of Youth program; and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples through specified funds.
The group is the Salt Spring Island Foundation (SSIF) and it is arguably connected to more groups and impacts more individuals than any other body on the island.
It’s an organization that grew from a single $10,000 bequest from islander John C. Lees, who died just days before SSIF was created as a trust with co-founders Colin Mouat, Alan Pierce and Richard Toynbee, to having an endowment of more than $18 million, 150 different named funds and a software program to help manage them.
The remarkable SSIF story will be celebrated at a 40 Years of Giving anniversary event at ArtSpring on Saturday, Nov. 16 from 1 to 3:30 p.m. In addition to live music and delicious food, it will provide a colourful picture of the projects the organization has funded through more than 1,000 grants totalling some $5.9 million and see some recipient groups share the impact of those grants. Briony Penn will talk about one islander – Nancy Braithwaite – whose estate provided $4 million to SSIF last year, with more to come in future. (That bequest, along with $2,588,200 from the Marianna Middleberg Estate, has elevated the foundation to a new level of capacity.) Bob Rush, who led the foundation during a critical period in the 1990s, is also scheduled to speak.
Shannon Cowan is the foundation’s executive director, who says it’s an exciting time to be involved with SSIF.
“For the first 20 to 30 years, we were building endowment, and now we’re building community. There’s been a mindset shift, although the heart is the same.”
Cowan said it’s hoped that revenue from the SSIF endowment “will continue to be able to put a million dollars a year out the door into the community. Then we’re also freed up to do more with flow-through funds and campaigns and fundraising and build ourselves to a point in capacity as an organization where we can be more responsive and do what we did in Covid, on the regular.”
Cowan is referring to how SSIF stepped up big time during the pandemic with a campaign that quickly raised more than $250,000 in “emergency” funding for urgent community needs, including providing Country Grocer gift cards to families in need.
In light of the recent major bequests, Cowan said, “I think we’re going to see more cause-based and quick spend actions from the foundation. It is going to be a leverage point for some of the really tough challenges on Salt Spring right now.”
The whole community is invited to the Nov. 16 celebration to learn more about the foundation’s role on Salt Spring Island and how to contribute to it.