Who We Are

Sunshine Coast Foundation provides stable and sustainable financial support to charitable organizations from Port Mellon to Egmont. We offer donors the opportunity to increase their impact by pooling the gifts we receive and carefully investing them. Each year, we use the earnings on our investments to provide funding to local charities. We help to connect donors with the causes that inspire them and the charities that are having the greatest positive impact. Our Vital Signs program compiles current and relevant research to help local organizations and decision-makers understand the issues and trends facing our Sunshine Coast community.

 

Sunshine Coast Foundation is a member of Community Foundations of Canada, a network of over 200 foundations supporting their local communities from coast to coast to coast.

Vision

A healthy and vibrant community where everyone belongs.

Mission

Connecting a caring community with causes that make a difference.

Our History

In March 2002, a volunteer group of citizens met to explore establishing a community foundation on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. They knew that resources of local governments and the business community were greatly stretched and were unable to keep up with the demand for funding by local charities and non-profits.

With help and advice from Community Foundations of Canada, a development committee was struck to assess local support for a community foundation. It convened a meeting with residents and leaders of charitable organizations on the Coast. Those present strongly endorsed the concept of a community foundation.

With the mandate from the community in hand, in February of 2003, Sunshine Coast Community Foundation was officially registered as a Society in British Columbia. Our incorporation number is S-45744.

In August of 2003, the Foundation received official charity status from Canada Revenue Agency. Its charitable registration number is 896086105RR0001.

Since then, the Foundation has experienced strong growth in its permanently-invested funds. In 2010, we were fortunate to receive a large bequest, which allowed the us to greatly increase the number and size of our community grants, as well as set aside funds for operations. In 2012, the Foundation hired its first part-time Executive Director, who served until 2017. Currently, the Foundation has three part-time staff – an Executive Director, a Communications & Grants Administrator, and a Finance & Administration Associate.

In 2016, Sunshine Coast Community Foundation was accredited by Imagine Canada, which provides donors with the assurance that we are governed to the highest standards of accountability and transparency.

In 2018, the Foundation celebrated its 15th anniversary and the awarding of more than $1,000,000 in funding to local charities.

In 2020, Sunshine Coast Community Foundation became the Sunshine Coast Foundation.

In 2023, the Foundation celebrated 20 years since its incorporation. To date, the Foundation has proudly awarded more than $3 Million in grants to over 100 charitable organizations on the Sunshine Coast.

Imagine Canada Accreditation

Sunshine Coast Foundation is very proud to be accredited under Imagine Canada‘s Standards Program. With this achievement, we are one of 270 nonprofit organizations across the country dedicated to operational excellence.

The Standards Program is a Canada-wide set of shared standards for charities and nonprofits designed to help organizations strengthen their operations in five fundamental areas: board governance; financial accountability and transparency; fundraising; staff management; and volunteer involvement.

Accredited since 2016, we are incredibly proud to be the first, and only, charitable organization on the Sunshine Coast to earn accreditation from Imagine Canada’s Standards Program.

Why all the hype?

The goals of Imagine Canada’s Standards Program are to increase organizational excellence and transparency of charities and nonprofits, to build resilience and to strengthen public confidence in individual organizations and the sector as a whole. To earn the accreditation, organizations must meet 73 standards in financial management and accountability, fundraising practise, board governance, staff management, and volunteer management.

As we celebrate 20 years of incorporation, this prestigious Trustmark signals to our generous donors that their donations will be managed with the utmost care, integrity, and transparency. We will maintain these highest standards of excellence as we continue connecting a caring community with causes that make a difference.

Stories: Schell Family Endowment

Storytelling has been a tradition for generations of the Schell Family. Anne and Bill Schell shared their love of literature through weekly library visits, reading aloud and bedtime stories, and giving the gift of books on special occasions to their children and grandchildren. They believed that reading was a way to open the doors to learning, adventure, and entertainment. The Schell Family Endowment will support the legacy of literacy that the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts is passionately pledged to.