Sunshine Coast Foundation exists to help make life on the Sunshine Coast a healthy, vibrant, and welcoming experience. We share our community’s sense of shock and concern about the ongoing and deepening COVID-19 health crisis. We know that many of our vulnerable populations are at even more risk during this time. We appreciate that many of the charities that we support may be struggling to raise funds to keep operating. Your community foundation will do what it can to support those organizations that serve our neighbours.

Grants

In 2020, the Foundation intends to maintain its granting at the same levels as in 2019, divided between our ‘responsive’ community grants and our new ‘intentional’ granting stream.

Those organizations that completed a Letter of Intent for a responsive or intentional 2020 grant will hear from us this week. Those who are invited will have until April 30, 2020 to submit their full applications. Our calendar for approving grants before the end of May remains valid for 2020. Whether or not we are able to host our annual grants ceremony at the end of the June, we will distribute grant cheques to the successful applicants as soon as we are able to. We will also promptly distribute grant cheques to agencies holding endowments with us and other organizations who receive grants directly from donor-directed or donor-advised funds.

Grant Reporting

The Foundation is relaxing its requirement that all 2019 grant recipients submit their final reports by April 30, 2020. Grant recipients now have until December 31, 2020, if necessary, to submit their final 2019 grant reports. This will not impact their ability to apply for a grant in 2020, if they are invited to do so.

Investments

While not immune to these extraordinary pressures, the Foundation’s investment portfolio is designed to withstand changes in the global economy. This includes more diversified, lower risk, and more defensive investments. We are confident in the expertise of our Investment and Oversight Committee, in our fund managers, and in the measures we’ve taken to ensure that our investment portfolio will generate sustainable granting income for our community in the years to come.

Meetings

Following the advice of our medical community, and to protect our Board and staff, the Foundation is conducting all meetings virtually for the foreseeable future.

More Information

The best source of local information about the pandemic is the daily update from the Sunshine Coast COVID Physician Task Force, which is published on the www.coastreporter.net web site.

The Board and staff of the Sunshine Coast Foundation wish you well during these challenging times.

Please contact the Foundation at 604.741.7360 or sccfoundation@dccnet.com if you have any questions.