Creating Tomorrow
Last fall, foundations and art groups throughout the province were made aware of an initiative on the part of the BC Government. This program, entitled the BC Arts Renaissance Fund, took the form of a grant of $25 million, placed in trust with the Vancouver Foundation; it was the intent of the Province to support arts and culture across BC, in building long-term financial sustainability. These funds can only be accessed by the local arts community if they can match the minimum amount of $10,000 with donations from the community. The other criteria is that the funds must be endowed.
Maintaining funds for three major arts organizations, Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops Symphony and Western Canada Theatre, the Kamloops Foundation recognized that it would be difficult for any one organization to raise the required minimum in endowed funds each year. So a partnership was formed amongst the three organizations to pursue a single grant each year to be shared to the benefit of each group.
Upon the completion of the 2006 fundraiser, with the addition of the matched money from the Renaissance Fund, these moneys plus interest will then be divided equally between the Art Gallery Fund, Kamloops Symphony Fund and the Western Canada Theatre Company Fund. The interest from each fund will be there to be used as needed by the organizations. The Kamloops Foundation will be doing all the income tax receipts and paperwork for this activity.
It is the ideal time to make that donation that you have thinking of in memory of some one that you loved and who always appreciated the arts. This way not only do you get a tax receipt for the amount you donate, the associations get twice the amount of money thanks to the grant and you will have done something you have been thinking about for years.
