Charities being supported this year: Y Women’s Emergency Shelter, Kamloops Brain Injury Association, Chris Rose Therapy Centre for Autism, Kamloops Therapeutic Riding Association and the Kamloops chapter of the BC SPCA. To donate, click on the KTW Christmas Cheer Fund logo on the kamloopsthisweek.com website or go online to bcicf.ca/kamloops-this-week-christmas-cheer-fund. Donations are accepted online thanks to a partnership with the BC Interior Community Foundation. Donations can also be dropped off at the KTW office, at 1365B Dalhousie Dr. Office hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays. Cheques should be made out to the BC Interior Community Foundation.
The 2022 KTW Christmas Cheer Fund is back — this time with Kamloops This Week readers helping us help five local non-profits.
Money raised in the Cheer Fund will be distributed equally to the Y Women’s Emergency Shelter, Kamloops Therapeutic Riding Association, Kamloops Brain Injury Association, Chris Rose Therapy Centre for Autism and the Kamloops branch of the BC SPCA.
Subsequent stories will highlight the work those non-profits do in the community. Today, we launch the Cheer Fund with a look at the BC Interior Community Foundation, the organization that is helping KTW collect and organize donations.
Wenda Noonan, executive director of the BCICF, said the Foundation helps fund local charities, community projects and programs, along with scholarships and bursaries.
There are dozens of funds listed on the BCICF website (bcicf.ca), many of which are endowments that help finance a cause in perpetuity. The KTW Christmas Cheer Fund is a flow-through fund, which means all money raised this year is dispersed to the charities involved.
“We partner with a business, or it could be a charity like yourself, and accept the donations because we have all the processes and administration in place to be able to properly receipt and help out our community,” Noonan said.
This is the second year that KTW has teamed up with the BCICF and last year’s inaugural linkage was a success.
“It was a really great partnership because for us, although we've been around for 38 years, we're still struggling with awareness of our Foundation and the work that we do within our community,” Noonan said. “Obviously, it's a win-win. We're able to provide the service to Kamloops This Week and people come to our website and are able to make a donation that benefits our community.”
Noonan said the Cheer Fund benefits from the exposure realized from the cross-promotion by KTW and the BCICF.
And helping KTW help its five Cheer Fund non-profits is only a small part of what the BCICF does.
“We have a lot of social agency charities. If you wanted to donate to the hospice, for instance, but you wanted your money to work forever, you can make a donation to the hospice fund that we hold,” Noonan said. “So, your donation — say it's $1,000 — we’ll never spend that original donation, One hundred per cent of it goes into the fund and then we give the hospice the earnings every year from now to forever.”
For example, about 20 years ago, Western Canada Theatre, Kamloops Symphony Orchestra and Kamloops Art Gallery got together to form the Creating Tomorrow campaign, which ran for three years and which includes a matching government aspect.
That endowment has grow,n Noonan said, noting she delivered $60,000 to the symphony this year on behalf of the BCICF.
Investing is done by financial experts.
Last year, Noonan said, the BCICF earned 5.68 per cent on investments, of which one per cent went to the Foundation and 4.68 per cent went to the various charities in its fund list.
“So, we survive on one per cent,” she said.
The KTW Christmas Cheer Fund can be found on the front page of the BCICF website. Donatons can also be made by clicking on the large KTW Christmas Cheer Fund logo on the kamloopsthisweek.com website.
