RESPONSE TO MY BLOG POST: GRANTS FOR ASSISTANCE - An Overview (dated July 11, 2012)

In my BLOG post dated July 11, 2012, the following questions were asked:

(i) Area B residents should no longer be tax for Grants for Assistance and groups should be encouraged to apply for funds through the Quesnel Community Foundation; or

(ii) The Director of Area B should continue with the traditional Grants-for-Assistance program and develop a Grants for Assistance program specific for Area B.
What follows are some resident answers.

While both the CRD Grants for Assistance funds and funds available through the Quesnel Community Foundation [QCF]  are available to worthy community groups, I believe that funds available through the CRD Grants for Assistance Program represent a  completely separate and “different” type of  funding from those funds that are available through the Quesnel Community Foundation….The CRD funds come from taxes and as you stated in your email….for 2012, the residential tax rate for Grants for Assistance was $5.96 / $100,000.00. This resulted in $ 37,598.00 being donated to QCF from Area B alone.  The funds collected and administered by the Quesnel Community Foundation are donations that come from the general public, either individuals or community groups, clubs and organizations.  People wish to make donations for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is to gain some income tax relief.

The CRD Grants for Assistance Program exists to provide support/incentive/leverage funding for community groups, to support them in various initiatives/projects that [hopefully] would have some benefit for not only the specific group receiving the funding but also for the citizens of the broader community….in this case it would be the citizens of CRD’s Area B.  Other jurisdictions have similar Grants for Assistance or Grant In Aid Programs. Unless it has been discontinued, I believe that the City of Quesnel has a similar program, although I seem to remember reading that the City of Quesnel has also donated funds to the QCF.  Various community businesses also offer “Grant in Aid” programs, one example is the program offered by the Integris Credit Union.  Further, from time-to-time the provincial government will create “special”  grant programs in support of various provincial celebrations, such as the Direct Access grant program that was established to support the 2008, BC150 celebrations.  There are also lottery funds that are available  to specific community groups…..this is essentially “government” money.

The Quesnel Community Foundation is just one of several similar Community Foundations that exist in communities throughout the province.  Community Foundations are philanthropic organizations, I believe that officially they are registered charitable organizations regulated by the Registrar of Societies.  The “grandaddy” of all of B.C.’s Community Foundations is the Vancouver Foundation.  I believe that there is some kind of formal link between all of the provincial Community Foundations, and that they share common terms of reference and operating procedures, maybe even a common Constitution and Bylaws????  I do know that the Vancouver Foundation was instrumental in establishing the Quesnel Community Foundation and that they donated a significant amount of seed money at the time the QCF was established.

There is one significant difference between how CRD and QCF funds are awarded/distributed.  In order to be eligible to receive QCF funds, the recipient [group or organization] must be what is called a “registered donee” which means that they must be a registered charity.  To become a registered charity, a group/organization must meet the criteria set out by the Federal government.  Not every group that would benefit from CRD Grants for Assistance funding would be eligible to receive charitable status, this would include many sports, minor sports, recreation and even some arts groups.  In short, if CRD funds are given to the QCF to be administered, some groups in the CRD will definitely be excluded.  The only way to get around this would be for the group applying for the Grant for Assistance to ally themselves with another group that is a Registered Donee.    An example of such a group could be School District 28.  This would mean that there would be a third party involved in the granting process…it can get quite complicated.

When the CRD was distributing Grants for Assistance, there was a detailed and comprehensive Application Completion Guide available for any group wishing to apply for funds.  This guide is six pages long and I won’t go into any detail right now, but it is a step-by-step guide to completing the application form.  It explains that the Applications for Assistance Program falls under Section 176[1][c] of the Local Government Act and that all applicants must be “non profit societies or agencies”, which is not the same as being a registered charity.

It is my belief that the CRD simply got tired of the work involved in screening all of the applications that came in under the Grants for Assistance program and they were looking for some way to off load the work while still maintaining the actual Grants for Assistance Program [for which they are collecting taxes].  By offloading the responsibilities to the QCF, they have fundamentally changed the Grants for Assistance Program as indicated above.

However there are also two additional points that must also be considered.  The QCF policy is to only distribute the interest on the money that they have invested.  There have been years when their investments did not accrue any interest at all.  Unless there is some kind of special arrangement between the QCF and the CRD, the money that is “given” to the QCF each year by the CRD does not represent the actual amount that will be distributed to applicants for grants….only the accrued interest from that money will be donated. 

Having stated that, it is true that the QCF will arrange that any grant monies can be awarded as part of a designated fund…for example it would be possible to have the QCF establish a “CRD - Area ‘B’ Designated Fund”,  and it could be specified that only residents/charitable groups from within Area B could apply for that grant money.  But the money awarded annually would only be the interest that was gained over the past year on the money that had been designated for that particular fund…which would not be the same as, and would probably be far less than, the principal amount that had been donated to the QCF by the CRD each year.  It would take many years for the fund to grow before the accrued interest would equal the amount of the annual CRD grant.

Both The Quesnel Community Foundation awards program and the CRD Grants for Assistance Program are excellent and both are good for our community…..but they are different and in actual fact I believe that we do need both of them and not some convoluted hybrid  just so that there might be less work for the CRD.

So having said all of this, I come out in favour of your second option…..

(ii) The Director of Area B should continue with the traditional Grants-for-Assistance program and develop a Grants for Assistance program specific for Area B.

But this will be a lot of work, I actually believe that the CRD should revisit their decision and that they should resume the role that they once held in terms of administering their own Grants for Assistance program.