COCHRANE— Awarding more than $79,000 in grants to local non-profits and charities, The Cochrane Foundation is continuing its decades long tradition of supporting organizations near and dear to Cochranites' hearts.
The Cochrane Foundation was founded in 1993 and gave away its first grant in 1997. Last year, in 2020, the Foundation gave away its millionth dollar.
On Feb. 11, the Foundation divvied up $79,082 between 18 local groups to assist them with the projects they are pursuing in Cochrane and the surrounding area.
Each year the Foundation collects money from donations and stores them in an endowment fund, which is divided up and handed out to various community groups that apply for grant funding.
Tim Harvie, the chair of the board said the foundation sees hundreds of applications each year.
“I still call it the best-kept secret in Cochrane. If you walk down the street 19 out of 20 people haven’t heard of it,” he said. “We’re not trying to blow our own horn, we’re trying to spread the word that if you’re looking for a good organization that broadly supports all of the different needs in Cochrane, the Cochrane Foundation is, I think, a very good choice.”
This year was a big year for the foundation which recently achieved its own charitable status last November.
In previous years, the Foundation’s funds were held by the Calgary Foundation and sent to the Cochrane Foundation every year when it was time to distribute the grants.
“The fund is very much a Cochrane fund for the benefit of Cochrane and the community and the surrounding area, but it was administered by the Calgary Foundation. When you’re running a charity there’s a lot of compliance and administration. We didn’t have the critical mass to cover that administrative cost,” Harvie said.
He explained the board believed that may have been creating some confusion about where the funds would be distributed, which was limiting the Cochrane Foundation’s growth.
“Now that the Cochrane Foundation has its own charitable status, we stand alone, and now when people want to donate or leave estates or funds or anything, they can leave it directly to the Cochrane Foundation and that will help us grow the fund over the long term,” Harvie said.
Among the recipients of this year’s grant was the Cochrane Pregnancy Care Centre.
The Centre’s executive director Nathan Klassen said he was very grateful to receive the funding from the Cochrane Foundation.
“This past year has been a challenging year I’m sure for many non-profits in Cochrane and Area. We have a number of different revenue streams, many of them are private donors and that’s where we see a number of our funding needs that we have met, but it’s also nice to have this other option in the community through the Cochrane Foundation. We’re very grateful for the award,” Klassen said.
He said the funds will be used by the Cochrane Pregnancy Care Centre to update some of the technology at the Centre, which would help staff and volunteers streamline their work.
“The intent of those investments was to optimize the day-to-day work that our staff and our volunteers are doing, so that for every hour we have available to us, whether it’s our paid staff or our great volunteer network, that we’re able to do more with that same hour,” he said.
The new efficiencies will help to lower the time invested into administrative and operational tasks, Klassen said, which will allow staff to reinvest that time in serving the clientele the Centre serves.
The clients that the Centre serve often face difficult decisions regarding how to proceed with a pregnancy, and increasing the efficiency of services can lower the stress and anxiety expecting mothers might face in an already challenging time.
Lowering that stress, Klassen said, can lead to better developmental outcomes for both mother and child.
The Cochrane and Area Humane Society was another recipient of the Cochrane Foundation’s support.
Lisa Kedian, communications coordinator for the Cochrane and Area Humane Society said the staff of the shelter was very grateful for the grant, as it came at the end of a challenging year.
“We were very excited, we’re very grateful. Of course, because of COVID, this year things have been very difficult, so the fact that we are the recipient of the grant is very helpful,” Kedian said. “We’re very excited and very grateful to be named one of the recipients.”
Kedian said the grant will go toward laptops and monitors which will help the shelter stay connected with its network of volunteers, staff and the public.
“We wanted to upgrade some of the equipment we have in the shelter. Mostly because when COVID-19 came around and things started to move into a more virtual setting a lot of our staff members started working from home and a lot of the instructors starting teaching virtual classes,” she said.
The Cochrane and Area Humane Society plays a vital role in the Cochrane community by keeping animals off the street and giving them a safe refuge while they wait to be adopted into a loving family.
The shelter also plays a vital role in population control through its spay and neuter programs.
To find out more about the Cochrane Foundation, or if you wish to donate, visit cochranefoundation.ca.
