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Grand and Intimate Giving
The Winnipeg Foundation is the oldest organization of its kind in Canada, established in 1921. As a philanthropic community foundation, it holds the pooled financial gifts of its residents in trust, investing the interest into the needs of the community.
Its founder, William Forbes Alloway, came to Winnipeg in 1870 and made his fortune as a private banker. Passionate about giving back to the city, he began the Foundation with an initial donation valued at more than $1 million in today’s currency.
That same spirit of generosity was embodied by Alloway’s wife, Elizabeth, who had inherited a sizeable fortune from her father. Her life was steeped in charity, supporting the Margaret Scott Nursing Mission, the Victorian Order of Nurses, and a Winnipeg orphanage. When she died in 1926, she left her entire estate to the Foundation – more than $800,000.
In 2021, The Winnipeg Foundation celebrates a centenary of giving. Some of its first grants went to the Children’s Aid Society and the Children’s Hospital. It focused on poverty during the Depression, invested in Victory War Loans during the Second World War, established grants for the United Way, and provided its largest single grant of $6 million to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
Recently, The Foundation coordinated with 18 bellwether organizations to understand, address, and relieve the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
With total grants in 2019 surpassing $500 million, The Winnipeg Foundation has grown to be one of the largest community foundations in North America, built by citizens from all walks of life. It exemplifies the collective power of generosity, and that the strength of giving is not predicated on largesse. Each contribution leverages opportunity, whether a large sum or a widow’s mite.
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