Welcome to a new regular feature, where I'll be writing about a concept that's new to many - community foundations.  I'm Dan Effa, the President of the Surrey Foundation, whch is your local foundation. For those of you who don't know, we bring together people who care about Surrey and want to make a difference.

By way of background, a community foundation is an independent, volunteer-driven charitable organization that aims to strengthen its community by 1) facilitating philanthropy, which is an activity intended to promote human welfare, 2) partnering with donors to build permanent investment funds in order to support community projects, and 3) providing leadership on issues of broad community concern.

Community foundations are founded on trust.  It's our mission to help donors achieve their charitable goals and invest financial capital in their communities.  These foundations also nurture relationships that bring others together and create a sense of belonging to a community.  Social scientists call these vital connections "social capital" and have found that it impacts many areas of a community and individual's well being

Community Foundations of Canada is the umbrella organization for community foundations, comprising over 150 foundations and $2.3 billion in assets.  In 2005, community foundations granted $121M within communities across Canada.

Since inception, the Surrey Foundation has granted more than $800,000 to worthy projects, including non-profits like the Surrey Museum and Archives Society, the Surrey Food Bank, Green Timbers Heritage Society, Surrey Crime Prevention and Fraser Valley Heritage Railway Society to name a few.

Community foundations can and do make a difference.  Check us out - contact us at info@surreyfoundation.org