A jar full of coins has been tipped over and the money spilled out
Community, Finances

Round Two Of The Giving Well Program

The Cortes Island Community Foundation is running a second round of the Giving Well program that provides one-time tax free cash “gifts” of between $5,000 to $10,000 to individuals. 

Isabella McKnight, Executive Administrator of the Cortes Foundation explained, “The first round was extremely successful. We were able to give over $180,000 to 30 different individuals and families in need. So far, the feedback from that has been really great,  it was just the right amount at just the right time. The money went out right before Christmas, so that felt extra good as well.”

“We’ve got about $25,000 (each) for five categories to give out to families and individuals who are in acute financial need.” 

Isabella McKnight – submitted photo

“We’ve noticed through the granting cycles that we’ve run,  that there’s a lot of people that fall between the cracks.  They’re not quite 65, so they don’t fall into that senior category or they own property, so people think of them as wealthy.” 

Cortes Currents: What specific groups are you targeting?  

Isabella McKnight: “It’s really open for anybody, but we’ve selected five groups just to simplify it a bit:

  • Youth/single-parent
  • Elderly/seniors
  • Indigenous
  • Individuals or families adversely impacted by a health crisis
  • Enterprising potential that can seed larger impact for the individual and/or community

Cortes Currents: How do you apply?  

Isabella McKnight: “Visit our website and fill out an application. It’s not too long,  just giving us the information that we need from you, how much you’re looking for, or what you’re hoping to use it for. Then we’ll put you in. Applications are open until May 5th, 2024.”

“It doesn’t matter if you’ve applied before and even if you receive funds before. please apply again because we know that we might not necessarily have given you what you asked for. We’re happy to keep supporting anybody who’s applied or who hasn’t applied and we really encourage people to apply because it’s essentially free money. So why not apply?” 

“The application should only take you about 10 minutes.  We’re happy to help you through. That’s why we also have community cultivators. It’s because they can help people through the applications. If you don’t have access to a computer, you can do it over the phone with not only your community cultivator, but you can do it with me as well. I can send you an email version, I can talk to you over the phone, I can give you a paper version, whatever you need to make it as accessible as possible.” 

Cortes Currents: Applicants must have an ‘acute financial need.’ 

Isabella McKnight: “Don’t get tripped up too much over that language because that’s a really broad spectrum, ‘acute financial need.’ I was talking to one of the community cultivators and she works in a specific field and was talking to somebody and they said, ‘well, I’m not literally starving. So  I don’t need to use the food bank.’ Like, they do go to bed hungry some nights and  just because they have rice and beans, they’re not starving. That’s not what we mean. If you aren’t feeling like you can get access to everything because of where you stand financially you have the right to apply.”

Giving Well photo on Cortes Foundation.ca

“This is a trust based philanthropy. When we give you this money, there is nothing in return that we need. We don’t need receipts on how you spent it.”

“We don’t even need you to tell us your story, but the best way to support this program is for you to give us feedback, especially since this is a pilot program. This is only the second time we’ve run it and we’re not 100 percent educated on all these topics.

 I’m only 24. I haven’t worked in a specific field of working with people with poverty.  Everything I might say might not be 100 percent to a T perfect, but at the end of the day I really think this program is great.  It can help people in need. 

 The way that we can advertise this program to donors, is the feedback and the stories that we hear from people who have received money. Those are amazing.  If people tell us that they are able to make a warmer and safer space for their child because of this funding, that’s amazing. That’s totally going to tug at the heartstrings of donors to give more money so that we’re able to do this program again. 

We’re not making gobs of money from this program. All of the money is going towards  the actual cause.  We’re not cutting quarters off it.  Seeing the impact in our community is absolutely amazing and hearing those stories is really heart wrenching.  So we put out a survey for anybody who has received money to fill it out.  Everything on it is optional.  You can leave out your name. You can leave out questions you don’t want to answer, but if you do feel so inclined, it  really will help people to get funding in the future.

Links of Interest: 

Top image credit: The Cortes Foundation is giving away tax free chash gifts of between $5,000 and $10,000 – Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash