A man and two women holding a big cheque
Community

The Quadra Island Foundation’s First Year

Chair Michael Mascall gave Cortes Currents an overview of how the Quadra Island Foundation came into being, and what it achieved during the year since it applied for charitable status.

Photo credit: The Quadra Island Foundation (QIF) donating $2,000 boost to the Quadra Island Seniors Housing Project. (l to r) are Michael Mascall (Chair, QIF), Maureen McDowell (President, Seniors Housing), and Jody Rodgers (Director, QIF) – Photo courtesy QIF.

It was one of many endeavours that came into being through Quadra ICAN’s first public meeting, in March 2020. While only 35 people came, they brought some big ideas. Mascall was among them. 

He had recently been the executor of an estate that left a considerable amount of money to the community, which actually had a negative impact on the recipient organizations. The problem being that they suddenly had large deposits in their bank accounts and were no longer considered eligible for grants! So, at the meeting, Mascall proposed Quadra form a foundation. 

“There were several people interested and one of them said, okay, Michael, let’s do it,” he said.

They brought in 3 more people, to form a board of 5 directors, and were registered as a non-profit society in August 2020.

  • Julie Douglas (Communications) 
  • Mich Hirano (Treasurer)
  • Matthew Kelly (Secretary)
  • Michael Mascall (Chair)
  • Jody Rogers ( Vice-Chair)

“With the help of the lawyer, we basically set up a very simple purpose constitution for both our non-profits society and for our foundation, which is basically just to help other charities on Quadra island. Our thoughts where we want to help the people, the culture and the environment of Quadro island and we just left it at that,” explained Mascall. 

This simplified approach appears to have paid off when they applied for charitable status in November 2020. Many organizations need to go back two or three times. The Quadra Island Foundation’s constitution states it can only disperse money to organizations that the Canada Revenue Agency approves of and they were approved in three months. 

They also joined the Community Foundations of Canada network. 

“We received a certain amount of guidance and help from them in setting things up,” said Mascall. 

Some of this was to develop the policies which will be on their website, when it is launched (hopefully by the end of this year). 

During the past year, the Quadra Island Foundation received about $36,000 in donations. 

  • About $10,000 came from organizations such as the Glass Waters Foundation, the Strathcona Regional District, and the Campbell River Community Foundation. Most of this was used for set-up costs. $2,000 was given to the Quadra Island Seniors Housing Society project in Quathiaski Cove. 
  • Another $10,000 was designated funds, for a Quadra ICAN project to put  solar panels on the Quadra Elementary School. As Quadra ICAN is not a registered charity, the Quadra Foundation donated the funds for this project directly to School District 72.
  • Members of the community donated about $16,000, which has become the beginning of the Foundation’s endowment fund. 

“We will invest that and each year we would make donations based on the returns we get from our investment,” said Mascall.

Someone else wanted to make a bequest of their property, in their will. As they had concerns like protecting the watershed and did not want their land clearcut, the Quadra Island Conservancy and Stewardship Society was brought into the negotiations.

“If you make the donation to Quadra Island Foundation, we will probably sell this property with the environment covenants on it to hopefully somebody who would appreciate your values, because it’s got covenants that go with the title of the property. So it’s there forever. They have to be monitored and the Quadra Conservancy would monitor them. We’ve just sort of facilitated this happening,” Mascall told the owners. 

The proceeds from the sale of this property will be deposited in the Quadra Island Foundation’s endowment fund, where it will be used for the betterment of the community.

Top photo credit: Mich Hirano (left) and Jody Rogers (right) of the Quadra Island Foundation accept a cheque from Emily Whitfield of the Quadra Island branch of Coastal Community Credit Union. Photo courtesy of Quadra Island Foundation.

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