Vancouver Foundation

Find out how Vancouver Foundation can help your charity to realize its mission. Call Calvin in Donor Services at 604.629.5357 for more information. Photo: iStock; Cie Danse Nyata Nyata 3 by Kevin Calixte/Courtesy The Dance Centre F a l l 2 0 1 6 I V a n c o u v e r F o u n d a t i o n l p a g e 2 9 B.C. Therapeutic Riding Association Kelly Lee Parry, President and Director Based in Langley, the B.C. erapeutic Riding Association (BCTRA) provides horseback riding as therapy for people with disabilities, working with nearly 30 riding groups, government agencies and disability sport organizations across the province. Why did you establish a fund at Vancouver Foundation? In 2015 we received notification of a bequest naming BCTRA as a recipient of almost $1.5 million from the estate of Maggie Jean Carpenter. We needed to find a way to secure these funds for the future needs of our members. So our small volunteer board of directors researched our options and ultimately chose Vancouver Foundation to help us maximize the potential of these new funds. How does the fund help you achieve your goals? e fund is really new for us but it does provide the security of long-term planning and the promise of generating revenue to pass on to our members in the future. Prior to this our annual budget ranged from $3,000 to $5,000 per year, so this presented a major new set of opportunities. Securing the fund helps us have some time to assess our members' needs, build our plans and create valuable resources for members. What benefits have you realized from working with Vancouver Foundation? Having the opportunity to work with Nicole Jeschelnik, Manager, Donor Services, gave us a great understanding of the options and benefits of partnering with Vancouver Foundation. We quickly realized that access to that level of professional advice was exactly what we needed to guide us. Vancouver Foundation also helped us set up a way to do additional fundraising without having to hire staff. The Dance Centre Mirna Zagar, Executive Director e Dance Centre is dedicated to the development of the art of dance in B.C. in all its expressions and forms. e organization provides resources and programs supporting the professional development of dance creators, and produces public performances and events. e Scotiabank Dance Centre in downtown Vancouver is regarded as Canada's flagship dance facility. Why did you establish a fund at Vancouver Foundation? We already had a smaller endowment fund administered by Vancouver Foundation established at the suggestion of one of our donors. Once the federal government's arts and culture matching program was established, it made sense following a major fund- raising campaign to make use of this program and focus on grow- ing our endowment, which currently sits at over $1 million. How does the fund help you achieve your goals? We now have a fund which provides significant return, assisting with our annual operations, specifically supporting the building infrastructure needs of Scotiabank Dance Centre along with support to its multilayered program dedicated to professional development of dance artists.

• Cover