COF Grants


The COF’s own granting program takes place twice per year in May and October. Funds from our endowments are pooled into a Community Fund and the income that is earned on these funds is what is granted out to the registered charities that apply to us. Click below for more on:

COF Grant Information

The Foundation distributes thousands of dollars of grants each year in two main ways. The first is called an allocation. An allocation is an amount sent to a charity in accordance with the terms of an endowment fund. For example; Mr. Smith may have requested in his Gift Agreement with the Foundation, to send the annual income from the fund that he has established to the SPCA. A second donor Mrs. Jones fund directs the Foundation to allocate half of the annual income on her fund to be sent to the Art Gallery and the other half to her church. As long as the designated beneficiaries remain registered charities, the Foundation will carry out the terms as laid out in the gift agreements.

The Foundation also distributes grants. These are discretionary in nature, meaning the Foundation decides which charitable groups will receive funding. The income to support these grants comes from a group of endowments that have been created to support the broader community, leaving the specific granting decisions to the Foundation's Board of Directors. The Foundation typically has two granting cycles per year. Current grant application deadlines are May 1st and October 1st. Please contact the Foundation to confirm. Prior to completing an application you must speak with our Grants Manager, Cheryl Miller.  Cheryl can be contacted at 250.861.6160 or by email cheryl@centralokanaganfoundation.org. Foundation staff will walk through the application form with you, and answer any questions you may have.

A registered charity (or qualified donee) can only apply once in a 12-month period. All previous granting decisions are taken into account when grant applications are reviewed. Successful applicants will receive their grants as soon as possible after decisions have been made. In some cases grants will be given at a public event, or given in person.

Applying for a COF Grant

We invite registered charities interested in applying for a grant to contact our Grants Manager, Cheryl Miller at (250) 861-6160.


Previous Grants

Discretionary Grants 2007

30 Years of Discretionary Grants

2004 Discretionary Grants

2005 Discretionary Grants

2006 Discretionary Grants

Arts & Culture

Kelowna Ballet Society $5,000
Okanagan Film Festival $2,468
Peachland Pipe Band $4,000
Peachland Community Arts Council $3,500
Festivals Kelowna $500
Sunshine Theatre Society $1,000
Kelowna & Visual Performing Arts Centre Society $6,500
Viva Musica Society $5,000
Okanagan Symphony Society $4,000
Kelowna Kiwanis Music Festival $1,500
   
Total: $33,468


Children, Youth & Family

BC Lions Society for Children With Disabilities $3,000
Peachland Boxing Club $114
Okanagan Families Society $3,750
Oyama Community Club $2,500
   
Total: $ 9,364


Education

Project Literacy Kelowna Society $4,720
Royal Astronomical Society of Canada - Okanagan Centre $5,000
Silver Lake Forest Education Society $5,000
   
Total: $14,720


Health & Community Services

Seniors Outreach Services Society $1,152
John Howard Society of the South Okanagan/Kootenay Region of BC $2,972
Interior Alzheimer Society $2,300
Canadian Mental Health Association $2,000
Borderline Personality Disorder $5,000
Western Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing $2,500
Inn From the Cold $4,800
Kelowna Community Resources $2,500
Community Recreational Initiatives 507 BC Teen Challenge $5,000
Church Serve $2,500
The Canadian Red Cross Society $1,500
Peachland Wellness Centre Society $2,000
   
Total: $34,731


Heritage & Historical

Central Okanagan Heritage Society $4,502
Peachland Historical Society $2,500
Kelowna Veendam Sister City Association/ City of Kelowna           $3,300
Friends of Fintry Provincial Park $2,145
   
Total: $12,447


Animal Welfare

Okanagan Humane Society $2,000


A.W. & L. Moore Fund

Kelowna Community Food Bank $1,300
Brain Trust Canada $1,300
Canadian Deafblind and Rubella
Association – BC Chapter		 $1,000

 

  
Total: $ 3,600


Kelowna 2000 Senior Games Fund

Seniors Outreach Services Society $2,348


Lake Country Fund

BC Lions Society for Children with Disabilities $587


Ottman Fund

Seniors Outreach Services Society $1,500
Okanagan Families Society $1,250
Festivals Kelowna $1,500
   
Total: $ 4,250


Peachland Community Fund

Peachland Boxing Club $1,386

 

Peachland Flow-Through Funds

Peachland Wellness Centre Society $1,000
Peachland Historical Society $500
Peachland Community Arts Council $500
Total: $2,000

Vataman/Shirritt/Relph Fund

Community Recreational Initiatives $4,493


COFFY Grants

City of Kelowna / Marathon Communications Inc $1,000
Kelowna Community Policing Association $1,000
Peachland Wellness Centre Society $500
George Elliott Secondary School $1,000
Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society $1,000
University of British Columbia $1,000
   
Total: $ 5,500

FAQs

Q: What is a "qualified donee"?

A: A public foundation can only make grants to "qualified donees" which are organizations that can issue official donation receipts according to CRA standards under the Income Tax Act. These organizations include a registered charity; a registered Canadian amateur athletic association; a housing corporation resident in Canada constituted exclusively to provide low-cost housing for the aged; a Canadian municipality; the United Nations and its agencies; a university that is outside Canada that is prescribed to be a university the student body of which ordinarily includes students from Canada; a charitable organization outside Canada to which Her Majesty in right of Canada has made a gift during the fiscal period or in the 12 months immediately preceding the period and Her Majesty in right of Canada or a province. If you are unsure of whether you are a "qualified donee" or not contact the COF office for advice. 

Q: What is the difference between "core" funding and "project" funding?

A: Central Okanagan Foundation grants are not intended to be sustaining grants to support the general operating costs of organizations committed over several years. However, through our grantmaking, it is our intention to be useful to charitable agencies at critical junctures and times of particular need which may include organizations requiring funds to reorganize their work, policy and/or practice. During these times of transition, the greatest need for funding support may be grants that enable agencies to strategically manage or adapt to changes that significantly impact their scale, mandate or core services. Committees may consider grants towards these types of activities. In addition, we also consider requests for time-limited operating/core funding for new 'start-up' agencies when it can be demonstrated that such funding will enable new initiatives to meet emerging needs not currently served by existing organizations.

Q: How do Advisory Committee members determine if they have a conflict of interest regarding applications and should be absent from the discussion?

A: Our Conflict of Interest Policy is very explicit about the need for Advisory Committee members to remove themselves from discussion pertaining to applications when they are on the board of, or employed by, the applicant organizations. In situations where the involvement is less direct, conflict of interest is most effectively avoided by declaring the bias and asking for guidance in terms of participation in the discussion. A Committee member can do this by contacting the Grants Coordinator prior to the meeting, discussing the potential conflict with the Chair, or by declaring the potential conflict to the whole Committee during the meeting.