Family foundations

A charitable public foundation is different from other registered charities. A foundation’s basic mandate is to receive various kinds of gifts and manage them for the long-term benefit of charities or convert them to cash, if they are gifts in kind, and channel them to various charities.

For many donors, stewardship of time and skills is an important consideration. Operating a private family foundation takes time and requires people with certain skills, including: setting up and maintaining a board of directors; receiving and processing requests for donations; keeping accurate records; annual reporting to Canada Revenue Agency; and prudent investing of endowed assets. MFC is capable of handling all of these tasks for your client.

Planning benefits:

• It is normally much less costly to use an existing public foundation than it is to start from scratch.
• There are no start up costs and no annual legal and accounting fees to begin a foundation account at MFC. Those savings alone can constitute a substantial gift to charity.
• You don’t need to have substantial financial resources to create your own foundation account at MFC. We already have these types of accounts, ranging in size from a few thousand dollars to several million.
• Our services provide clients with a broad range of options, some of which are not available through a private foundation.
• Our many years of experience provide our clients with proven expertise, flexible options, enhanced services, and sound fund management.
• We can accommodate your client's desire for anonymity or recognition.

Contact an MFC Consultant to find out more, or to explore the advantages of starting a family foundation with Mennonite Foundation of Canada.