New funding at Steinbach Community Foundation doubles grant allocations

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This article was published 09/02/2025 (410 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new fund has almost doubled Steinbach Community Foundation’s grant allocation for this year.

The Thomas Sill Manitoba Fund was set up at The Winnipeg Foundation which then distributed the grants to rural Manitoba community foundations. This is the first year that SCF has received the money from the fund totalling $23,000.

“So we can grant out more, so, for Steinbach that’s gigantic because right now we only have approximately $25,000 to $30,000 to grant out, so by having this money come from this Thomas Sill fund it almost doubles our granting this year. It’s gigantic,” said executive director Lynda Lambert.

The money from the fund is an endowment meaning the money is invested and the interest earned on that fund is what is divided up to all the foundations.

“It’s set up for eternity. This will never end. The money will come every year to us,” said Lambert.

The SCF philosophy is to grant money to applicants so that a project can be completed. The organization does not want to give a partial grant where the applicant will still have to look for money elsewhere, which, according to Lambert, causes a lot of stress.

“That’s the ultimate goal is to be able to do that so therefore we can’t help organizations that come asking for large amounts of money. We had one organization that wanted to buy a new vehicle – and they should – but we didn’t have $80,000 to help them with that,” she said.

“So with them then we just plain and simple can’t help them, but another organization the Steinbach Community Outreach, they came and needed a vehicle but they only needed $8,000 and that would complete their purchase and they could get the car and off they go. We could grant to that because we had $8,000.”

The organization is also looking to partner with other donors to give out grants for larger projects.

“We’ve never done that before. We’ve always just worked with the actual money that we hold, but we’re looking at creating more partnerships with individual donors that want to be a part of other things so they will grant with us,” said Lambert, who encourages organizations or funding partners to contact her for more information.

SCF covers the whole Southeast corner of the province in fundraising and grant allocations.

To apply for a SCF grant, visit steinbachcommunityfoundation.ca. Deadline to apply is March 31. To get more information or for help with an application contact Lambert at 204-823-4521.