About Us
Our Mission
“The Children’s Foundation of Guelph & Wellington is dedicated to providing enrichment opportunities to underprivileged children in our community by funding their participation in a wide variety of educational and recreational programs.”
The Children’s Foundation of Guelph and Wellington was founded in 1991 with a mandate to raise and direct funds that provide life-affirming experiences for disadvantaged children in need.
Since those early days, the Foundation has raised millions of dollars to help thousands of young people to re-direct or re-focus their lives through scholarships; camp activities; reading or music programs; memorable Christmas experiences; breakfast, snack and lunch programs at county schools; and, a wide range of other activities and services.
With all the children we help referred to us by social service and public agencies in the county, the Foundation often says that we “give funds directly to children and their families not to programs”–because the funds that go to each referred child provide a customized response to that child. We search out the best solution for each young person and then help to make it happen.
What’s more, we do this with a financial discipline that might be the envy of many other charities and foundations. Over 80% of our revenues go directly to children, meaning that our costs to raise funds are exceptionally low–less than 20 cents on the dollar. With prudent and stringent management, we hope to reduce that figure still further in the years ahead.
Governed by a volunteer Board of Directors and staffed by professional fundraising and event management staff, the Foundation administered or directed over $500,000 directly to children in 2007, through child-centered activities such as:
- Camp programs that send children to a wide variety of camp activities throughout the year
- Other customized programs, whether social or literacy-based, that help a child to make a new start
- Adopt-A-Family, which matches donors with needy families at Christmas time to provide food, gifts, vouchers and more during the holiday season. Last year, 1300 families were helped and this increases annually
- The Food and Friends Program, offered in association with other agencies to provide breakfast, snack and lunch programs for more than 10,000 children.
- The Future Fund which provides an annual scholarship to a deserving student in each of the eleven secondary schools in Guelph and Wellington County
- The Promoli scholarship, which is awarded annually to one young person who has overcome significant disadvantages to achieve post-secondary qualifications and education.
More than 400 volunteers work with the Foundation in one way or another. Dozens of local and county agencies refer children to it every year. What’s more, the Foundation raises a significant proportion of the funds it requires through its own efforts. With the exception of the Food and Friends Program, it has no reliance on tax dollars or direct support from Government.
