The Community Foundation of Portage and District's 2016 was a positive year.

"This year we're very proud to say that we went over 8-million dollars in our Smart and Caring Community Fund. Which is our general endowment fund," says Board Chair Paul Davidson. "Out of that 8-million, we're able to give about 3.5% of it every year. So right now we stand at around $280,000 a year that we can grant back to the community."

Davidson says another big highlight was the introduction of their new Executive Director in Mary Lynn Moffat. "She's done a marvelous job with a huge learning curve. We also discovered that we need to invest a little bit of money into our own organization to come up with new software and programs which make administration a little easier," he says. "All that growth comes with a little bit of cost too, we need to invest in ourselves a bit here too."

He adds you wouldn't believe how difficult it is to hand out money. "In this last granting cycle we were only able to give out around $87,000 of the $280,000. We're not getting the requests for the money that we should be, that we would like to see given back into the community. We're looking for ways to give money away."

12 non-profit organizations received grants from the CFPD this year. "Without that funding, a lot of those organizations that we give to either wouldn't be in existence or couldn't keep up with the times. For example, there's the Glesby Centre. We gave them money for the new video equipment and sound stage to help them keep up with the times and the technology. Really the entire needs of the community in general."

He's looking forward to a 2017 of giving.