The Muttart Foundation’s Board of Directors has awarded a $200,000 core-funding grant to Imagine Canada.

In today’s edition of the Edmonton Journal and the Calgary Herald, there appeared a special section entitled “Caring and Sharing,” focusing on Alberta’s voluntary sector.

You can access the section online at http://www.edmontonjournal.com/non-profit/index.html

The Muttart Foundation agreed to pay for this section to increase public awareness of the size, scope, successes and challenges faced by charities and non-profits. We believe that this awareness, if leveraged by the sector, can lead to greater public support of initiatives the sector believes are important.

The stories in the section were selected by Edmonton Journal staff and written by journalists with no input from the Foundation.

The section will remain online for at least the next month. We would encourage you to distribute the link to your colleagues and mail lists to increase awareness and perhaps encourage even greater journalistic attention to our sector. We would also encourage sector organizations in other parts of the country to consider similar initiatives. More awareness of the sector and its issues can never be a bad thing.

We’d welcome any comments you have about the special section.

The Muttart Foundation has endorsed Imagine Canada’s call for a federal stimulus for the voluntary sector.

To see Imagine Canada’s submission, click here.
To see the Foundation’s endorsement letter, click here.

The global economic crisis affects the voluntary sector as well as government and business. There are reports of increased demands of services and signs that governments plan on cutbacks.

The Muttart Foundation, along with more than 70 other sector organizations, has endorsed Imagine Canada’s open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The letter calls on government to maintain the current level of support to the sector and to look at new measures to stimulate giving.

To read the letter, click here. To read the accompanying news release, click here.

The Foundation has released the 2008 version of Talking About Charities. More than 3,800 Canadians were interviewed to obtain their views about charities and issues affecting charities. To access the report and detailed information, click here.