Affinity Credit Union’s Southeast District council was giving back to southeast communities on Friday afternoon.
Southeast District chair Cameron Nordin and Southeast District board member Pauline Ziehl Grimsrud invited representatives of the various southeast non-profit organization to join them at the Estevan branch for cheque presentations.
“It’s rather exciting to be able to give back to the community profits from the Affinity for this area, Southeast District…. It’s all because of business that has been done in this area,” said Nordin.
The Southeast District covers the territory between Manitoba border, the U.S. border, Assiniboia, Moose Jaw, Weyburn and Carlyle. And whether there is a branch in the particular community or not, all organizations within the Southeast District are eligible to apply for the funding.
This year about 40 applications were submitted, and 24 of them received donations. A number of representatives could make it to the Estevan branch on Friday to receive their cheque.
Benson Culture and Recreation facility ($20,000), Bow Valley Villa Corp. ($15,000), Carnduff Daycare ($1,000), Diabetes Canada ($5,000), the Estevan Comprehensive School ($8,000), the Estevan Curling Club ($4,000), Estevan Daycare Co-operative ($15,000), the Estevan Public Library ($1,500), Redvers and District Golf and Country Club Inc. ($10,000), Redvers Early Learning and Child Care Centre ($15,000), Redvers Library Board ($4,685), the Town of Redvers ($10,000) Torquay Fire Department ($10,000) and Weldon Childcare Inc. ($10,000) had their reps present at the cheque presentation, while other recipients will collect the money later.
In total, this year the Credit Union allocated nearly $170,000 to support various organizations’ projects in the southeast Saskatchewan communities. The amount of individual support as well as the total funding changes from year to year depending on the profits of the financial institution.
In order to qualify, organizations apply online before the deadline, and later the board decides on the receivers and amount of money they provide based on numerous criteria.
“We generally try to focus on non-profit organizations. And there are some rules to follow as far as the application is concerned,” explained Nordin.
“This year the applications were very well done. They were strong applications and we were very pleased as we were doing our deliberations to bring this out into the community and more than happy with the turnout here,” said Ziehl Grimsrud, encouraging those organizations that didn’t receive the funding this time to make sure they re-apply in 2020. She also invited other non-profits to consider taking time and reaching out to Affinity Credit Union for funding.
Every year, the funding is granted not for operating expenses, but for capital projects. Even though the council doesn’t check the outcomes, it’s expected that organizations spend the funds they received on the projects they asked to be supported. Besides, it’s expected that the organizations have other fundraisers going alongside what the Affinity Credit Union donates.
The district council does its best to ensure that they give back to multiple communities and are not picking certain demographic groups or certain areas.
“We want to reflect the whole membership,” said Ziehl Grimsrud.
This year Affinity Credit Union received slightly fewer applications, but the individual amounts organizations were applying for were mostly higher than before.
So far, Affinity Credit Union has provided funding to 889 organizations across Saskatchewan.
“We’ve helped a lot of community halls that maybe today they wouldn’t exist anymore. It’s for the community; mostly it’s trying to keep some of the doors open. (If) there is no other funding and with the downturn in the oil industry the donations are not as plentiful as they used to be, so this, we feel, is a really big help to the communities,” said Nordin.
All the guidelines for Southeast District Council funding can be found on the Affinity Credit Union website.
