Since its inception in 1992, the Endswell Foundation has focused its grant-making on BC species, habitat, public health, and an ethic of reduced impact on resources and the natural world. We've chosen to focus on BC because it is home to one of North America's most important remaining opportunities for a conservation-centred future.

Since 1992, the Endswell Foundation has funded dozens of initiatives and has allocated millions of dollars. Our granting procedures and policies aim to minimizing burdens on grant applicants whenever possible.

With a living donor and a professional staff working closely together with a concentrated regional focus, Endswell's strategy has been to make grants across the province and across various related conservation issue areas.

Overall career and organizational capacity for this sector is a strong theme for us. To this end, we reserve a significant amount of our funding for charities that help to build the sector's capacity in the areas of communications and marketing, organizational management, coalition building, and financial stability. Long term, we need to be a broad, savvy, and professional non-profit sector that can effectively represent the public interest in an era where government is abandoning its role.

Looking Forward

Our Board has determined that the relative shortage of private Canadian foundations focusing on these issues compels us to overspend significantly our endowment. This will eventually result in the elimination of Endswell as a funding entity within another decade or so.

We feel this is a pivotal time to respond to promising opportunities to leverage lasting change. It is also a time to use our resources and experience to open the doors for other individuals and organizations to become activated as conservation funders in BC.

One of our core strategies during the life cycle of Endswell is to support the emergence of a major national public foundation focused on growing funding for social justice and environmental issues - Tides Canada Foundation. Now three years old, Tides Canada is enhancing the goals of dozens of donors through professional administrative and investment services, and experienced advice on creating high-impact, values-led giving strategies. Tides Canada solves problems and makes management simple for people so that giving is easier and more effective for them.

We now make use of the administrative services of Tides Canada Foundation and are shifting much of our grant making into the Endswell Fund of Tides Canada. (See How To Apply section for more info on applying for grants).

For more information regarding our grant making, please visit the Sample Grants List section of our website where there is a representative selection of organizations we have funded.

A Community of Change Makers

Endswell is a member of the Canadian Environmental Grantmakers Network, the Consultative Group on BioDiversity, Environmental Grantmakers Association, Philanthropic Foundations Canada, Mission Based Investing Working Group and Social Venture Network.