Town approves donation policy

Times Reporter  

 

Due to the number of requests to the Town of Strathmore for donations throughout the year, a new donation policy has been created. The policy excludes the grants provided through Strathmore FCSS programming, the United Way partnership and the Handi-Bus funding, because they already have application processes in place.  Tracy Simpson, community services coordinator, said administration came up with three points they would like to see in the events they choose to support. The points include general exposure and profile, economic benefit, and promote civic pride and a sense of place.

Simpson said administration came up with the policy based on other communities’ polices, and what the town itself currently has in place with other policies. It will also exclude commercial donations; it is strictly for non-profit, charity donations. 

“One of the practices we have now in the town is, recurring annual events aren’t requested to reapply for funding, we have some events that happen every year that are just been given guaranteed donations,” said Simpson. 

“We would like to have them resubmit every year just so that we can review the progress of their events and programs and evaluate where their needs are instead of just assuming it’s the same thing every year. “

“The big one for this is facility donations, we want to make sure as events grow that we can afford to provide facility donations on a larger scale. We want to be offering less support to ones that receive more corporate funding so that we can support more programs and initiatives that are newer in the community.”

Any requests for facility of equipment donations that are over 50 per cent – a request for a full donation of a facility – will need to come to council for resolution, but anything below 50 per cent would be at the discretion of the Chief Administrative Officer and his staff. 

“We’ve created an application form, again it’s very simple, asking what they want, what they’re using it for and the scope of their project, event or program,” said Simpson. 

Applications should be submitted at least one month prior to an event so that administration has enough time to review the request and make an educated donation. It also gives time to bring it to council if required. 

Applications are required for all donations, including facility donations, silent auction items and pins to put in participants bags for events. 

“We want to have it documented that way we can track where our product is going, what it’s being used for, and we can compare year to year what’s being supported in the community,” said Simpson.

Cash donations are not often granted, but those requested would require a council resolution. Most of the donations come out of the community development and the economic development budgets that have a certain amount allocated every year. 

The application process also applies to mayor and council for any requests they would make for any of their functions they go to, and the policy also states only events in the town or that directly relate to the town will be supported. Anything out of town, or not related, would have to be brought to council for approval. The donation policy was approved.