Community Articles (listed by posting date)
General News · 2nd December 2025
Tommaso
Giving Tuesday - 10,000 Acts of Care
In cities you call a number. On Cortes, you call a neighbour, whether they’re a volunteer firefighter, a literacy mentor, a food bank coordinator, or someone quietly paying for a stranger’s ferry ticket. This island’s real infrastructure is its people.
Together, we provide care for Cortes.
This Giving Tuesday, we’re celebrating the generosity that makes this island work. With just over a thousand people, Cortes shows again and again that small communities can do big things when we care for one another.
Now, we’re aiming even higher: 10,000 Acts of Care for Cortes.
Here’s what acts of care look like on this island:
1- The island’s first full-time licensed childcare facility, helping families stay rooted here.
2- Youth bursary programs supported by the Foundation:
- The Dr. Emily Ellingsen Memorial Bursary supporting students since 2011 and
- Cortes Island Academy Bursary which has supported 62 rural, remote, and Indigenous youth to access experiential secondary school on island
3- Rounds of Gender Equality funding in the last three years, supporting childcare, the Women’s Centre, the CCHA Helping Hands program, community lunches, and more.
4- Community Cultivators who brought the Giving Well pilot deep into neighbourhoods, resulting in 64 direct-impact gifts to individuals and families.
5- Rounds of Grant-in-Aid the Foundation has supported and advised, this year doubling the impact with an added $25,000 from the Communitas Fund, supporting 28 community-led initiatives.
6- For the 69 MicroGrants for Neighbours that powered local ideas: Ayajuthem language gatherings, cooking classes, seniors’ movement groups, youth skateboarding nights, and more.
7- New structures for community use at the Village Commons, including the Nook, Cortes Island’s first shared co-working space and community meeting rooms.
8- Rounds of community advisory sessions, bringing island voices into Grant-in-Aid, Recovery Funds, Prosperity Funding, and Gender Equality initiatives.
9- Organizations funded through federal Prosperity and Recovery programs, bringing some of the first-ever federal granting dollars directly to Cortes for community-led distribution.
10- Live music events hosted each summer, just one part of the dozens of Folk University programs the Foundation supports annually.
11- New Cortes organizations partnering with the Foundation to host funds, collaborate on philanthropy, receive back-end support, participate in the Social Profit Network, and contribute to Vital Signs, our first island-wide community data project.
12- Months a year the Foundation works to connect causes, donors, volunteers, and community care, supporting the social-profit ecosystem that keeps this island strong.
Why 10,000?
Because generosity multiplies.
Because small seeds grow forests.
Because every act of care supports the next one.
From a $10,000 endowment, this community has already grown millions in support.
Imagine what 10,000 acts of care can grow next.
Join us. Support an act of care today. https://cortesfoundation.ca/donate
In cities you call a number. On Cortes, you call a neighbour, whether they’re a volunteer firefighter, a literacy mentor, a food bank coordinator, or someone quietly paying for a stranger’s ferry ticket. This island’s real infrastructure is its people.
Together, we provide care for Cortes.
This Giving Tuesday, we’re celebrating the generosity that makes this island work. With just over a thousand people, Cortes shows again and again that small communities can do big things when we care for one another.
Now, we’re aiming even higher: 10,000 Acts of Care for Cortes.
Here’s what acts of care look like on this island:
1- The island’s first full-time licensed childcare facility, helping families stay rooted here.
2- Youth bursary programs supported by the Foundation:
- The Dr. Emily Ellingsen Memorial Bursary supporting students since 2011 and
- Cortes Island Academy Bursary which has supported 62 rural, remote, and Indigenous youth to access experiential secondary school on island
3- Rounds of Gender Equality funding in the last three years, supporting childcare, the Women’s Centre, the CCHA Helping Hands program, community lunches, and more.
4- Community Cultivators who brought the Giving Well pilot deep into neighbourhoods, resulting in 64 direct-impact gifts to individuals and families.
5- Rounds of Grant-in-Aid the Foundation has supported and advised, this year doubling the impact with an added $25,000 from the Communitas Fund, supporting 28 community-led initiatives.
6- For the 69 MicroGrants for Neighbours that powered local ideas: Ayajuthem language gatherings, cooking classes, seniors’ movement groups, youth skateboarding nights, and more.
7- New structures for community use at the Village Commons, including the Nook, Cortes Island’s first shared co-working space and community meeting rooms.
8- Rounds of community advisory sessions, bringing island voices into Grant-in-Aid, Recovery Funds, Prosperity Funding, and Gender Equality initiatives.
9- Organizations funded through federal Prosperity and Recovery programs, bringing some of the first-ever federal granting dollars directly to Cortes for community-led distribution.
10- Live music events hosted each summer, just one part of the dozens of Folk University programs the Foundation supports annually.
11- New Cortes organizations partnering with the Foundation to host funds, collaborate on philanthropy, receive back-end support, participate in the Social Profit Network, and contribute to Vital Signs, our first island-wide community data project.
12- Months a year the Foundation works to connect causes, donors, volunteers, and community care, supporting the social-profit ecosystem that keeps this island strong.
Why 10,000?
Because generosity multiplies.
Because small seeds grow forests.
Because every act of care supports the next one.
From a $10,000 endowment, this community has already grown millions in support.
Imagine what 10,000 acts of care can grow next.
Join us. Support an act of care today. https://cortesfoundation.ca/donate