The Community Foundation offers a full range of planned gift-giving options. Establishing a fund is simple and often provides significant tax benefits. Of course, a donor may always make a contribution to the Community Foundation without establishing a fund. Please contact Janet Adams, Manager, Philanthropic Services at 613-236-1616 for more information.

For all donations

To avoid issues when claiming your charitable donation on your tax return, please include your full name (first, last and middle initial).

Gifts by Cheques

If you wish to receive a same-year tax receipt, please ensure that your cheque is mailed (and postmarked) no later than December 31. Please note that our office hours may differ during the holiday season and that hand delivered cheques must be dropped off before the end of the year. Please check our news page for updates or contact us if you have any questions. **Please make all cheques payable to the Ottawa Community Foundation, specifying the name of the fund in the memo field.**

Online Donations

Online donations may be made directly to funds held by the Ottawa Community Foundation. Our online system provides a safe and secure environment through which donors may make a donation. Simply click on the Donate button that appears at the top of each web page. This will open the online donation system where you will have the option to search the name of the fund to which you wish to donate or select a fund from the list of featured funds. You will then be prompted through the rest of the donation process. Electronic receipts for donations of be provided by email.

If you require any assistance, please contact us at 613-236-1616 x 0 / info@ocf-fco.ca.

Securities

Note: The Ottawa Community Foundation is unable to accept paper stock certificate donations.

Make a Gift of Securities to a Fund

To donate securities, please complete this Gift of Shares Form describing the securities you wish to donate. In order for us to ensure that your generous gift of securities is received and receipted as quickly as possible, we request that you forward the Gift of Shares Form to your investment advisor or broker and provide us with a copy at finance@ocf-fco.ca. Please note that you will need to sign the form, provide the name of the fund to which you are making the gift, and specify whether the gift is endowed or flow-through.

Once we have received the form we can follow up with your advisor if there is any delay or question with respect to the receipt of the shares into our account. The value of your gift and receipt is determined as the end-of-day value the day the shares are received into our account.

Make a Gift of Securities to a Local Charity

In order to assist donors and local registered charities in facilitating gifts of securities, the Community Foundation has established the “Local Charities Assistance Flow-Through Fund”. Through this fund we are able to receive and receipt gifts of securities and then transfer the funds to any local charities that donors wish to support. This process allows donors to take advantage of the capital gains tax relief for gifts of stock, while alleviating the administrative burden of smaller charities having to establish brokerage accounts in order to accept these types of gifts. The Foundation charges a 2% fee for this service to cover our administrative costs. If you wish to make a gift in this manner, please follow the instructions above under “Gifts of Securities”, and contact a member of our finance team to inform us of your gift.

Bequest by Will or Gift of Life Insurance

Including a charitable bequest in your will or making a gift of life insurance are simple ways to make a lasting gift and leave a legacy for the community. Making gifts of these types through the Foundation benefits the community into the future, while providing maximum tax benefits – and peace of mind – to donors and their loved ones.

To make a bequest, we can help you or your lawyer with sample text for this purpose.

There are three ways to donate by life insurance:

  1. The Ottawa Community Foundation may be designated as the owner and beneficiary of a new policy. The premiums qualify for a charitable tax receipt.
  2. The Ottawa Community Foundation may be designated as the beneficiary of an existing life insurance policy. The estate will receive a charitable tax receipt when the proceeds of the policy are paid to the Ottawa Community Foundation.
  3. The Ottawa Community Foundation may be assigned ownership of a life insurance policy during a donor’s lifetime. A tax receipt will be issued for the fair market value of a policy at the time of donation. If the policy requires future premium payments, these payments qualify for an annual charitable tax receipt and the donor can pay them in one of two ways:
    • The donor pays the life insurance company directly and the Ottawa Community Foundation confirms the payments were made (at year end) and then issues the tax receipt.
    • The donor gives the charity the funds to pay the premium payments and the charity pays them to the life insurance company (this could be done using a gift of shares for example). A tax receipt is issued upon payment.

Donating through the United Way

The easiest way to donate to a fund at the Ottawa Community Foundation is through our online portal. If you would like to donate to a fund through your United Way contribution, please review the requirements below before proceeding.

Requirements

If the requirements are not met, we will be not be able to allocate your donation to a fund at the Ottawa Community Foundation.

Additional Info

  • Fees administered by the United Way are deducted from the donation before we receive it
  • We receive donations via the United Way in two batches per year