How do you want to be remembered?
Your friends and family want to say goodbye and honour your memory. What better way than to set up a Legacy Memorial Fund that is aligned to your wishes and passions? It also makes it easier for your family and friends to celebrate you.
At the Oakville Community Foundation, we create Funds that operate much like a private foundation. This means you can leave a gift to Hospitals, Universities or any registered charity in Canada- year after year. By investing and growing the initial gifts, we create a legacy of giving, in your memory, that lasts.
Honouring Laurie’s memory
In 2012, Bruce Burrows lost his wife, Laurie, to acute myeloid leukemia. A year after her passing, family and friends wanted to find a way to share Laurie’s zest for life with others. Laurie was known for touching and changing so many lives through her kindness, generosity and love, and for setting an example for others. Bruce decided to create a Fund to honour Laurie’s memory and further the work she had begun as a holistic nutritionist and personal wellness coach.
“I started to set up my own charitable foundation, but a lawyer I knew explained that these small, independent foundations can become difficult for individuals like me to manage and administer,” says Bruce. “He connected me with the Oakville Community Foundation team to learn what they could do to support me. I also had the opportunity to meet other people with similar wishes so I could learn why they chose the route of setting up memorial funds with The Foundation.”
Through their Memorial Fund, the Burrows are able to keep in closer contact with the community while also honouring their loved one. “They are identifying and addressing local issues such as homelessness, food security, education supports and mental illness: previously, I did not have a strong awareness of the prevalence of these issues in Oakville.”
Read more about the Laurie Burrows Memorial Fund in our 2018 Annual Report
A memorial fund helps to ease the burden on your family, and ensure your final wishes will be followed. We offer a couple of different types of Memorial Funds to meet your needs:
A Legacy Memorial Fund
This Fund can be named for your family or yourself and distributes annual grants to causes and charities you select. For these Legacy Funds, we take care of the administration, including establishing memorial scholarships. We also offer a personalized webpage, logo design and “In Memory” donor cards for your Legacy Memorial Fund.
A Short-Term Memorial
While similar to our Legacy Memorial Fund, this option allows you or your beneficiary to grant all the money collected, in lieu of flowers, over a short number of years to selected Canadian Charities.
We can set up your Fund and be ready to receive online donations in one day.
To talk more about establishing a Legacy Memorial Fund, please email giving@theocf.org
