Community foundations across Manitoba continue to benefit from the generosity of the now-defunct Thomas Sill Foundation.
The first round of annual grants from the Thomas Sill Manitoba Fund—an endowment fund created from the assets of the charitable agency when it shut down in 2023—has been distributed to all Manitoba community foundations affiliated with the Endow Manitoba program.
This includes foundations all across our region: Altona, Carman, Clearwater, Miami, Morden, Morris, Pembina Manitou, Pilot Mound, Plum Coulee, Sturgeon, and Winkler.
A total of $1.2 million has been distributed for 2025. The amount received by each organization depends on the size of their total assets, explains Kevin Parsons, senior capacity building advisor with Endow Manitoba. In all cases, though, the funds need to be granted out by the end of the year.
”The Thomas Sill Foundation was dedicated to supporting community initiatives across Manitoba for decades, and with the establishment of the Thomas Sill Manitoba Fund that legacy will live on through the work of community foundations across the province,” Parsons says. “Since all the grants will be coming from the community foundations, we always want to keep the focus on them, but it’s definitely worth recognizing the generosity of the Thomas Sill Foundation.”
For many smaller community foundations, the gift will have a huge impact on how much they’re able to give out each year.
Both the Plum Coulee Community Foundation and the Morris Area Foundation, for example, received $22,903.32.
“That will about double what we’re able to grant in a given typical year,” shares Plum Coulee board chair Levi Taylor. “We’re usually able to grant out between $15,000 to $20,000 based on our funds accumulating interest. But every year now, as long as we continue to receive this Thomas Sill money, we’re going to be able to distribute about $20,000 extra into the community.”
It’s the same story in Morris, says board chair Curtis Evenson.
“It’s a substantial amount of money,” he says, noting the foundation typically grants about $20,000 every fall.
To be able to grant out $40,000 on its own each year the foundation would need upwards of $1 million in its community endowment fund. It’s not quite there yet—they’re at around the $700,000 mark—so to have these Thomas Sill funds boosting their granting ability like this is a phenomenal gift, Evenson says.
“We get more applications every year than we can grant,” he shares. “So this will make a huge difference. We’ll be much closer to what’s needed for many projects, or maybe some projects we didn’t approve at all, maybe now we can.
“It’s makes a world of difference when you have double the funds.”
This isn’t the first time local community foundations have benefitted due to the closure of the Thomas Sill organization.
A little over a year ago, the community foundations in Winkler, Morden, and Altona all received lump-sum amounts ranging from $750,000 to over $1 million in recognition of Sill’s connection to those communities.
Sill was a philanthropist and accountant who worked in communities across the province. The foundation that bore his name was created from his estate in 1987. It became one of the province’s largest private charitable foundations over the next four decades, distributing millions in grants to countless community projects and causes.
