The Private Giving Foundation, an independent foundation launched by TD Waterhouse in 2004, is celebrating its first year of operations. To date the foundation has accumulated $17 million in donations and is making grants of $850,000 throughout 2005 to charitable organizations across Canada recommended by its donors.

“This first year’s disbursement by the Foundation is an important step forward for the Canadian charitable sector,” said Jo-Anne Ryan, executive director of the Private Giving Foundation and vp, philanthropic advisory services at TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. “It signals the beginning of a new era of private giving that we believe will help Canada’s charities, which are a mainstay of healthy communities, achieve more stable, long-term funding so that they can continue to meet their clients’ needs.”

The Foundation offers donors a simple and effective way to support causes that matter to them. With a minimum irrevocable contribution of $10,000 in cash and/or securities, an account is opened in the donor’s name or designated in memoriam to an individual or a special cause. Each year, the donor recommends charities to receive grants from the Foundation.

The program offers donors the advantages of a private foundation without many of the associated expenses or administrative tasks. The Foundation’s relatively low minimum contribution is significantly less than the amount that would be required to make a private foundation cost effective. Publicly traded securities and mutual funds that have appreciated in value and are donated to the Private Giving Foundation will have their capital gains tax on their disposition cut in half. This benefit is not available for private foundations.

Sums donated to the Private Giving Foundation are invested in the TD Balanced Income Fund, which is advised by Jarislowsky Fraser Ltd. Each year, in accordance with Canada Revenue Agency guidelines, the Foundation, makes grants to charities recommended by donors.

Ian Anderson House, Ontario’s first free-standing, in-house cancer hospice providing free palliative care to cancer patients in Ontario’s Peel and Halton Regions, is one such recipient. Funds from the Foundation will help pay the organization’s operating costs.

The facility received $18,500 from the Private Giving Foundation, which represents nearly 4% of its annual operating budget.