A Vehicle To Support Organization in Niagara
Sharon and Don Svob would not consider themselves to be extraordinary people, yet with the Niagara Community Foundation, they’ve been able to do an extraordinary thing.
The Wainfleet couple established the Svob-Aldrey Family Fund – a gift to the community where generations of their family have thrived and where they will now be able to offer encouragement and support for generations to come.
Sharon Svob spent decades of her working life employed by various non-profit organizations in Niagara: The United Way, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Autism Ontario-Niagara and Port Cares. She had a front-row seat to the good things that caring people can accomplish when they have the resources they need. After retirement, she began volunteering with the Niagara Community Foundation’s Wainfleet Fund Committee, where she was “able to stay connected to the organizations and what was happening in Niagara,” she said. “That felt good.” Then she served on the board of the NCF and chaired the foundation’s grants committee.
As she and her husband took stock of their financial position and the legacy they wanted to leave “it became obvious that establishing a fund was a great vehicle to support organizations in Niagara,” she said. “I had always looked forward to doing this at some point in time” and the sale of some family assets gave them the ability to do it. “We consider ourselves to be very blessed and we wanted to share that,” she said. Half of their gift is invested in the Niagara Fund and half in the Wainfleet Fund – so they can support causes close to home and across the Region.
Other family members may have an opportunity to contribute to the family fund too, and Svob hopes the fund inspires local groups to dream big about what can be accomplished and other donors to know that every contribution – no matter the size – makes a difference.
Some people can leave something in their will, while others can make small annual gifts, or use their time to volunteer, she said. “If everyone did a little bit, that would be huge.”
Since it was established just over 20 years ago, the Niagara Community Foundation has grown into a tremendous force for good in Niagara, Svob said. “Millions of dollars are being distributed each year and how beneficial that is to our community, that those kinds of dollars are being put into organizations that support people, families, the environment, the arts. It’s everything!”
