In 1951, a group of visionary citizens saw what a community foundation could do for Hamilton.  See highlights from HCF¹s first 50 years.

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The HCF Story

The HCF Story - 1954 to today

The Beginnings

When 1954 dawned, Hamilton was a city bursting with pride and possibilities.

The Hamilton Tiger Cats had just cinched the team's first Grey Cup. A new television station, CHCH, was on the verge of its first broadcast. And everything from steel to tires, hosiery to food products, was churning out of Hamilton's factories and mills. On the strength of the city's post-war employment bonanza, the city's population was burgeoning.

In the midst of this can-do success, a group of leading citizens worked to ensure the city had equal success with good causes.

Burlington Steel's Frank O'Brien was a fan of the community foundation model established in Winnipeg three decades earlier (Canada's first Community Foundation). Along with John Langs Q.C., he developed a planning committee that worked toward creating a similar foundation for Hamilton.

Luckily, lawyer and member of provincial parliament for Hamilton West, Argue Martin, was on board. He penned a private member's bill for incorporating the new charitable organization. When that legislation received royal assent on April 6, 1954, Hamilton Community Foundation was born - the first such community foundation in Ontario.

The Early Years

Argue Martin was named president of a new Board that read like a who's who of Hamilton notables: John Langs, Q.C., Edward Ambrose (Clarkson Gordon),a  George Elwin (Stelco), Herbert Frid (Frid Construction), Frank Goldblatt (Intermetco), Harold Leather (Leather Cartage), Clinton Wigle (Howell Lithographing) and James Young (Hamilton Cotton). And David Strachan, a retired National Trust manager, became the first executive director in a voluntary capacity.

First grant

The notion that charitable individuals could donate their money to a permanent endowment fund that would distribute grants in perpetuity was a new one, and in the first year, the sum total of gifts received was $100. By 1957, the Foundation was able to award its first grant - $70 to the Seniors' Club on East Avenue, which needed new equipment.

First bequest

In 1959, the Foundation received its first bequest when Mrs. Marie Josephine Mutchmor left behind $3,713 for the Foundation to do good works.

Finding Its Place in the Community

In the next decade the Foundation grew slowly and steadily, but it wasn't until the 1970s that donations soared: capital funds grew from $123,000 at the start of the decade to $1.8 million by the end of it. The capital growth allowed the Foundation to establish itself in a wide array of charitable giving spanning the arts, education, health, scientific research and the environment.

By 1985, the Foundation had distributed more than $1 million in grants, fellowships and bursaries, and a decade later, capital funds would near the $10-million mark, in time for the Foundation's 40th anniversary.

The gala celebration of the 40th anniversary in 1995 came at the midpoint of a dynamic decade for the Foundation. The concept of permanent endowment funds was taking off, and across Canada, community foundations were being established.

In 1995, Judith McCulloch ended a very successful 13-year tenure as executive director and the reins were passed to Carolyn Milne. The rest of the decade continued to be an exciting time for HCF. Charitable organizations began to establish agency endowment funds with HCF, the trend to donor-advised funds had begun, and in 1997, with the transfer of $8.25 million in assets from the Edith Turner Foundation, a stunning $9,609,475 was added to the endowment in new gifts. Grant distributions skyrocketed 117 percent that year. The Foundation's influence and impact was reaching into every corner of the city and its citizens' lives.

By the end of the decade, the Foundation had operationalized its catalyst and convenor role by introducing The Bay Area Arts and Heritage Stabilization Program to increase the ability of our arts and heritage organizations to address the current and future challenges they face. HCF also launched the Burlington Community Foundation to serve the unique needs of this neigbouring city.

A New Millennium

The new millennium got off to a spectacular start with a $40-million gift by Ancaster resident Joyce Young in spring 2000. This was a transformational gift to HCF, and positioned the Foundation to research, prepare and initiate its leadership role in the community.

High profile community leadership projects followed, including the Strengthening Hamilton's Community initiative, anti-bullying initiatives, and the Growing Roots...Strengthening Neighbourhoods program which today has served as an important foundation for its work to reduce poverty in Hamilton.

In addition, the millennium saw the launch of HCF's first major community engagement initiative Our Millennium Hamilton-Wentworth and, with a gift from local philanthropists Kent and Therese Newcomb, launched its Youth in Philanthropy program to engage young people in the importance of giving back.

Celebrating the first 50

In 2004, Hamilton Community Foundation celebrated its golden anniversary in some spectacular ways including achieving assets of $100 million. annual grants of $4.8 million and launching Tackling Poverty Together (“TPT”), a commitment to invest at least $3 million over four years to reducing and preventing poverty in Hamilton. Directing the majority of its unrestricted funds to this issue represented a first for Canadian Community Foundations.

HCF Today

Today, HCF relishes its role as a catalyst for positive change in Hamilton. Its has gained unprecedented visibility from its role in co-convening the Hamilton Roundtable on Poverty Reduction with the City of Hamilton as well as many other community leadership initiatives.

Hamilton Community Foundation continues to grow, with over $125 million in assets and a legacy of close to $64 million worth of grants distributed to the community.  It has a reputation that would make those first true believers proud. And the generosity of our community's citizens ensures that generations of giving will continue.

50^th Anniversary Powerpoint Presentation

The first 50 years in pictures - view a slide presentation from our 50th Anniversary Celebration.