Should we be thinking about setting up an OT Foundation?

[Lake of the Woods]

Further to my previous postings - Within the last few months I heard about a "Community Foundation" that had been set up in my town. It had been set up approximately 2 years ago but I had just heard about it because my friend (who is the only paid employee) works in the office.

It was started by a couple of philanthropists from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Winnipeg is about three hours from Kenora, Ontario where I live and a lot of people from that city have summer places in Kenora because it is a very large lake area, Lake of the Woods. I have recently been reading more about this foundation because I was thinking of getting involved to help. Apparently foundations of this sort have also been recently formed in other Canadian towns.

The way the foundation is set up is extremely good in that all monies that are donated are a permanent gift . Only the revenue generated from that money being invested is distributed. Everything had to set up properly of course, the foundation would have to be registered as a charity etc. The foundation in Kenora has a chartered accountant and lawyer on the board and all board members are volunteers.

The money donated is handled by a professional money manager, chosen by these board members and I notice when I look to see how it is invested the asset allocation is focused on preservation of capital but it obviously has some equity component to allow for growth.

I can't help but think that we should be thinking about possibly aiming towards setting up something like this. I realize that nothing happens overnight but we already have this wonderful website to connect us so that is a start. I could find out more about "what is involved in setting up a foundation" as I know the accountant. But possibly there is an accountant out there and also a lawyer would be needed.

I realize that it would be a lot easier to sit down and discuss something like this with all parties in the same room. Possibly this could happen - I don't know.

I just wanted you to be start thinking about this as a possibility. Referring to my past postings and the comment that the Doctor from the Mayo said that "monies for research are not needed at the moment, but it is always good to know if there was money available" made me start thinking about this. Okay, so money is not needed at the moment but wouldn't it be nice to have monies in place if they are needed. For example, there are approx. 197 people registered on this website. Say for example everyone donated $1,000 once we get this foundation set up. We would have approx. $200,000 to invest and the revenue generated would keep being re-invested because it is not needed so if we aimed for 7% per year approx. $14,000 would be re-invested into this fund per year.
Plus, if we can get the word out that we have set up this foundation I can't help but think that would show the research community that we are seriously committed if they decide to help us.

Lastly, I just read the book "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Olive Relin. It is a wonderful story about how Grey Mortenson's mission was to build schools in Afganistan and Pakistan, the obstacles he overcame and how he changed their world. I would highly recommend it. I can't help but think that we have 197 people - just think what we could do. I will look forward to feedback on this.

[dsauber]

I don't know what it will take, but I think there are more of "us" out there then we know about and I think we need to get some research done. So, perhaps setting up a foundation is a good idea, if not too much of it went into overhead. That is always the problem, i.e. paying someont to set it up and manage it, right? Looking in to this issue is definitely a good idea, especially with Mayo on line doing something we might be willing to support. Does anyone know of any other facility doing research into POT?
dsauber

[Lake of the Woods]

When I suggested this idea, just so people could start thinking about it I was hoping that we could have as much done as possible by volunteers, utilizing the people from our website and also once it was eventually set up it would also be run by volunteers.