Area Community Foundations Win Awards for Excellence in Communications

Waterloo —The Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation along with the Cambridge and North Dumfries Community Foundation have been named GOLD award winners for excellence in communications by the 2008 Wilmer Shields Rich Awards Program.

Sponsored by the Council on Foundations, the awards program recognizes effective communications efforts to increase public awareness of foundations and corporate giving programs. The two community foundations received the award in the Special Report category for their collaboration on the inaugural Waterloo Region’s Vital Signs report released on October 3, 2007. The report is an annual community checkup that measures key areas critical to Waterloo Region’s quality of life.

The Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation also won a BRONZE Award for their 2006 Annual Report in the Annual or Biennial Reports Category.

The awards will be presented at Philanthropy’s Vision: A Leadership Summit, in National Harbor, Maryland, on Monday, May 5, 2008.

“We are extremely pleased and honoured to chosen as winners in this prestigious awards program,” says Rosemary Smith, CEO of The Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation. “There are 111 awards being presented, and only three are being presented to foundations and corporate giving programs in Canada – what an accomplishment!”

Entries to the awards program included annual or biennial reports, magazines/periodicals, special reports, public information campaigns and websites. This year, 213 entries were submitted to the awards program.

The Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation improves the quality of life in Kitchener-Waterloo and the surrounding area, now and for generations to come, by building community endowment, addressing needs through grantmaking, and providing leadership on key community issues.