Community Building Fund Supports CORK’s Comeback
Kingston, ON – In 2021, CORK received a $50,000 grant from the Government of Ontario’s Community Building Fund – Operating stream. This grant, delivered over 6 months by the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF), has supported operating expenses, staff retention and volunteer engagement at CORK as the organization rebuilds from COVID-19.
Due to COVID, 2020 was the first year since 1969 that CORK was unable to host sailing events, resulting in a significant loss to the organization. The funding provided by OTF has been vital in rebuilding the organization for the future. With this support, CORK has continued to remain viable, maintaining operations, retaining staff, and completing plans for hosting events in 2022 and future years.
“This Community Building Fund grant will have a positive impact on CORK for years to come,” said CORK Executive Director Marianne Davis. “We believe we have made great strides in moving some key elements of our event delivery to various online platforms. We look forward to hosting events in the future in a much stronger position thanks to the support of the OTF.”
CORK has been hosting premier sailing regattas in Kingston at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour for over 50 years. As an organization, we look forward to once again welcoming participants from around the world back to Kingston for training and to compete in this summer’s events. The planning for the upcoming season is well underway and CORK continues to explore future hosting opportunities for 2023, 2024 and 2025. The schedule can be found online at cork.org.
The Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) is an agency of the Government of Ontario, and one of Canada’s leading granting foundations. Last year, nearly $112M was invested into 1,384 community projects and partnerships to build healthy and vibrant communities and strengthen the impact of Ontario’s non-profit sector. In 2020/21, OTF supported Ontario’s economic recovery by helping non-profit organizations rebuild and recover from the impacts of COVID-19. Visit otf.ca to learn more.
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