Prince George is a city awash in charities, grassroots organizations and other volunteerism.
The leaders of B.C.'s Community Gaming Grants Branch want to meet those organizations, face to face.
Funding for not-for-profit ventures often comes from gaming revenues collected by the province. The provincial government regulates games of chance, including the raffles and 50/50s many local organizations use for fundraising, and also writes cheques to these organizations when they apply for money from the proceeds of provincial gaming.
Matt Dell is the manager of policy and community outreach for the office in charge of gaming grants (it is under the auspices of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Housing). He and some colleagues will be in Prince George on Saturday to talk about how local not-for-profits can get an even better handle on getting those provincial grants.
"It's a massive not-for-profit funding program, probably the largest of its kind in Canada. It's $140-million every single year, and with that we fund 5,000 not-for-profit organizations around B.C., and quite a lot are in Prince George," Dell said.
This government department evolves like any other.
To learn about new changes, new documents, new procedures and new rules, Dell recommends any organization that gets grants or might want to get a grant one day to come and share in the dialogue.
The money is given to those who qualify, he said, not to a winning entry. Gaming grants are noncompetitive. That makes it important to get the application correct, he said, and most organizations don't have dedicated staff to do this.
"The content of this meeting is all about how to get funding from the program," Dell said.
"It's going to be very beneficial to new organizations and existing organizations. I'm also going to be talking about a separate program that helps not-for-profits to fund capital projects, which is a different but related thing."
There will even be some opportunities at this one-day workshop for some one-on-one time with Dell and the others from the gaming sector.
"The applications are somewhat complex, and we recognize that these are almost always volunteers doing most of them," he said.
"It's an opportunity to meet and work with staff from the program. We think that's a big benefit. We want every organization to have the best possible chance to get the funding they require."
Staff from the gaming grant department often hold meetings like this around the province, and there are also locally-based people to help not-for-profit organizations write the best possible applications. In Prince George that is the responsibility of the Northern Interior Communities Association and its coordinator Marvene Layte.
Layte said it has been years since Dell or his counterpart has been in Prince George for a meeting like this.
It's a big province, so she urged local associations and societies to jump at this chance for face time with Dell.
"It's an outstanding opportunity to get the latest and best information straight from the horse's mouth," Layte said, who does numerous road trips across the northern region herself to spread this information. It's exciting, she said, to have the highest level of backup for this particular workshop.
"If you look around at all the not-for-profits in Prince George, imagine if that money wasn't coming into our community," Layte said.
"These organizations are vital to Prince George, and this is money that impacts lives in unbelievable ways. Matt is there for the service of B.C. and I very much appreciate him, because the NCIA has a mandate to get as much financial return to the north as we possibly can. Your organization has to meet the qualifications, you have to have your organization's financial documents, in order and be transparent about who you are and what you do, and we can help you lay all that out.
"Their obligation is to be stewards of gaming money and the whole gaming process, to match up public money with public groups doing our good community work. So I'd love to see that relationship get much stronger, and this is the workshop to do that."
The Community Gaming Grant
Workshop happens Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Hart Pioneer Centre (6986 Hart Highway).
It is free to attend, but Layte asks that organizations please pre-register so enough materials are on hand for those participating.
RSVP by calling her at 250-562-2553 or 250-612-2031 or email [email protected].
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