Small Island, Big Impact

The Cortes Island Community Foundation values innovation, generosity, and collaboration by listening to community needs, supporting local organizations, and investing in a thriving future. We showcase these values through grants and funding, building partnerships, assessing needs/impacts, and investing for social and economic impact with our financial and human resources. 

Key Initiatives

Social Profit Network

Much of the essential, ecological, and social services available on Cortes are provided through the island’s social profits. This includes over 30 grassroots groups, nonprofits, and charities.

Cortes Island Academy

Cortes Island Academy is an out-of-the box high school semester providing place-based, project-based, experiential, public education and earning high school credits on Cortes Island. 

Village Commons

The Village Commons is a model of social impact that inspires self organization and layered experiences for positive community impact. Stay tuned for more information on the Village Commons.

The Cortes Island Community Foundation works to support our community to thrive in respectful relationship with our natural home by:

  • supporting and enhancing the wide variety of nonprofits, charities, community organizations, programs, and initiatives on the island that help maintain a vibrant and vital community;  
  • assessing and understanding the needs and opportunities of Cortes Island and the community through research, listening projects, assessment programs, and relationship building;
  • engaging divergent interests by encouraging cooperation and collaboration to move projects forward, enhance community connectivity, and engage individually and collectively in the work of reconciliation.

Watch this video by island local Bill Weaver, to learn more about the Cortes Island Community.

Giving

A donation to the Cortes Island Community Foundation makes meaningful and lasting impacts in areas that are important to you. From arts and culture to research, from education to the environment, donors and funders come to us to help simplify and enhance their charitable giving in the region.

Granting

Community Foundations are a bridge: connecting those who want to make a difference with the groups and people in the best position to make that difference, assessing the areas of greatest need and areas of greatest potential, and supporting the individuals and organizations that are essential to our community’s thriving. 

Community

We invest in our local social profits, research the needs and possibilities of our ever-changing community, and support continued conversation within and between people and organizations.

The Cortes Island Community Foundation is a registered charity and can provide charitable tax receipts for the U.S. and Canada.