Small Island, Big Impact
CICF listens to community needs, supports local organizations, and invests in a thriving future through endowed funds, granting, and program incubation.
CICF is one of 200 community foundations in Canada and 700 in the US. We work with other foundations to develop innovative strategies that support our communities.

What is a Community Foundation
How Does a Community Foundation work?

Our Mission
The Cortes Island Community Foundation supports a vibrant and thriving community by enhancing a diversity of local initiatives, programs, and social profits.
The Cortes Island Community Foundation works to support a community thriving 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, encouraging cooperation and collaboration to move projects forward, enhance community connectivity, and engage individually and collectively in the work of reconciliation.
Our Network
Our Story
Cortes Island grabs the hearts of visitors and residents alike. First home to the Klahoose, Sliammen and Homalco peoples, the island now boasts a small but vibrant community of people from all over the globe. We live amongst the ancient cedars and surrounded by the Salish Sea. While the forests, wildlife and sunsets might be the first things to attract people to the island, we stay and fall in love with Cortes because of the community. Neighbours know and rely on one and other here. In fact, most of the social services that Canadian’s have come to depend upon: food banks, agricultural support, youth programs, and even a high school education are provided by volunteers and small social profit organizations. We are a community that takes care of each other.
Unfortunately, like many small isolated communities, we are a community struggling with inequities. While the average cost of a home on Cortes is near a million dollars, more than a third of the island’s renters are considered “vulnerable” to homelessness, and many struggle to find housing at all in the summer months. The median income for families on Cortes is about half that of the rest of BC, and a quarter of all children on Cortes live in poverty. Childcare and early childhood education are a challenge for families of young children, and the drop out numbers for high school age students are impacted by the fact that many families cannot afford to send their students to board in communities with a high school.
Cortes Islanders are lucky however, because we have a community of more than 30 grassroots organizations, nonprofits, and charities doing the work of helping support all islanders, human and nonhuman, and the place itself. And the Cortes Island Community Foundation exists to support these organizations and all islanders to thrive in respectful relationship with our natural home. We hope you will learn more about us, our community, and this place.
Our People
Ian Watson. Board Member.
Christina MacWilliam. Board Member.
Forrest Berman-Hatch. Board Member.
Mark Spevakow. Board Member.
Manda Aufochs Gillespie. Executive Director.
Richard Andrews. Village Commons Project Manager.
Isabella McKnight. Executive Administrator.
Ayton Novak. Board Member.
Christopher Fleck. Board Member.
Jennifer Hartwick. Board Member.
Kate Maddigan. Board Member.
Andrea Fisher. Special Projects Manager.
Check out our Community Jury Members, who have participated in a multitude of different grants.