Land Sale Boosts Endowment - Simkin Centre Fund Grows to over $9 Million
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Stu Slayen | Mar 19, 2019
When it comes to caring for our community’s seniors, the Saul & Claribel Simkin Centre sees recreational programs, kashrut, spiritual care, and security as essentials, not luxuries.
The Simkin Centre’s recent transfer to its endowment fund at the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba will provide a portion of the ongoing monies required for the many programs unfunded by the government.
In 2001, the Simkin Centre opened the first section of its facility on Falcon Ridge Drive in south Winnipeg. The second phase opened in 2008. Still, most of the Centre’s 10 acres remained untouched as the organization’s leadership considered long-term options for the land. After a strategic planning process in 2014, the Centre decided to keep only a small piece of the land for future expansion and sell the rest. A sale was completed in 2017 and, in 2018, $8.3 million (the majority of the proceeds) was transferred into the Centre’s JFM endowment fund bringing its total to nearly $9.6 million.
“We had other options, but the Jewish Foundation made it easy to decide to transfer our money there,” says Don Aronovitch, Chair of The Saul & Claribel Simkin Centre Foundation Inc., the Centre’s fundraising arm. “We were looking for stability and flexibility and the JFM responded effectively.”
Part of that response was a $108,000 matching contribution to the fund and an agreement to allow the Simkin Centre to encroach on the capital, both features of the JFM’s BERVIN Incentive.
The endowment fund will generate over $400,000 a year which will pay for security features no longer covered by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA); kosher food, which is only partially covered by the WRHA; and a portion of the many other programs, such as Spiritual Care and Music Therapy, not funded at all by the WRHA.
“I’ve been on the JFM Board and I have seen firsthand how effective the Foundation is. It is a bedrock institution in our community and an exceptional custodian of community funds,” says Aronovitch. “The Simkin Centre must enhance fundraising for its various programs and services, but our endowment fund gives us some security and stability. Our elders deserve that.”
“We are pleased that the Simkin Centre chose to transfer their funds to the JFM,” says Eric Winograd, Chair of the JFM. “Our very purpose is to enhance life in the community. This arrangement will enrich the lives of our community’s seniors and therefore fits our mission to a tee.”