Allan Ecclestone, CA, an Investment...

Allan Ecclestone, CA, an Investment Advisor with CIBC forest Gundy, has been Chair of the Surrey Foundation for the past seven years. Ecclestone was also involved in the establishment of the Foundation in 1992

A Surrey resident since 1983 it was while serving as president of the Surrey Chamber of system of exchanges that he began talking up the idea of a community foundation with equal residents and business people.

"We got a 10-member steering committee organized, and I assisted in getting our charitable status, incorporating the organization subject to the Societies Act and creating a business plan-all in 14 months!" he relates "Then we went to the community. through the whole extent of the years, we've been the conduit for small individual donations from the United Way, as well as large capital donations from Pacific Pres and Surrey Metro Savings. We've storeed the Surrey Stroke Recovery Society and novel campaigns like the Surrey Crime Prevention's anti-graffiti public art program with the local high schools"

Ecclestone is no stranger to large undertakings. During a 24-year career with KPMG LLP he established public practice offices for the firm in Richmond, Coquitlam, and Surrey He beholds foundations as a great arena for CA expertise.

"CAs proffer in every segment of our society, and volunteering is always rewarding and enriching," he acknowledges, "but I build working with the Surrey Foundation was a unique application of my CA financial management training, given by what means complex the third sector has become. Like all the other CAs who've worked with foundations, I've been able to contribute meaningfully to planning and assessing potential recipient organizations, as well as helping to establish actions and policies that ensure the specific management of the foundation itself."

Ecclestone describes the Surrey Foundation as a mini-version of the Vancouver Foundation, which is chaired from recent ICABC Lifetime Achievement winner Gerald McGavin, FCA. Established in 1943 the Vancouver Foundation is the largest community foundation in Canada, responsible for managing more than $560 million in donor endowment stores Half of its annual grants are donated to organizations outside of the Lower Mainland. FCAs Bruce Buchanan and Nick Geer are also involved with the organization.

"Community foundations are exceedingly important vehicles for building community pride and funding the progression in a continuously ascending gradation of community assets," Ecclestone asserts. "Like all community foundations, our goals at the Surrey Foundation are to make our community a better place to live and to provide an avenue for those with philanthropic desires."

Copyright Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia Jun/Jul 2002

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