The Calgary Foundation reported a $1.55 billion asset base and $83.5 million in grants in 2025. It funded 1,313 organizations that year and reported more than $1 billion in cumulative grants since its establishment in 1955. The figures below bring together current totals, historical annual-report measures and selected fund-level values.
Contents
- 2025 at a glance
- Assets, grants and organizations
- Seven decades of community giving
- Endowment and fund statistics
- Selected 2025 grants
- Community activity and charitable reach
2025 at a glance
The Calgary Foundation’s home page reported the following 2025 measures:
- Asset base: $1.55 billion.
- Grants: $83.5 million.
- Funded organizations: 1,313.
- Organizations and charities listed through its directory: 800+.
These measures describe different parts of the foundation’s work. The asset base is the value of assets held, while grants are amounts awarded during the year. The funded-organization figure counts organizations supported in 2025; the directory figure describes the broader group of charities and nonprofits available through the foundation’s directory.
The foundation’s 2025 Annual Report also marked its 70th anniversary. The report describes a movement that began with 20 founding donors, and the foundation’s home page says it was established in 1955. The report further states that cumulative grants surpassed $1 billion in 2025.
Assets, grants and organizations
The 2025 asset base of $1.55 billion provides the clearest current measure of the foundation’s financial scale. For context, the 2015 Annual Report recorded an asset base of $834.4 million. These are measurements from different years and should not be treated as a like-for-like performance calculation without additional financial details.
The foundation’s 2025 grant total was $83.5 million. That total was distributed across 1,313 organizations, indicating the breadth of the year’s grantmaking. The supplied 2025 figures do not provide a grant-size average, a breakdown by program, or a count of grants per organization, so those measures are not inferred here.
The foundation also reported that it had granted $987 million to community since 1955 on its home page. Its 2025 donate page described the cumulative amount as more than $1 billion over seven decades, while the 2025 Annual Report likewise stated that cumulative grants had exceeded $1 billion since 1955. These descriptions reflect the foundation’s 2025 reporting and use rounded or threshold language; they are not presented as independently verified historical totals.
| Measure | Reported value | Measurement period or reference |
|---|---|---|
| Asset base | $1.55 billion | 2025, Calgary Foundation home page |
| Grants | $83.5 million | 2025, Calgary Foundation home page |
| Funded organizations | 1,313 | 2025, Calgary Foundation home page |
| Asset base | $834.4 million | 2015, Calgary Foundation Annual Report |
| Primary endowment portfolio | $724 million | March 31, 2016 |
| Primary endowment portfolio | $740.2 million | 2015 |
The foundation’s 2025 Annual Report listed $10,000 as the minimum for an individual fund, or a commitment to reach that level in the near term. This gives prospective fund holders a reported entry point, but it does not describe the size of every fund or the minimum for every type of giving arrangement.
Seven decades of community giving
The foundation was established in 1955, and 2025 marked its 70th anniversary, according to the Calgary Foundation home page and 2025 Annual Report. The 2015 Annual Report also said the foundation had 20 founders in 1955. The same report placed the number of community foundations in Canada at 191 during its report period.
The long-term scale of giving is expressed in two ways in the 2025 material. The donate page said the foundation had granted more than $1 billion to community over seven decades. The 2025 Annual Report page stated that cumulative grants since 1955 were more than $1 billion, while the home page separately reported $987 million granted to community since 1955. Because these labels and thresholds differ, each figure is retained as reported rather than reconciled through unsupported arithmetic.
The historical reports also show how the foundation’s financial profile was described at earlier points. In 2015, the primary endowment portfolio was $740.2 million and represented 89% of total assets, according to the 2016 Annual Report’s comparison. At March 31, 2016, the primary endowment portfolio was $724 million, representing 88% of total assets.
The 2016 Annual Report identified a long-term real rate-of-return objective of 5% over moving 10-year periods. That is an investment objective, not a reported result for every year. The 2015 Annual Report separately reported that the primary endowment portfolio returned 13.1% in 2015.
Endowment and fund statistics
The 2016 Annual Report said 60% of individual funds had balances below $100,000. About one-third of those below-$100,000 funds had been established with less than $10,000. These observations describe the fund distribution reported in 2016 and should not be applied to the 2025 fund population.
The 2025 Annual Report provides selected market values for named funds. The reported values include:
- Kerry Dyte Education Fund: $121,981.
- Energy Politics Scholarship Fund: $47.
- Bree Eriksen Memorial Dance Award Fund: $11,486.
- Faculty Women’s Club Outstanding Academic Achievement Award Fund: $11,705.
- Kevin Fennessey Memorial Scholarship Fund: $198,351.
- Field Law Leilani Muir Graduate Research Scholarship: $62,675.
- John Michael Flanagan Bursary Fund: $39,632.
- Fogolâr Furlan di Calgary Fund: $33,406.
- Dennis Forgeron Award Fund for Entrepreneurs: $11,704.
- Michael Gee Scholarship Fund: $80,175.
- Bill Gibson Bursary Fund: $429,662.
- Hazel Gillespie Community Investment Leadership Award Fund: $171,539.
- Heartstone Foundation Fund: $2,356,938.
- Arlene & Glen Johnston Fund: $48,941.
- Kids Come First Student Award Fund: $175,964.
- Kinsmen Club of Calgary Scholarship Fund: $75,653.
- Ralph Klein Charitable Foundation: $72,513.
These are market values for the named funds in the 2025 Annual Report. They are not grant totals, annual returns or a complete inventory of the foundation’s funds. The range—from $47 for the Energy Politics Scholarship Fund to $2,356,938 for the Heartstone Foundation Fund—also illustrates why a single fund value should not be used as a proxy for the foundation’s overall asset base.
Selected 2025 grants
The 2025 Annual Report listed grants from the Heartstone Foundation Fund to organizations in several fields. The reported amounts were:
| Recipient | Grant |
|---|---|
| Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation | $5,000 |
| The Burns Memorial Fund for Children | $5,000 |
| Calgary Association of Self Help | $4,000 |
| Calgary Board of Education | $2,000 |
| Calgary Counselling Centre | $5,000 |
| Calgary Drop-In & Rehab Centre Society | $8,000 |
| Canadian Mental Health Association - Calgary Region | $5,000 |
| Distress Centre Calgary | $5,000 |
| KidSport Calgary and Area - Canada - Alberta | $10,000 |
| KidSport Canada - Victoria Chapter | $10,000 |
| University of Calgary | $15,519 |
| University of Calgary - Cumming School of Medicine | $5,000 |
The listed awards range from $2,000 to $15,519. They include support for children, education, counselling, mental health, sport, community services and medical education. This is a selected list from the Annual Report, not a complete statement of all 2025 grants and not a calculation of the foundation-wide grant total.
Community activity and charitable reach
The historical community measures add context to the foundation’s grantmaking role. The 2015 Annual Report recorded 56 walks for Jane’s Walk 2015 and more than 1,835 participants. It also reported more than 140 charitable organizations listed in the Community Knowledge Centre and noted more than 300 volunteers.
The current directory measure is broader in scale: the Calgary Foundation home page says it serves 800+ charities and nonprofits through its directory. Because the Community Knowledge Centre count is from 2015 and the directory count is a 2025 home-page measure, they should be read as separate snapshots rather than a measured increase.
Taken together, the statistics describe an institution with a long history, a large reported asset base, substantial annual grantmaking and a wide network of organizations. The dates matter: 2025 figures describe the foundation’s latest supplied public reporting, 2015 figures come from the 2015 Annual Report, and the endowment comparisons are measured at 2015 and March 31, 2016.