The 2025 Annual Community Report is Here
Fifty Years of Local Generosity: Read the 2025 Annual Community Report
In 1975, a $1,000 gift from Horace Galbraith started something no one could have fully predicted. Fifty years later, that first donation has grown into $24.9 million held in trust for this region, and $18.3 million granted back to local charities, students, and community projects.
Our 2025 Annual Community Report is here, and this one is special. It's our 50th Anniversary Edition.
Fifty years, by the numbers
$18.3 million granted since 1975
$24.9 million in total assets today
433 grants made in 2025
A record $467,000 in Smart & Caring Community Grants to 50 local organizations, our largest single granting round yet
What's inside: This report is built around the people who made fifty years possible.
You'll meet Susan Allan, who came to CFNO in late 2024 wanting to learn about the organization her parents had helped build, and who now sits on the Grants Review Committee that allocates grants from her parents' fund. You'll read about Jack Blom of Armstrong, who created a bursary fund in memory of his wife Pearl so that students in Enderby and Armstrong can get help now rather than decades from now. And you'll find the story of a four-year-old named Oscar Galbraith, whose toonie became the first donation to what is now 52 kilometres of Okanagan Rail Trail.
There are stories from Cycling Without Age, the Good Food Box Society, the Kids' Exchange Library, and the neighbours on Jarvis Street in Armstrong who turned a $500 grant into a street-long tribute to a friend they lost.
A five-decade timeline runs through the whole report, from the Vernon Benevolent Society in 1975 to today.
Looking ahead: The report closes with the announcement of our newest initiative: the Impact Fund. It's a flexible giving tool designed to help us respond quickly when timing matters, whether that's boosting a high-impact project, acting between granting cycles, or supporting the community after a wildfire or flood.
Thank you: This report is a thank you. To the donors who have trusted us with their generosity for half a century. To the volunteers and board members who have guided us. And to the charities and neighbours across Armstrong, Coldstream, Cherryville, Enderby, Lumby, and Vernon who turn every gift into something real.
Here's to the next fifty years.
