The Construction Foundation of British Columbia has come a long way since its humble beginnings in the offices of the BC Construction Association (BCCA).
Abigail Fulton, executive director of the foundation, helped start it in 2012 while working as vice-president of the BCCA.
“As an organization, we recognized that charitable giving and the idea of CSR (corporate social responsibility) was on the radar for a lot of companies and there was no charitable arm specific to the industry,” Fulton said.
She helped convince the BCCA board to move forward and began running the new foundation with a colleague from her desk.
“When we discovered there was something there, we just started building it with a view to ultimately have an organization that exists on its own,” said Fulton.
In 2013 the foundation received charitable status and the team hit the ground running with its first major initiative – Project Shop Class. The goal was to raise money for schools eager to train students in the trades that lacked proper shop facilities and equipment. The foundation was able to raise $3 million and the province contributed $15 million. The total money that went to improve school shops was double what Fulton had anticipated.
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