Fig Tree Questions and Answers.
Q: Is the Fig Tree Foundation a political or religious based organization?
A: No.
Q: What is the Fig Tree Roundtable?
A: The Fig Tree Roundtable is a forum for facilitating cooperation, engagement, communication and sharing of ideas between participating organizations much as a Professional Peer group might operate in the “for profit” world. The Roundtable Participants meet on a bi-monthly basis.
Q: Who are your Roundtable Participants and what do they do?
A: The Fig Tree Roundtable is a collection of organizations that work in the international arena delivering assistance to communities in the developing world. All are based in or have operations in Calgary, and include NGOs and funding agencies.
Q: Can I support one of the Roundtable participants/agencies directly?
A: Absolutely! We are not in competition for funding with the Roundtable participants. We encourage you to explore the websites of all of our roundtable participants and do your due diligence just as you might when making an investment in a publicly traded company.
Q: Who can become a Roundtable Participant?
A: Participation in the Roundtable is open to any organization that is striving to work collectively to improve the effectiveness of their programs at home and in the field.
Q: How can I help?
A: There are a number of ways that you can become a steward, all of which are located in the become a steward section of our website. The FTF is establishing an endowment fund from which income will be used to fund future projects and initiatives. You can contribute to the endowment fund by donating cash or securities to the Fig Tree Foundation.
Q: Will I get a tax receipt for any donations?
A: Yes, The Fig Tree Charitable Foundation is a registered Canadian charity -Charitable BN: 852034172RR0001
Q: What are the benefits of donating securities directly?
A: Securities that have appreciated in value provide the most tax effective means to making a significant, low-cost contribution.
Your charitable donation credit could be more than the purchase price if the securities have appreciated significantly.
The gift of flow-through shares is also a very tax-effective way to eliminate the capital gains taxes that will be payable upon normal disposition of such shares.
Q: How do you invest the funds or securities that are donated?
A: Once funds are received by the FTF, they will be invested by professional fund managers in accordance with the investment policy laid out and regularly reviewed by the board of directors.
Q: Can I designate my donation to a specific organization?
A: At this time, No. If after your consideration and due diligence you chose to support a specific agency, we ask that you support them directly. Each has instructions on their respective websites that can be linked to from our Roundtable Participants page.
Q: Where can I get your financial information?
A: Our most recently filed and posted financials can be accessed through the following link to the Canadian Revenue Agency website. Simply type in "Fig Tree Foundation" or any other group that you may be researching, and click on the "information return" to see all financial details as reported to the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) in any given year.
Q: What are your administrative costs?
A: As you can tell from our financials we have very low overhead expenses. We do this in three ways. First, we do not have any full time employees, all work is done by volunteers. Second, services are provided to us by our business stewards at no charge or at a significant discount to retail. Third, we are always managing our operations with the belief that any dollar saved locally is a dollar that could be used in the field to achieve immediate results for the end user.
Q: Can any group receive FTF funds?
A: No. Funding is limited to Roundtable Participants that are Registered Canadian charities and meet the Fig Tree funding criteria.
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