BMO in the Community

In 2007, we contributed $50.4 million in corporate donations, sponsorships and events, supporting communities and thousands of charities and not-for-profit organizations in Canada and the United States.

Our employees share our passion for supporting their communities and BMO supports a culture of volunteerism. In May, BMO Employee Charitable Foundation (formerly BMO Fountain of Hope) hosted a Celebration of Giving at which $1.3 million was distributed to 50 Greater Toronto Area charitable organizations. Since 2000, when BMO Employee Charitable Foundation became a national organization with BMO funding its administration, employees and pensioned employees have raised more than $50 million to help those in need in the communities where they live and work across Canada. In 2007, our employees raised a total of $8 million.

Learning is crucial to the success of our society and our company. Our passion for encouraging the pursuit of knowledge once again led us to direct a significant portion of our contribution dollars to programs that promote education. We announced a $500,000 donation to The University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. Sauder is one of the country’s foremost research-based schools and an internationally recognized leader in creating business knowledge.

In Central Canada, we pledged $500,000 to establish the BMO Financial Group Graduate Scholarship Fund at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. We also pledged $2.5 million to develop the BMO Auditorium in the new John Molson School of Business at Concordia University in Montreal.

Supporting Good Health

Good health and wellness are critically important to our stakeholders – and hallmarks of a caring, responsible society. We focused on enhancing regional health care in communities where we operate. We pledged $400,000 over five years to over 80 health care facilities that make up The Eastern Regional Health Authority in Newfoundland and Labrador and $750,000 over five years to University Hospitals Kingston Foundation’s three hospitals in Kingston, Ontario.

Athletics at every level improves health and well-being. It also inspires understanding and tolerance, and celebrates cultural diversity. That’s the goal of BMO’s support of soccer – the beautiful game enjoyed by millions of people around the globe. 2007 marked the official opening of BMO Field^™ in Toronto, the new 20,000-seat stadium that is home to Major League Soccer’s Toronto FC and the Canadian National Soccer Team. It also saw the launch of our partnership with the Canadian Soccer Association to support grassroots soccer for young people – one way for us to give back to our customers from diverse backgrounds in communities across the country.

Our support of grassroots skating also made news this year. At its annual awards ceremony in March, Canadian Sports Award presented BMO with its Canadian Sports Award for Corporate Excellence – National Initiative Support in recognition of our sponsorship of Skate Canada’s CanSkate^®3 program.

Contributing to Arts and Culture

Art has the power to transform and inspires our souls and our dreams. As individuals and as a society, art makes us better. BMO continued to be one of Canada’s most active supporters of arts and cultural organizations in 2007. Our contribution included $450,000 for The Banff Centre for Continuing Education. Alberta’s – and Canada’s – internationally celebrated learning and cultural institution draws more than 7,000 creative artists and thinkers to its doors annually.

Encouraging Community Development

At BMO, we are proud to partner with organizations that encourage tolerant and caring communities. Last year, we reaffirmed our long-standing commitment to Kids Help Phone,^®4 Canada’s only toll-free, bilingual anonymous counselling, referral and information service for children and youth. Our $2 million donation over five years will help the organization triple the number of times it can respond to children and keep up with the way young people are communicating today.

A Tradition of Helping

Helping to strengthen local communities is a tradition in our U.S. operations. Last October 10th in Chicago, hundreds of our employees picked up paintbrushes, brooms and hammers to assist local organizations and launch the Harris and BMO Capital Markets United Way annual giving campaign. Harris, which celebrated its 125th anniversary this year, has long been an active and generous supporter of the 75-year-old United Way of Metropolitan Chicago.