Helping our communities thrive
Contributing to the well-being of our communities has long been a way of life, and business, at BMO. Helping strengthen the neighbourhoods, towns and regions where we operate creates a healthy, resilient and robust society in which our customers, their families, our employees and our business can thrive.
BMO continues to be one of Canada’s largest corporate donors. In 2008, we contributed $55.9 million in donations, sponsorships and events to support communities and many charities and not-for-profit organizations in Canada and the United States. Our contributions are directed to a wide range of activities in many areas, including education, health, arts and culture, community development and sports and athletics.
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Community Development:
Fundamental to Well-Being
BMO invests in organizations that strengthen our communities. We contributed $2 million to help renew infrastructure at Kids Help Phone®4, Canada’s only toll-free, bilingual, anonymous counselling, referral and information service for children and youth. We also became title sponsor of BMO Boo-la-thon, an annual national bowling fundraising event launched 17 years ago by BMO employees.
BMO also helped celebrate the 400th anniversary of Quebec City by partnering with la Commission de la capitale nationale du Québec to create La Fresque BMO de la capitale nationale du Québec, a 450-square-metre trompe-l’œil mural depicting politicians and events central to the city’s history.
We continue to support communities in times of need. Last spring, BMO Financial Group and BMO Employee Charitable Foundation made a joint contribution of $30,000 to Canadian Red Cross relief efforts for flood victims in New Brunswick. For its part, Harris donated US$50,000 to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund to help residents of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin affected by floods and tornadoes. BMO also donated $150,000 to the Red Cross to support its efforts to assist victims of natural disasters in China and Myanmar, and both BMO and Harris matched an additional $100,000 in employee donations.
BMO Capital Markets’ Equity Through Education charitable initiative won an inaugural Strategic Philanthropy Award for best program in financial services from The Journal of Financial Advertising & Marketing.
Education: A Core Focus
Education is a core focus of our contributions program. In 2008, we announced a $550,000 donation to the University of Victoria for construction of its First Peoples House. This educational facility will be a centre for cultural and academic support programs that assist Aboriginal students in accessing and completing a post-secondary education.
Promoting access to education is also the goal of our $150,000 donation to the University of Winnipeg Opportunity Fund. The program assists students from areas traditionally underrepresented at university, including Aboriginal communities and inner city neighbourhoods. In Barrie, Ontario, we contributed $170,000 to Georgian College to help fund its health sciences program.
2008 also marked the fourth year of BMO Capital Markets’ Equity Through Education®* initiative. On September 17, all of the institutional equity trading commissions earned in Canada and the United States were donated to charitable organizations that provide scholarships to students from four specific groups: women, people with disabilities, Aboriginals and visible minorities. Since its inception, Equity Through Education has helped nearly 2,000 students and raised a total of $6.6 million.
Sports and Athletics: Making Life More Enjoyable
Our support for sports and athletics is strong at BMO, and it enhances our relationship with our customers and our communities. In 2008, we expanded our support for soccer across Canada. As well as being the lead sponsor of Toronto FC, naming sponsor of BMO Field™ in Toronto and associate sponsor of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC, we have increased the number of house league teams we sponsor to 275 and we are the presenting sponsor of over 200 tournaments across the country.
BMO also supports skating. We are the presenting sponsor of CanSkate®5, Skate Canada’s Learn-to-Skate program, and the title sponsor of the national figure skating championships. In January, at the 2008 BMO Canadian Figure Skating Championships in Vancouver, Bill Downe, our President and CEO, presented $100,000 to the Skate Canada Athlete Fund, which was accepted by Jeffrey Buttle, a former CanSkater and the 2008 World Figure Skating Champion.
Our long-standing involvement in equestrian sport in Canada also proved particularly gratifying in 2008, when the Canadian show jumping team, led by veteran equestrian star Ian Millar, won a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics. BMO is the founding sponsor of the $350,000 BMO Financial Group Nations’ Cup competition, held at Spruce Meadows in Calgary each September.
Health: Supporting the Most Vulnerable
BMO announced substantial contributions to health care organizations in 2008. In many instances, we directed our support toward society’s most vulnerable. In Toronto, we made a $2 million donation to establish the BMO Financial Group Chair in Cardiology at The Hospital for Sick Children, which will support research and contribute to the understanding of congenital heart disease. In Vancouver, we donated $2 million to the B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation to support the construction of a new children’s hospital. We also donated $60,000 to help expand the John McGivney Children’s Centre in Windsor, Ontario, which provides rehabilitative services to children and youth with disabilities and special needs.
Over the past year, we committed $2 million to create the BMO Vulnerable Populations Unit within the Centre for Research on Inner City Health at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. We also committed $2 million to the Montreal Heart Institute Foundation’s Heart Beat for the Future campaign.
Harris: A Long History of Community Involvement
In the United States, Harris continued to build on our long history of involvement with our communities. In 2008, Harris made a US$200,000 multi-year contribution to the Chicago Urban League (CUL). Founded in 1916, the CUL works for economic, educational and social progress for African Americans. Harris’ contribution will support the League’s Entrepreneurship Center, and its mandate to strengthen and increase the number of businesses owned by African Americans. In addition, Harris committed US$1 million to support the city of Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. In June, the city was named one of four finalists for the Games. Harris and BMO Capital Markets continued a long relationship with the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago in 2008, contributing US$1.7 million in partnership with our employees.
Harris and BMO Capital Markets employees are also engaged in their communities. When Harris held the second Annual Volunteer Day last June, more than 750 employees took to the streets across the United States to help make a difference for over 30 community organizations.
BMO Employees: A Tradition of Giving
For more than 30 years, BMO employees have been part of a proud tradition – giving their time, money and talent to support United Way and Centraide chapters, as well as thousands of national and local charities and those in need in communities across Canada. In 2008, through the national BMO Employee Charitable Foundation, our people raised an astonishing $8.7 million. We are proud to support our employees’ and pensioners’ contributions by covering 100% of the administrative costs of BMO Employee Charitable Foundation.
BMO also corporately supports the generosity of our people through our Matching Gift Program for Higher Education, which provides matching funding for donations to eligible institutions of higher learning, and our Volunteer Grants Program, which provides funds to organizations where our employees and pensioners are active volunteers.
Arts and Culture: Enriching Our Lives
For many years, BMO has championed arts and culture. In 2008, we announced a new three-year partnership with the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). BMO was the lead inaugural partner at the grand reopening of the AGO, which has been transformed by celebrated architect Frank Gehry. We also became the AGO’s signature partner for the Canadian Collection Program.
See also www.bmo.com/community
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