Our History: From The Beginning
Established in 2008, The County Foundation began with a dedicated group of volunteers committed to giving back to their community in a meaningful and coordinated way. Together, the founders contributed $125,000 of their own money to establish the Foundation’s first charitable fund. Today, The County Foundation administers more than $10 million in assets, supporting local organizations and strengthening the sectors that help Prince Edward County thrive.
Vital Signs Data
Analyzing local data and producing
Vital Signs reports to inform decision-making related to community well-being
Funds & Grants
Creating and administering funds for charitable purposes and helping to distribute grants in our community.
Collaborative Action
Working with partners to support positive, community-led action in Prince Edward County.
Mission and Vision
Mission: Address vital community needs by championing giving, granting, and collaborative action.
Vision: A thriving and united Prince Edward County where everyone belongs.
A Community Foundation is a powerful thing
Strategic Plan 2026-2030
Our 2026-2030 strategic plan places community at the centre because that is who we exist for. They're why we seek out and share vital knowledge about the issues being faced from Cressy to Consecon and everywhere in between. Why we're always looking for ways to increase the number of ideas and resources that can serve our corner of the world. And why we connect and convene individuals, organizations, and groups who love and care for Prince Edward County.
Our promise in the years ahead is to do even more of what we've done before. To expand and grow so that together we and our partners are informed and impactful for our community.
Vital Signs
Vital Signs® is Canada’s most extensive community-driven data program, led by community foundations and coordinated by Community Foundations of Canada. Vital Signs uses data and local knowledge to measure community vitality and support action towards improving collective quality of life.
Prince Edward County's Vital Signs has been publishing reports and collecting data since 2013 when The County Foundation published the first Vital Signs report. This initiative has evolved into regular reports and an ongoing database of PEC’s socio-economic data.
Grants & Funds
Collaborative Action
Our Values
We operate truthfully, honestly and ethically. We commit to transparency in our communications and reliability in our work.
We respect the confidential nature of our work and where appropriate, operate and communicate with openness and full transparency. We apply prudence where the application of transparency may cause embarrassment, hurt or harm, or be a breach of confidentiality. We are mindful of the importance of considering many factors including Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles, and apply this lens in considering how we operate as an organization, our investment decisions and in the granting we facilitate.
We value, seek out and encourage diverse voices and diverse ways of knowing. We commit to continuously learn and grow in our understanding of equity and belonging in our community through meaningful collaboration with others.
Through our Vital Signs research and reports, we identify community level social needs and priorities. We gather research data and learn through the programs and actions of our increasingly diverse and changing community. Our community impact work is informed and guided by those with lived experience and we aim to meet the diverse needs of all groups in the community through the grants we facilitate. We are on a journey to build a more inclusive Board with a diverse range of personal and professional experiences and perspectives. Through our continuous learning efforts, we seek to become and be recognized as a leader in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in our community.
We take our responsibilities and decisions seriously and are willing to be held to account by all of our stakeholders and the community. We take responsibility for not just our successes, but our failures too and treat them as learning tools for change and growth.
We make commitments that we believe we can achieve. We assess and manage potential risks, report on our activities to the community, donors and other stakeholders and respond to questions and concerns. We make sure we are compliant with all legal and financial reporting requirements as well as restrictions imposed by donors on the use of their contributions.
We safeguard the current and future vitality of our community by protecting the resources entrusted to us, shepherding important issues in our community and enhancing relationships with all constituents.
Ensuring we are worthy of investments from funders and donors is key to ensuring long term community health. Sustaining and growing our resources requires that we build lasting relationships with those who understand and care about our community. This is about connecting current and future donors with our mission, vision, values and the community needs identified through our Vital Signs research. We are committed to actively building and preserving the financial resources necessary to support the accomplishment of our mission, both for the short term and the long term.
We commit to working with community stakeholders to amplify their efforts. We appreciate that partnership and active participation are essential to innovation and better outcomes.
The complexity of the social and economic issues organizations are tackling in our community is tremendous. We support these efforts through collaborative capacity building initiatives that focus on growing their collective impact. We work with our community partners to better understand the issues and to address them as a capacity builder, organizer, and ally.
