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CRS Foundation

SHOW US YOUR TOONIES & CINQUOS Canada:
Donate $5 or $2 when you register for your next CRS run!

toonies cinquos

SUPPORT THE new CANADA RUNNING SERIES FOUNDATION!

Help us promote healthy lifestyles and give back to the communities we run through.

excellence in Canadian distance running support youth running and fitness

ABOUT US

Canada Running Series Foundation/Fondation Circuit du Canada (CRSF) is a not-for-profit corporation with its own independent Board of Directors. We have also applied to become a registered charity.

CRSF was incorporated under federal not for profit legislation on February 9th, 2009, but only really began to move forward in an active way last year.

Now with a full slate of excellent directors, we hope to move forward and gain speed in 2011 and 2012!

Our star-studded Board of Directors are:

Dave Reid, Treasurer. Former Canadian 1500m record holder, 5,000m and 10,000m champion. Dave is now Coach of the middle Distance group at Athletics Toronto as well as a businessman, entrepreneur.

Silvia Ruegger. Canadian Olympian, inspirational speaker, tireless charity worker, and STILL Canadian National Women's Record Holder for the Marathon: 2:28:36, which she ran in Houston in 1985. Silvia also placed 8th in the first-ever Olympic Marathon for women in Los Angeles in 1984.

Don Pangman, Chair. Don comes to CSRF from the charity world and Scotia Group Charity Challenge at STWM. Over the past decade he has worked strenuously to build the Philip Aziz Centre to support children with HIV. He brings expertise in establishing new charities as well as unbounded energy!

Bill LaMere, Secretary. Long-time club runner and community supporter. Following a highly-successful retail career with Harry Rosen Inc., Bill has devoted more of his time over the last few years to giving back [as well as running], especially to the North York General Hospital Foundation, where he has been an active Board Member.

Ilia Kounavine. Ilia has been a long-time coach [and husband] to former Canadian Marathon Champion Lioudmila Kortchaguina. Ilia brings expertise in understanding and evaluating running programs at both the elite and grass-roots levels.

CSRF also has an experienced, professional management team:

Anh Vuong, full-time Manager. Anh has relentlessly guided the growth of Canada Running Series charitable activities over the past 5 years, building from a handful of small, local charities that often need lots of support and assistance — to almost 200 charities in 2010. She is thrilled to have the opportunity to be in the office, directing CRS' move to the next level with the Foundation.

Bonnie Taylor, Neighbourhood & Community Activation. Bonnie is our person out on the street, out in the neighbourhoods, working year-round with local neighbourhood groups and charities to connect Canada Running Series events and opportunities with important grass-roots initiatives.

OUR MISSION

CRSF was established to fulfill the mission of Canada Running Series (CRS) in general, of giving back to the communities we run through, and promoting healthy lifestyles through running — especially in the young.

CRSF will now take over this mission from Canada Running Series (CRS). Further, gifts will be made to qualified donees, such as Canadian Athletes Now or Athletics Canada, to support the success of high performance Canadian athletes in running. CRSF may also make gifts to other Registered Canadian Amateur Athletic Associations which promote the pursuit of excellence in Canadian running.

Like the London Marathon, the New York City or Houston Marathons, it was felt that by establishing a separate charitable foundation (focused solely on assisting registered charities and other qualified donees in Canada in their raising of funds by receiving charitable donations and supporting charitable projects), we would be able to grow the amounts that these qualified donees receive. At the same time, CRSF will provide a greater transparency by separating the fundraising component completely from the Operations, business aspect of organizing CRS runs and events.

This will benefit the approximately 200 mostly-local charities who “piggyback” on CRS events at present, where we provide support and fundraising tools. We hope to be able to grow the total raised for these third-party charities from almost $5 million in 2010 to $10 million over the next 5 years, with the support of CRSF.

The new Foundation will also allow us to potentially solicit new sponsors to facilitate growth in fundraising.

Importantly, the new Foundation will allow CRS — for the first time — to begin to fund projects of our own, selected by CRSF Board members. The Board of the new Foundation has decided that there will be an emphasis on fundraising for 2 main areas:

  1. To fund qualified donees — such as registered Canadian Amateur Athletic Associations which support the pursuit of excellence in Canadian distance running. This will involve supporting particular athletes or high-performance groups through such a qualified donee — similar to Canadian Athletes Now or Own the Podium, but for distance running and especially the marathon. This is something that major American marathons have been doing to great success for the past decade. In 2011, for example, the New York City Marathon/NY Road Runners has committed $190,000 to support Running USA high-performance centres and events across the US.
  2. To support grass-roots, community fitness programmes, with special emphasis on kids and running. A good example would be to raise funding to expand our highly-successful Scotiabank MarathonKIDS programme, that involved 19 inner-city schools and 1,000 public school children in 2010. CRSF will annually entertain applications from community-based fitness programmes with emphasis on using running to establish healthier lifestyle habits among the young.

Help us reach our 2011 GOALS:

To contact the CRS Foundation,

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