THE INS AND OUTS OF THE CANADIAN RUGBY FOUNDATION UNRESTRICTED FUND
The Foundation’s Unrestricted (or General) Fund is the fund holding assets that are not dedicated to any other specific endowment, student award, or capital fund, or Rugby Canada team or program. The Fund is “unrestricted” in that unlike the Foundation's other 65+ endowment, award and capital funds, the use of the monies in the Unrestricted Fund are at the discretion of the Foundation, as approved in its annual budget, and not subject to the direction of the Fund Sponsors.
REVENUES
Assets in this Fund are generated by donations to the Foundation generally (not to a specific Fund) or are the results of the Foundation’s net investment returns over and above the annual returns earned by each non-Fletcher’s Fields Limited (FFL) Fund, or are earned from the Administration and General (A&G) Fees from the $1 million+ FFL Funds.
EXPENSES
The Foundation’s operating and administrative expenses (maintained at under 1 percent of Foundation assets), investment management fees, any negative investment returns (of the non-FFL Funds), the Foundation’s matching contributions to the endowment funds over $20,000, its 3.5 percent returns to its non-FFL Funds for assets under $100,000 and 4.5% returns for assets over $100,000, and its grants to and sponsorships of specific initiatives are paid from this Fund.
The Foundation has initiated or helped support the establishment of several key national programs. Disbursements for these, or on one-off grant requests from rugby-related bodies. Whenever possible, the Foundation leverages its grant by requesting that the grant recipient, sponsored event or organisation seek out additional sponsorships and donations or grants to at least match the Foundation’s grant.
INITIATIVES
The McTavish Cup (Canadian University Men's Rugby Championship) established in 2017 with the support of the Foundation, has an ongoing commitment from the Canadian Rugby Foundation to support the Championship, primarily to subsidize the travel and accommodations of the visiting teams. This is driven by the Foundation's continuing belief that the university pathway is critical to the growth and development of Canada's men's program, as has already been proven with the Women's team.
The Women's High-performance Rugby Initiative, which includes the annual Quebec-Ontario Sr. Women's Spring-Summer Series, and the Men's High-performance Rugby Initiative, which has supported the development of a new Canada Cup championship beginning with the 2026 BC-Ontario competition are both entering their 3rd year in 2027. Previously these were funded at the level of $40,000 each though this is anticipated to increase in 2027.
The Foundation’s commitment to establish and then support the Fletcher’s Patrons Fund is also met through disbursements from the Unrestricted Fund. The Patrons Fund is funded at the level of 10% of the annual admin fees paid by the FFL funds to the Foundation.
USE THE FORM BELOW TO DONATE TO THE FOUNDATION'S UNRESTRICTED FUND:
Generally you will be able to make donations to the individual funds through forms found beneath their fund bio. If you are using a VPN, this may not allow the form to work. If a link isn't working, try pausing your VPN, and if that doesn't work, you can make your donation directly to your selected Fund at CanadaHelps.org here.
