The Corporate Relations Department manages the philanthropic and community investments of AIC Limited. Over the years, AIC has contributed significant capital and human resources to a variety of initiatives in health care, education and culture. Moving forward, AIC will focus its corporate community investment on educational initiatives across Canada.
AIC does not accept proposals which request funding for the following:
- operating costs of organizations, i.e. administrative costs
- capital costs, i.e. building a new structure
- advertising
- festivals & parades
- religious institutions
- tickets to events
- political causes, organizations or candidates
- trips & travel
- personal loans/grants/donations for scholarships/mortgages/business startups/debt
- proposals to invest in TV or movie concepts
All requests for AIC support, are to be directed to the Corporate Relations Department. Please note that the Executive Chairman, Michael Lee-Chin and Chief Executive Officer, Jonathan Wellum do not accept requests for meetings regarding support or funding.
Thank you for your interest in AIC Limited. Please note that AIC’s fiscal year runs from October 1st through to September 30th. Corporate Relations has fully allocated its budget for 2008-2009 and 2009-2010. Therefore, AIC will not be accepting any donation or funding requests until October 2009, to be considered for the 2010-2011 fiscal year and beyond.
Examples of AIC's Community Investment
CanSpell Awards
AIC knows the value of long-term investments. This is one of the reasons it supports educational initiatives and is proud to partner with Canwest Global to support the CanSpell National Spelling Bee.
 In 2007, more than 200,000 young Canadians competed to earn a place at regional events in 20 cities from coast-to-coast. They did so with enhanced motivation – the new AIC Awards.
In an effort to promote literacy and education, AIC created these new awards valued in the total amount of $114,000. This year, the winner in each region received $3,000 in AIC RESPs (Registered Education Savings plan) and the runner-up received $2,000 in AIC RESPs.
 “When we saw the excitement over the first two years of this national spelling competition and the fundamental emphasis on study that it inspires, we felt it was important to nurture this academic pursuit and reward the country’s best achievers,” said Jonathan Wellum, CEO of AIC Limited. “We’re proud to have the chance to offer a gift for the future to those who are fostering education and success in their children through programs like these.”
Each award recipient moved forward to compete in the national competition in Ottawa in April. This year's CanSpell winner, Soohyun Park, from Toronto, Ontario, received a $10,000 AIC award. She won the National Competition by correctly spelling "hypobulia" in the 20th round. Amrit Sampalli, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the runner-up and received a $4,000 AIC award. Both were joined by the regional winners to compete in the 80th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington in May 2007.
 In 2006, when Finola Hackett of Tofield, Alberta won the Canadian spelling bee final and ranked second at the internationally renowned Scripps National Spelling Bee in the U.S., Canada’s young academic stars were thrilled by her success. This year, Nate Gartke, from Edmonton, Alberta, finished in second place at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Nate reached the final round in Washington along with fellow Canadians Cody Wang, of Calgary, Alberta, and Chris Stanbridge of St. John's, Newfoundland.
For 2008, the regional winners will receive $5,000 in AIC RESPs and the national winner will receive $15,000.
For more information please visit www.canspell.com or read about CanSpell on the Canada.com news and events page.
AIC Financial Services Leadership Challenge
In the Fall of 2006, as part of the Community Champions program of the United Way of Burlington and Greater Hamilton, AIC issued a unique challenge to the local financial community to help the less fortunate. AIC Limited would match up to $25,000 in contributions that specifically come from individuals — not companies — within the financial services sector.
The idea is for AIC to take a leading role to help encourage others to do what they can for the United Way.
 "The United Way helps our community through long-term solutions for community health and social programs," said Michael Lee-Chin, Executive Chairman of AIC Limited. "As a wealth management company we understand the value of long-term investment in our community. This year, by focusing our matching challenge in this way, we are encouraging people in our sector to come together to help people today and tomorrow by investing in the United Way leadership program."
The 2006 Community Champions were a mix of 17 community and business leaders in the Burlington and Greater Hamilton region. The goal of the Community Champions Challenge was to encourage new or increased donations of $1,000 or more to the United Way. It then matched the donation up to a total of $170,000.
This means, for example, that an individual donating $1,000 immediately saw their community investment doubled to $2,000. In 2006, the AIC Challenge raised $30,000 and when matched with AIC's $25,000, the total campaign raised $55,000. The Burlington Campaign raised $1,814,750 in 2006 and the Hamilton Campaign raised $4,540,795.
AIC Limited continues to support the United Way in its community challenges, actively participating in United Way fundraising campaigns and contributing over $125,000 since 2004.
As AIC has grown to become Canada's largest privately held mutual fund company, so has its commitment to the community at large. Over the past three years, the company's charitable giving has surpassed 1% of pre-tax domestic profits. As a result, AIC is recognized as a Caring Company by Imagine Canada. They administer Canada's national program to promote public and corporate giving, volunteering and support for the community.
All Imagine Caring Companies must sign and adhere to Imagine's Corporate Citizenship Commitment. Through this commitment, companies agree to support the principles for corporate citizenship and benchmarks for community investment established by Imagine Canada.
The Imagine Corporate Citizenship Commitment has three components: commitment, innovation and leadership.
By signing the commitment, companies agree to:
- Donate a minimum 1% of their pre-tax profits to charity and to encourage employee giving and volunteering
- Follow ethical and environmentally responsible business practices
- Maintain at least one community investment project that is supported by the CEO and leverages a range of skills such as employee volunteers to make a difference in the community
- Publish a minimum one page report annually on its community investment activities that displays the Imagine logo
Some of the ways AIC has given to the community:
 Actively involved within the community, AIC has contributed capital and human resources to many organizations over the years. For example, AIC contributed $350,000 in 2001 to the Burlington Art Centre. AIC also contributed $1 million to the Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital in Burlington for a new Cancer Clinic and the renovation of the Emergency facilities. AIC made a $5 million contribution to McMaster University to be used to help finance a new state-of-the-art facility to house the AIC Institute for Strategic Business Studies that will enrich students for years to come. AIC’s McMaster donation further demonstrates a commitment to education by funding a chair in investment and portfolio management, two professorships and by providing a $500,000 endowment for scholarships.
More recently, AIC has contributed $1 million to the Medical and Related Science (MaRS) Discovery District, a not-for-profit corporation established to connect and foster collaboration between the communities of science, business and capital. As well, AIC has contributed $10 million to the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto to establish the AIC Institute for Corporate Citizenship.
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