{"id":237,"date":"2019-12-10T09:23:08","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T14:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/?page_id=237"},"modified":"2023-09-05T13:58:45","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T17:58:45","slug":"giving-strategically-allows-funds-to-go-a-long-way","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/giving-strategically-allows-funds-to-go-a-long-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving Strategically Allows Funds to Go a Long Way"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Donors

Ken and Margaret Torrance<\/p><\/div>\n

By Laura Byrne Paquet, BJ\/87
\nPhoto: Jessica Deeks<\/span><\/p>\n

Ken and Margaret Torrance\u2019s philanthropic career has been a busy one. They began by funding a scholarship at the United Theological College in Montreal in honour of a relative. Then they funded four scholarships at Carleton and another at the school where they earned their first degrees, the University of Guelph. And, oh yes, they also helped sponsor a Canadian composer to create a work based on an Alice Munro short story, which premiered at the National Arts Centre in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get a taste for this kind of thing. I say giving is addictive,\u201d explains Margaret.<\/p>\n

Margaret is a Carleton alumna, MA\/83, of what is now the School of Canadian and Indigenous Studies, and Ken is a professor emeritus in Carleton\u2019s department of geography. However, their first donation to the university didn\u2019t focus on either of those departments. Instead, 15 years ago, they spearheaded the endowment of a scholarship for students to curate a project at the Carleton University Art Gallery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ontario government was matching funds, and there was a window of opportunity that was about to close,\u201d Margaret explains. \u201cI looked for niches of need that weren\u2019t being filled, and the art gallery seemed to be considered by some people to be a frill.\u201d The Torrances encouraged a group of friends to contribute as well.<\/p>\n

Thinking Bigger<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scholarship recipients use the funds for research, such as a trip to interview an artist. \u201cYou can dream bigger because there is a pocket of money,\u201d Margaret says.<\/p>\n

Other scholarships followed. For instance, when a life insurance company demutualized, Ken learned that a $1,000 policy his parents had taken out on him almost 40 years earlier was worth $5,000. Rather than pay capital gains on it, the couple funded a research scholarship for geography students. The net cost to them was $1,000, and matching funding raised the value of the scholarship fund to $10,000. \u201cThat sounded like a good deal to me,\u201d says Ken.<\/p>\n

A third scholarship provides funding for PhD students in geography, while the latest is for women in gender studies courses. \u201cMy husband and I know that endowing a scholarship is how you make change,\u201d Margaret says. \u201cAn endowed scholarship will continue to benefit long after we\u2019re dead and gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Torrances\u2019 lives have ranged far beyond the Ontario farms where they grew up. They have lived in New York State, Norway, and California; Margaret also worked in international development in Thailand. \u201cEducation was life-changing for us and, basically, we\u2019re giving back,\u201d Margaret says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Laura Byrne Paquet, BJ\/87 Photo: Jessica Deeks Ken and Margaret Torrance\u2019s philanthropic career has been a busy one. They began by funding a scholarship at the United Theological College in Montreal in honour of a relative. Then they funded four scholarships at Carleton and another at the school where they earned their first degrees, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"acf":{"banner_image_type":"none","banner_button":"no"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1648,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/237\/revisions\/1648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}