The government of Ontario has agreed to match, dollar for dollar, all bursary donations forwarded by the Ontario Medical Foundation (OMF) to universities this fiscal year. The OMF is prepared to advance funds up to the capacity available to each participating university, based on the contributions (payments and pledges) now being made by physicians. Factoring in donors’ net cost after claiming charitable tax credits and the matching government grants, more than three times the amount of donors’ actual financial outlay could be awarded to needy medical students.
This will maximize the Ontario Medical Student Bursary Fund money being awarded to students by enabling universities to take full advantage of their allowable fund-matching under the previous Ontario Student Opportunity Trust Fund (OSOTF). In 1996, the province of Ontario established an endowment fund to assist college and university students with the rising cost of post-secondary education. Money raised or pledged by each college and university was matched by the province and placed in a trust fund, which generated interest to be used for the OSOTF awards. Applications closed March 1997.
Since mid-February, representatives of the Ontario Medical Foundation have been contacting physicians who were trained out-of-province (Ontario graduates are being called by their universities). They will now be informing donors of this development. In an Angus Reid survey conducted last November, when asked if any specific thing would make them more likely to donate to the Ontario Medical Student Bursary Fund, the largest group of physicians stated that it would be seeing the government provide more money, or provide matching funds.
The Fund’s goal is to raise more than the amount that will be eligible for this year’s matching government grants. It is hoped that, in subsequent years, the government matching grants will also be available and applicable to the funds donated by OMF to the participating universities for their students. Once matching fund limits are met, donations continue to be eligible for income tax credits that may almost double the value of donors’ actual monetary outlay.
To obtain further information, contact Sandy Zidaric, Ontario Medical Student Bursary Fund Campaign Manager, at (416) 340-2913 or 1-800-268-7215, ext. 2913.