Siddon to sit on advisory panel

By Judie Steeves - Kelowna Capital News - February 17, 2008

The chairman of the Okanagan Water Stewardship Council, Tom Siddon, has been appointed to the new RBC Blue Water Project advisory panel, which will be responsible for a $50 million, 10-year charitable grant program. Siddon said the panel is unique in Canada, in terms of its budget and lack of political affiliations. The bank’s new project will offer grants in three areas. Visionary grants will be multi-year grants to global organizations that show vision, foresight and innovation to support programs around the world and in Canada. The leadership grants are annual grants for organizations considered leaders in providing regional programs within North America, and will be determined through a request for proposal process. The third category is community action grants for community-based organizations in Canada, the U.S. and the Caribbean to support local projects. The first visionary grant was made to the One Drop Foundation, which received a commitment of $10 million over 10 years. Siddon said the next meeting is Feb. 27 in Toronto. More visionary grants will be made later in the year and applications for leadership grants will be accepted beginning in April. Community action grants will be open in June. For more details, go to www.rbc.com/bluewater.