The Drummond Foundation is dedicated to helping to improve healthy aging as well as the quality of life of socially, mentally and physically disadvantaged elderly individuals and their families. We do this principally by providing one-time, short-term funding to innovative, early-stage research projects that aim to improve the health and well-being of seniors. Our goal is to enable promising-looking projects to get through the critical early stage testing phase of their development, to allow those holding sufficient promise to benefit from longer-term funding from government, universities or larger foundations. The Foundation also provides grants for the elderly and less advantaged populations for social, community and cultural projects.
President's Message
Bruce Drummond McNiven
The Drummond Foundation, as its principal source of funds, draws on the Drummond Trusts created by Sir George Alexander Drummond and his family in the late 19th and early 20th century to support health and social services in Montreal. These funds initially supported St. Margaret’s Home for the Incurables, (as it was then known): a private not-for-profit nursing home.
In the latter part of the 20th century, almost all health and education services in Canada became publicly funded and government regulated. As a result, the role of private charity in the health and social services sector – as in all sectors of Canadian society – evolved substantially.
St. Margaret’s Home itself, managed until 1975 by the Anglican Sisters of Saint Margaret, began its integration into Quebec’s health and social services network in 1982, and over time its administration and operating costs were assumed by the Quebec government. In 1988, members of the Drummond family decided to consolidate the Drummond Trusts under the Drummond Foundation, thus establishing it as one the earliest family charitable foundations in Canada, given its origins dating back to 1893. The Foundation seeks to uphold the original mission of the Drummond Trusts and to carry out the family’s philanthropic tradition in a manner focused on current social needs.
The Drummond Foundation’s relatively modestly-scaled resources are used for meaningful purposes that are aligned with our original values and objectives. We support innovative scientific research and social programmes that are focused on improving the lives of the elderly. Our goal is to help projects that are in their early stages in the hope that such support will allow advancement to the stage of development and result needed to leverage to more substantial funding levels from other, larger sources.
We all know that Canada’s population is an ageing one. This societal trend will put increasing pressure on our governments, our health care system, and our society as a whole. By continuing to foster the next generation of research programmes and creative community projects that will improve the health and well-being of Canadian seniors, the Drummond Foundation aims to play an important role in helping Canada rise to this challenge.
Bruce Drummond McNiven, CM
President
The Drummond Foundation
Directors
M. Bruce Drummond McNiven, President
Dr. Helen Elizabeth Ross, Vice-President
Timothy Price, Treasurer
P. Stuart Iversen, Secretary
Alexander Drummond McNiven, Director
Marie Senécal-Tremblay, Director
Nancy Dunton, Director
Advisors
Dr. Lucyna Lach, Scientific Advisor
Mark Culver, Investment Committee
Cairnmont Inc., Secretariat