It opened with ambitious pledges, plus vows to give out millions annually, and now — just over a year later — the Bermuda Community Foundation has reportedly distributing nearly $1.5 million in grants.

The annual report for BCF yesterday announced $1.44 million given out through 62 grants since its inception in February 2014. Community foundations pool donations, investing them to create a permanent asset base.

At its launch Peter Durhager, BCF’s founding chairman, summed it up as “a vehicle for raising money, investing it and then directing the funds that those investments earn, back into the community”.

The report summarised last year’s total grant distribution across five categories:

• Youth Achievement and Community-Based Education: $544,500, 25 grants;

• Arts for All and Bermuda’s Heritage: $55,000, two grants;

• Caring Community: $398,500, 18 grants;

• Charitable Infrastructure and Community Development: $226,250, 11 grants;

• Green and Blue Community (environmental): $220,000, six grants.

Educational grants came top out of 11 non-profit fields that included civil rights, justice, and recreation and sport.

Observing that the Island leans heavily on its non-profit sector for community services, conservation, culture and heritage, Mr Durhager — who is also the chairman of ACBDA, the group managing Bermuda’s interests in the 2017 America’s Cup — said the BCF could play “a vital part in ensuring that this work lives on long into the future”.

The foundation was described as the hub for a literacy campaign, Read*Write*Bermuda, involving CedarBridge Academy, the Bermuda National Library and the Reading Clinic.

More than $250,000 has been invested in that initiative, created by the Buechner Society of Bermuda — an organisation honouring the United States author and minister Frederick Buechner, who spent part of his childhood on the Island.

BCF also encourages non-profit organisations to start their own endowment funds — with RenaissanceRe donating $5,000 to each that does so.

• To view the BCF’s annual report, click on the PDF file under “Related Media”.