Bank of Montreal 2008 Annual Report Download - page 26

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
Sports and Athletics:
Making Life More Enjoyable
Our support for sports and athletics is strong
at BMO, and it enhances our relationship
with our customers and our communities.
In 2008, we expanded our support for soccer
across Canada. As well as being the lead
sponsor of Toronto FC, naming sponsor of
BMO Field
TM
in Toronto and asso ciate sponsor
of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC, we have
increased the number of house league
teams we sponsor to 275 and we are the
presenting sponsor of over 200 tourna-
ments across the country.
BMO also supports skating. We are the
presenting sponsor of CanSkate®5, Skate
Canada’s Learn-to-Skate program, and the
title sponsor of the national figure skating
championships. In January, at the 2008 BMO
Canadian Figure Skating Championships in
Vancouver,
Bill Downe, our President and
CEO, presented
$100,000 to the Skate
Canada Athlete Fund, which was accepted
by Jeffrey Buttle, a former CanSkater and
the 2008 World Figure Skating Champion.
Our long-standing involvement in equestrian
sport in Canada also proved particularly
gratifying in 2008, when the Canadian show
jumping team, led by veteran equestrian
star Ian Millar, won a silver medal at the
2008 Summer Olympics. BMO is the found-
ing sponsorofthe$350,000BMOFinancial
Group Nations’ Cup competition, held at
Spruce Meadows in Calgary each September.
Education: A Core Focus
Education is a core focus of our contributions
program. In 2008, we announced a $550,000
donation to the University of Victoria for
construction of its First Peoples House. This
educational facility will be a centre for cul-
tural and academic support programs that
assist Aboriginal students in accessing and
completing a post-secondary education.
Promoting access to education is also the
goal of our $150,000 donation to the Uni -
versity of Winnipeg Opportunity Fund. The
program assists students from areas tradi-
tionally underrepresented at university,
including Aboriginal communities and inner
city neighbourhoods. In Barrie, Ontario,
we contributed $170,000 to Georgian College
to help fund its health sciences program.
2008 also marked the fourth year of BMO
Capital Markets’ Equity Through Education®*
initiative. On September 17, all of the insti-
tutional equity trading commissions earned
in Canada and the United States were
donated to charitable organizations that
provide scholarships to students from
four specific groups: women, people with
disabilities, Aboriginals and visible minori-
ties. Since its inception, Equity Through
Education has helped nearly 2,000 students
and raised a total of $6.6 million.
BMO Capital Markets’ Equity Through Education
charitable initiative won an inaugural Strategic
Philanthropy Award for best program in financial
services from
The Journal of Financial Advertising
& Marketing .
Helping our communities thrive
Contributing to the well-being of our communities has long been
a way of life, and business, at BMO. Helping strengthen the
neighbourhoods, towns and regions where we operate creates
a healthy, resilient and robust society in which our customers,
their families, our employees and our business can thrive.
BMO continues to be one of Canada’s largest corporate donors.
In 2008, we contributed $55.9 million in donations, sponsorships
and events to support communities and many charities and
not-for-profit organizations in Canada and the United States. Our
contributions are directed to a wide range of activities in many
areas, including education, health, arts and culture, community
development and sports and athletics.
Community Development:
Fundamental to Well-Being
BMO invests in organizations that
strengthen our communities. We con-
tributed $2 million to help renew infra-
structure at Kids Help Phone®4, Canada’s
only toll-free, bilingual, anonymous coun-
selling, referral and information service
for children and youth. We also became
title sponsor of BMO Boo-la-thon, an
annual national bowling fundraising event
launched 17 years ago by BMO employees.
BMO also helped celebrate the 400th
anniversary of Quebec City by partnering
with la Commission de la capitale natio -
nale du Québec to create La Fresque BMO
de la ca pitale nationale du Québec, a
450-square-metre trompe-l’œil mural
depicting politicians and events central
to the city’s history.
We continue to support communities in
times of need. Last spring, BMO Financial
Group and BMO Employee Charitable
Foundation made a joint contribution
of $30,000 to Canadian Red Cross relief
efforts for flood victims in New Brunswick.
For its part, Harris donated US$50,000
to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief
Fund to help residents of Illinois, Indiana
and Wisconsin affected by floods and
tornadoes. BMO also donated $150,000
to the Red Cross to support its efforts to
assist victims of natural disasters in China
and Myanmar, and both BMO and Harris
matched an additional $100,000 in
employee donations.
iNumbers That Matter: Gatefold
22 | BMO Financial Group 191st Annual Report 2008