Grant and Funding Programs Offered by The Seltzer-Chan Pond Inlet Foundation (SCPIF)

The Seltzer-Chan Pond Inlet Foundation is a registered Canadian charity dedicated to supporting the Inuit community of Pond Inlet, a remote community on the northern coast of Baffin Island in Nunavut. Created in memory of Marilyn Chan and Mark Seltzer, the foundation focuses its financial support on Inuit culture, youth and community well-being. It operates as a small, highly targeted funder, directing all donated resources into awards and grants for local initiatives.

Since awarding its first grant in 1999, the foundation has distributed hundreds of grants to individuals and organizations in Pond Inlet, totalling over $800,000. Its support spans several domains: post-secondary education awards for students who must travel south to continue their studies, annual high school incentive awards, funding for music workshops, assistance to the local Mittima Food Bank, and a variety of “special” one-time projects proposed by community members.

The foundation primarily supports Inuit youth, students, families and elders in Pond Inlet. Typical funding includes educational bursaries, awards that encourage school attendance and achievement, resources for early childhood programs such as the Pirurvik Preschool, and sports equipment and travel for local teams in basketball, hockey, soccer, volleyball and table tennis.

Beyond education and recreation, the foundation funds cultural and community-strengthening activities. These include workshops where elders teach traditional skills such as sewing kamiks, preparing country food and participating in dog-sled races, as well as cultural preservation projects like digitizing archival video footage and purchasing equipment for community screenings. The foundation also contributes to safety and well-being through projects such as floater suits and water-safety education materials.

The foundation is administered entirely by volunteers in Pond Inlet and Toronto. A volunteer community co-ordinator in Pond Inlet promotes the program via posters and radio announcements in Inuktitut, collects grant applications and convenes a local committee. This committee reviews applications and recommends projects to the Board of Directors in Toronto, which manages the fund and communicates with donors.

Application forms are publicly available in both Inuktitut and English, and residents of Pond Inlet are explicitly encouraged to apply. The foundation emphasizes that 100% of donations go directly to the awards program, with board members covering administrative costs. This lean, community-driven structure allows the Seltzer-Chan Pond Inlet Foundation to respond flexibly to local priorities while maintaining accountability through Canada Revenue Agency filings and regular annual newsletters detailing funded projects.