Howes estate gifts $18M to Niagara Community Foundation

Niagara Community Foundation is the recipient of a substantial financial gift that will effect positive change on the lives of thousands of Niagarans for decades to come.

The organization announced Tuesday morning that the estate of St. Catharines businessman and philanthropist David S. Howes provided an $18-million gift to establish a new David S. Howes Fund to be used to support post-secondary education, health-care services, education or facilities and humanitarian issues throughout the region.

Niagara Community Foundation chairman Bob Watson described the $18-million donation as a “transformational gift.”

“We are dedicated to serving as good stewards for David’s legacy and ensuring that it endures in the community for decades to come,” he said in a media release.

Watson said Howes’ first donation to the organization was $100,000 provided in 2014 to create the David and Susanne DiLalla Howes Family Fund.

“In a very real way, it was a test of how the foundation would manage his legacy,” he said.

“All things considered, it looks like we passed the test.”

The $18-million gift brings Niagara Community Foundation’s total endowment to about $50 million — enough to take “the Niagara Community Foundation to the next level,” said its executive director, Bryan Rose.

“We’re going to be able to get into major giving in a way we never could before. The scale of the gifts we can give will increase dramatically,” Rose said.

“We’re going to be able to have a much larger impact on Niagara than ever.”

He said the David S. Howes Fund will be separate from existing foundation funds, and the interest it accumulates will be directed towards larger and more complex projects than the foundation has been able to fund previously.

Howes, who owned Lincoln Fabrics in Port Dalhousie, was wellknown for his generosity throughout Niagara.

His contributions to Brock University, which earned him an honorary doctorate in 2012, also included the commissioning of the statue of Sir Isaac Brock that now stands at the base of Schmon Tower.

Howes died Jan. 12, 2015, at the age of 74.