The Maurice Price Foundation was started through the generosity of Mr. Maurice Price of Carleton Place, Ontario, who formed it during his life, and through the terms of his will, enabled the resources to provide for the grants to carry out its mandate. The Foundation is based in Ottawa, Canada, but its mandate extends to Institutions and recipients nationaly. The Foundation concentrates on supporting enterprises dedicated to helping young people reach their full educational potential, to become productive members of Canadian society. As such, its mandate is education in the broadest sense, from early childhood intervention preparing disadvantaged pre-school children to enter the educational system, to enhancing the University experience in selected programs.

The Foundation is particularly interested in ensuring that at-risk students are identified and rescued, and given the opportunity to continue their studies and their training as far as is necessary and possible. In general, the Foundation tries to provide resources for innovative projects that have the possibility of becoming incorporated into more general funding streams. The Foundation will also partner other organizations in funding larger or more complex projects. Funds provided by the Maurice Price Foundation are not intended to be given long term, although a renewal is often considered. The Foundation does not provide funds to institutions to supply shortfalls in regular curricula that should be part of an organization’s Federal, Provincial or Municipal budget, or for infrastructure. The Foundation has funded a wide range of projects since its inception. It was a major sponsor of the innovative School of Humanities at Carleton University, which has become a highly successful programme. It has supported initiatives from mentorship programs for students in high schools to support for teaching the disadvantaged mothers of pre-schoolers; from community programs designed to enhance math education in elementary schools children to programs helping university students with learning disabilities. It has also helped fund a program helping Northern aboriginal students studying law to adjust to the foreign culture of a mainstream University, to reverse the abnormally high dropout rates usually seen in this population. Many other worthy projects dealing with students of all ages, and from challenged to gifted scholars have been recipients of the Foundation’s grants.

from left to right: Robert Shantz, June Timmons, Raymond Ludwin, Campbell Burns,Sian Hawke, Samuel Ludwin, Robert Steinbach, John Peart

The Foundation is led by a Board and Officers, all of whom are volunteers, and a secretariat located at the legal firm of Nelligan O'Brien Payne LLP in Ottawa. The operating expenses of the Foundation are extremely low. The Board members come from diverse backgrounds. Some represent Institutions, such as school boards, as requested by Maurice Price, and others are either family members or people who were acquainted with him, and are aware of what he wished for the Foundation. The Board encourages submissions from a wide variety of groups, and hopes for exciting innovative projects, that will prove to be long-lasting and of value to both the individuals directly involved and to Canadian society as a whole.