Remembering Calvin Fong, Friend of CAGP

It is with great community sadness that we share the passing of Calvin Fong this past month. As those who joined us in Vancouver know, Calvin was named this year as a ‘Friend of CAGP’, one of the highest honours we bestow each year to acknowledge significant contributions made at the local and national level of CAGP and which have had a national impact on strategic charitable gift planning.

Calvin’s was truly a career and a life of impact.

Serving as Director, Donor Services at Vancouver Foundation since 2014, Calvin previously worked in Philanthropic Services for the Vancity Community Foundation. Before that Calvin spent 17 years of experience as a trust officer in several institutions and part of one of the donor-advised funds teams in Canada.  A deeply dedicated volunteer in the gift planning community including as founding Chair of the CAGP Foundation (2016-2018), Director of the Estate Planning Council of Vancouver (2012-2019), Executive volunteer with the CAGP Greater Vancouver Chapter (2011-2017) and Chair, Leave a Legacy of Greater Vancouver (2011-14). When we think of who embodies friendship and professional dedication in a community, Calvin is indeed a shining example for us all.

Calvin was uniquely equipped with the ideal combination of skills and experience to be CAGP Foundation’s first chair. He and the founding team of volunteers oversaw charitable registration of the CAGP Foundation and helped our organization to solidify our own community needs and generosity goals and to ensure our own charity was excellent in our financial reporting, receipting and stewardship of gifts.  Calvin took great care in ensuring that the CAGP Foundation operated in an exemplary and ethical manner as it developed its strategies and plans and in its relationship with CAGP. He also led the foundation to raise over $555,000 in multi-year pledge commitments in 2017 and just over $377,000 outright gifts and pledges in 2018. On top of it all, as a final act of generosity and commitment to our shared mission, Calvin asked that donations in his memory include the CAGP Foundation.

Calvin's legacy will continue to inspire us, and his memory will forever be cherished within the CAGP community.

More about our Friend Calvin, details of his memorial and on gifts in his memory, can be found here.