Donate
Give to the ACC
Whether you are strapping on crampons for the first time or adding a new ascent to your checklist, you will find a welcoming community here that shares your passion. Our club is able to deliver exemplary alpine experiences at extraordinary value because of the commitment and the generous support of our community. Our club delivers great value and fellowship, enriches lives, promotes and protects our natural spaces. But our community’s needs and interests are changing and we need to keep pace. You are helping provide alpine explorers with affordable, responsible and thrilling wilderness adventures. You are caring for and growing North America’s largest system of back-country huts. You are fostering a network of talented volunteers and leaders. You are celebrating our mountain story and advocating for the protection of our environment. To learn about the impact of a donation, you can read about the reflections from past ACC Donors.
Your support helps:
- The continued development and care of North America’s largest system of back-country huts.
- The training and resources to our remarkable network of volunteer leaders who give hundreds of hours of their own time each year to deliver safe, responsible adventures
- The fiscal sustainability of our club, to ensure we can meet the future.
- Our position as Canada’s leading voice in sharing and celebrating our mountain story.
- Our continuing the protection, preservation and promotion of our playground.
Ways to Give
There are many ways to bring together and give voice to Canada’s mountaineering community. There are many ways to choose a giving option that is meaningful to you.
Greatest Needs
Strengthening your national alpine club for generations to come.
The Greatest Needs Fund is a permanent legacy of the ACC. This fund has been in place for over 15 years, and has grown considerably over that time through generous donations and bequests from members who included the ACC in their estate planning. Interest income is used annually to support strategic priorities and projects.
Funding distributed through grants approved by the ACC Board of Directors.
Environment Fund
Preserving and protecting our playground.
Wilderness is a diminishing and irreplaceable resource of great intrinsic value, not only to those who recreate in its spaces, but to everyone on our planet. The Environment Fund is a permanent fund to be used to create a legacy of environmental improvement.
The Environment Fund provides financial support annually to projects related to preservation of the alpine and Arctic environments and climbing areas in Canada. Your donation goes directly to these projects.
Bev Bendell Library Conservation Fund
Preserve the history of the ACC.
The Bev Bendell Library Conservation Fund is committed to the growth and enhancement of the Club’s library collection.
Long-time member and A.O. Wheeler Legacy Award recipient, Bev Bendell donated $100,000 to the Club in 2007. Since Bev was a professional librarian and also the Club’s volunteer librarian for several years, the donation was used to create a permanent library fund. This fund is administered by the Mountain Culture Committee, who use the annual investment income from the fund to purchase books for the ACC library, restore older library books, publish new books and other library-related projects.
Philippe Delesalle Memorial Grant
Making mountain experiences accessible to the underprivileged.
Mountain experiences and mountain culture teach life skills and benefit people of all ages. But there are significant barriers to these experiences, particularly for youth, disadvantaged individuals and to those in places removed from the mountains. The Philippe Delesalle Grant, given annually to underprivileged youth from across Canada aims to expand access to alpine experiences, knowledge and culture to more Canadians.
The Bugaboos Teens program is a tuition-free mountaineering camp held annually in Bugaboo Provincial Park in BC. It is aimed at students from grades 10 through 12 with the goal of introducing youth to the mountains and giving them the opportunity to forge strong relationships with the natural world. Canadian youth can apply for inclusion on the camp through this grant.
Philippe Delesalle shared the ACC’s deep belief in the value of mountain regions, sports and culture to the human spirit. He was a father, mountain lover, adventurer and architect who resided in Canmore until his passing in 2020. The ACC is honoured to help build a legacy of exposing youth to the alpine in Philippe’s name.
Eric Brooks Memorial Fund
Preserve the Canadian Alpine Journal Legacy.
Established in 2001, the Eric Brooks Memorial Fund supports the publication of the Canadian Alpine Journal – the flagship publication of the ACC for over 100 years.
Eric Brooks joined the ACC in 1929 and continued to devote much of his energy to the Club until his death in 2001. He served as Manager of the General Mountaineering Camp for many years, was elected President of the ACC in 1941 and named Honorary President from 1954 to 1964. He was awarded the Silver Rope for Leadership Award in 1937 and the A.O. Wheeler Legacy Award in 1995. In 2005 an ACC volunteer award for commitment to learning and leading was renamed the Eric Brooks Leader Award in his honour.
Your donation to the Eric Brooks Memorial Fund will help ensure the enduring legacy of the Canadian Alpine Journal.
Louise Guy Commemorative Fund
Support training for amateur leaders.
Created in 2010 through memorial donations, the Louise Guy Commemorative Fund is used to provide ongoing funding for the training of amateur leaders for the ACC’s annual General Mountaineering Camp (GMC).
Louise Guy, who died in 2010 at the age of 92, was one of the Club’s most cheerful, generous and delightful members. Louise took up climbing in her 50s and continued to climb into her ninth decade. Thanks to Louise’s efforts, the annual GMC was rescued from a very near demise in the mid-1980s. For more information on Louise and her husband, Richard, see the Summit Series booklet: Young at Heart: Richard and Louise Guy.
Financial Grants
Support mountain-related projects and initiatives.
Give in the form of annual cash grants and scholarships to individuals and groups who are judged as best meeting the selection criteria.
John Lauchlan Memorial Award
John Lauchlan Memorial Award
ACC Environment Grant
ACC Environment Grant
Karl Nagy Memorial Scholarship
Karl Nagy Memorial Scholarship
Jim Colpitts Memorial Scholarship
Jim Colpitts Memorial Scholarship
Jen Higgins Grant for Young Women
