The fruits of the Manitoba Heritage Trust Program are beginning to bloom.

La Société historique de Saint-Boniface will receive a provincial contribution of $25,000, following a successful fundraising campaign that raised over $50,000.

For every dollar contributed by a museum or heritage foundation into this trust, the province will match those contributions by 50 percent to a maximum of $50,000.

The three-year program began about a year ago and is very promising, says Morden's Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre Executive Director Peter Cantelon.

When the program was first announced, Cantelon says the CFDC jumped at the opportunity, investing $20,000.

"What I love about this program is that it brings in so many other organizations and spreads the wealth. It's not just museums and heritage organizations that will benefit at the end of the three years, the funds that have been created in the Manitoba Heritage Trust Fund for different organizations will then go to their local foundation."

Cantelon says all funds the CFDC puts into the trust, along with the funds from the province, will go into the Morden Area Foundation.

"Because the MAF earns revenue on the funds inside it, it gives money to other organizations as well, so it's really has a three or four-fold benefit."

$50,000 isn't the maximum amount of the funding that can come from the province. Heritage organizations which have contributed more than the upper limit and haven't used all the money set aside by the province by the end of the program, will receive additional matching funds.

Cantelon notes that by the end of the program he believes the fund with the MAF will have generated anywhere from $70,000 to $100,000.

The CFDC has committed to putting all donations received over the next three years into the trust fund, in addition, all funds raised at the annual Dig Deep Gala will go into the fund as well.

He also wants to encourage any organization which haven't created a fund with the Morden or Winkler Area Foundations to do so. He says it's very rare to get such easy access to funds; statistically, the interest generated by this fund will pay for the contributions to it within 17 years, and after that, all interest is bonus funding.