An investor advocacy group has received $2.5 million in new funding from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC).

The OSC said Thursday it has allocated another $2.5 million of the money it has collected from enforcement sanctions and settlements to ,the Canadian Foundation for Advancement of Investor Rights (FAIR Canada), which lobbies both regulators and governments on behalf of retail investors.

Fair Canada was initially seeded with funding from the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), and has secured further funding from IIROC and the OSC over the past couple of years.

Recently, the group became registered as a charity, and has been seeking to establish a more sustainable funding model. This latest contribution is comprised of a $500,000 allocation to cover its day-to-day operating expenses, and $2 million that will be put in trust with its new long-term funding vehicle, the FAIR Canada Jarislowsky Endowment Fund. The endowment fund was established earlier this year by Stephen Jarislowsky, investment legend and FAIR director, who launched it with a $2 million contribution, and challenged FAIR to raise another $4 million to create a $6 million endowment fund.

“The OSC’s contribution will go a long way to meeting this challenge and will help to provide a sustainable basis of funding for the organization going forward. FAIR Canada encourages like-minded individuals and organizations to contribute to our campaign,” said Neil Gross, FAIR’s executive director.

FAIR Canada also announced Thursday that IIROC’s funding commitment to the group has now been completed. It has made its final payment under the second round of funding from IIROC, totalling $900,000.

The OSC says that its latest contribution to FAIR reflects its commitment to investor protection. “The work conducted by FAIR Canada has been extremely valuable to the OSC as we look to further educate, engage and protect retail investors in Ontario,” said Howard Wetston, chair and CEO of the OSC.

Last week, FAIR published a new report examining investment fraud in Canada, which called for improved data collection and research into the problem of investment fraud, among other things. It also regularly provides comments to regulators on policy issues that affect retail investors.