Organized philanthropy, up close
Foundations have a large and mostly quiet effect on Canadian life. These are long-form accounts of specific projects, told from the funder’s side: why a foundation chose the problem, who it worked with, what changed, and what it would do again.
Environment · Montréal
Find out how the Trottier Family Foundation partnered to fight climate change and mobilize funds to enable and accelerate urban carbon-reduction solutions.
The Trottier Family Foundation · 4 min read
Media · Toronto
The Atkinson Foundation has partnered with media to make sure workers issues are covered during media industry transitions.
Atkinson Foundation · 6 min read
Education & Research · Calgary
Funders, in Calgary, collaborate to increase the impact of afterschool programming and share their knowledge and learning.
The Burns Memorial Fund · 5 min read
Health · Toronto
One of North America's top culinary schools puts a fresh focus on nutrition: George Brown College’s CHCA and Research faculties partner with The Helderleigh Foundation to put…
The Helderleigh Foundation · 4 min read
Social Services · Toronto
Up to 40,000 young Canadians experience homelessness each year, but we have new ways to help—including simply giving them a place to live.
The Catherine Donnelly Foundation · 7 min read
Reconciliation · Toronto
Although the residential schools have closed, Inuit today are still fighting to preserve their language.
The Counselling Foundation of Canada · 6 min read
Health · Montréal
In Canada, more than 70 per cent of people with a mental health problem or illness are struck when they are young—in adolescence and early adulthood.
Graham Boeckh Foundation · 4 min read
Sports & Recreation · Toronto
Have we lost sight of the benefits of outdoor play, in trying to protect our children from every risk?
The Lawson Foundation · 5 min read
Arts & Culture · Calgary
Over 25 years, philanthropy has helped to transform Alberta into a world leader in arts management.
Rozsa Foundation · 5 min read
Sports & Recreation · Calgary
How foundation-funded research—and a hockey hero’s public struggle with concussions—led to a ban on peewee body-checking.
Max Bell Foundation · 5 min read
Environment · Montréal
Canadians are keepers of some of the world's largest masses of fresh water: how can we best protect them?
de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation · 6 min read
Several stories turn on a foundation bringing the right people into one room: mayors and riverkeepers on the Ottawa River, five funders at one Calgary table.
Others start with research a foundation paid for, and follow it until it changed a rule, like the end of body-checking in peewee hockey.
Almost all of them run on long timelines: language standards built over years, mental-health networks tested province by province.
Arts management, hockey safety, afterschool programs
Freshwater, youth mental health, low-carbon cities
Youth homelessness, Inuktut, outdoor play, nutrition, labour journalism
Atkinson Foundation · Burns Memorial Fund · Catherine Donnelly Foundation · Counselling Foundation of Canada · Graham Boeckh Foundation · Helderleigh Foundation · Lawson Foundation · Max Bell Foundation · Rozsa Foundation · Trottier Family Foundation · de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation