2018 Award Recipients
TORONTO, ON (September 28, 2018) — The AFP Philanthropy Awards Selection Committee, AFP Greater Toronto Chapter is very pleased to announce the 2018 Philanthropy Awards recipients.
“Again this year, we were inspired by the extraordinary accomplishments of all the nominees. Thank you to all of them for making our community better. This year’s recipients have made an indelible impact on the charitable sector. Not one part of our community has gone untouched by their commitment. I look forward to celebrating them with you on November 21st.” — Dr. Krishan Mehta, Chair – Philanthropy Awards Selection Committee
The 2018 honourees are:
- Outstanding Philanthropist: Mark S. Bonham
- Outstanding Volunteer: Jim Leech
- Outstanding Corporation: Royal LePage Shelter Foundation
- Outstanding Foundation: Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons
- Mo Davies Outstanding Small Organization: Dying with Dignity Canada
- Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy: Jamie Cleghorn & Max Armstrong
- Lifetime Achievement Award: Rivi Frankle
- Outstanding Fundraising Professional: Cathy Mann, CFRE
The 2018 recipients will be honoured at the Philanthropy Awards Luncheon on Wednesday, November 21st at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, North Building, as part of Congress, the Greater Toronto Chapter’s annual conference.
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About the Awards
The AFP Greater Toronto Chapter has honoured leadership in philanthropy through its annual awards program since 1995. This year’s group of extraordinary recipients will join a long list of generous Canadians. These awards celebrate the outstanding contribution of time, leadership and financial support of a special group of Canadians who set new benchmarks of excellence in the acts of giving and volunteering.
About the AFP Greater Toronto Chapter
The AFP Greater Toronto Chapter is a recognized leader in promoting philanthropy and providing education, training and best practices for those in the fundraising profession. With more than 1200 members, the Greater Toronto Chapter is the largest of the more than 240 AFP chapters throughout the world.
For more information and media inquiries, please contact:
Jacquelyn Folville
Marketing Communications Specialist, AFP Greater Toronto Chapter
info@afptoronto.org
416-941-9212 ext. 224
Cynthia Quigley
Director – Canadian Services, AFP Greater Toronto Chapter
cquigley@afptoronto.org
416-941-9212
Outstanding Philanthropist: Mark S. Bonham
Mark S. Bonham is an active supporter of arts, education, health, and the LGBTQ community. His significant contributions have had a lasting impact.
The expansion of Casey House, an HIV/AIDS specialty hospital, in 2017 would not have been possible without Mark’s generous contribution of $2.5M to the project seventeen years earlier. This level of support was unheard of within the HIV/AIDS community at the time and was truly transformational. Their new contemporary facility allowed Casey House to expand their services along with their physical and clinical capacity to become a global leader in HIV/AIDS care.
As co-chair of Egale Canada Human Rights Trust’s capital campaign, Mark helped raise more than $10M towards the Egale Centre – a new building dedicated to homeless LGBTQI2S youth. Mark’s generosity to this community also enabled Inside Out, Canada’s largest presenter of LGBT film and the world’s third largest LGBT film festival, to establish an annual scholarship for LGBT-identified filmmakers and greatly expand its operations.
At the University of Toronto (U of T), he established the Bonham Scholarship for Rotman School of Management students. Established in 2000, The Bonham Chair in International Finance enables the school to advance research and education. The Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies at U of T was established in 2005 through his generous $1M endowment. Today, it is the largest degree-granting program in the world in the subject of sexual diversity and includes an undergraduate and collaborative MA/PhD program with over 350 students.
Mark also serves on the board of directors and fundraises for We Are the Villagers, which financially assists children from low-income homes in northern Ontario to participate in recreational and cultural extra-curricular programs.
A thought leader and hands-on visionary philanthropist, Mark S. Bonham has played a significant role in advancing organizations across the greater Toronto area.
Outstanding Volunteer: Jim Leech
Jim’s volunteer leadership roles span decades across community services, healthcare, education, humanitarian and arts sectors where he has been instrumental in advancing the missions of various institutions whose work improves the lives of Canadians.
Since his retirement in 2014, Jim has focused almost exclusively on philanthropic leadership. As Board Chair for the Toronto General & Western Hospital Foundation, he led fundraising efforts for its successful $1 billion campaign while his work as Chair of the Board of Directors for the Mastercard Foundation – the world’s second largest independent foundation (US $25 billion) – includes overseeing the implementation of Young Africa Works, a strategy focused on finding solutions to youth unemployment in Africa.
In 2014, Jim was appointed Chancellor of Queen’s University where he was a Campaign Cabinet member for the Queen’s Initiative Campaign which raised $620 million against a goal of $500 million and he personally established a $500,000 bursary fund for Indigenous students.
As Honorary Colonel of 32 Signal Regiment, Canadian Armed Forces, Jim acts as the link between the military and the local community and raises funds for regimental non-operational activities and for post-secondary bursaries for military personnel.
In 2013, Jim participated in the True Patriot Love Foundation’s expedition to the North Magnetic Pole – the largest expedition ever mounted north of the Arctic Circle – involving business leaders, Olympians, and wounded soldiers which raised over $2 million for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) awareness and recovery.
Jim is a committed volunteer who has dedicated his life to supporting causes that have impacted individuals on both a personal level, and on a global scale.
Outstanding Corporation: Royal LePage Shelter Foundation
Since 1998, the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation (RLPSF) has been supporting organizations that address the issue of intimate partner violence. With the support of Royal LePage agents and brokers across Canada, RLPSF is dedicated exclusively to funding women’s shelters and domestic violence prevention programs. Having raised more than $27 million to date, RLPSF has donated approximately $4 million to the Canadian Women’s Foundation to fund a variety of programs that support women and children who have experienced abuse, work to eliminate violence against women, and educate teens on healthy relationships.
In addition to its longstanding partnership with the Canadian Women’s Foundation, RLPSF provides support to approximately 200 women’s shelters in communities across the country each year. Royal LePage offices are matched with a local women’s shelter and agents make donations from their sales commissions and organize fundraising events. One hundred percent of all funds donated to RLPSF is directed to the cause because Royal LePage covers the foundation’s operating costs.
As the only Canadian real estate company with its own charitable foundation, Royal LePage was named Outstanding Corporate Citizen in 2015 by the Canadian Franchise Association. In the following year, Royal LePage received the Canada’s Volunteer Award as a Business Leader to honour the countless volunteer hours its agents give to RLPSF and their local women’s shelters. RLPSF is also a national partner of sheltersafe.ca, an initiative of Women’s Shelters Canada and the only website of its kind providing contact information for all women’s shelters in Canada.
Through RLPSF, Royal LePage has successfully embedded a culture of philanthropy and community giving. RLPSF continues to be a proud partner of organizations working to end domestic violence and promote safer communities.
Outstanding Foundation: Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons
Since 1987, the Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons (CFPDP) has raised more than $30M to help those living with disabilities achieve their dreams and live life to the fullest. The CFPDP focuses on the abilities—rather than disabilities—that people live with, and works to engage the public, government, business and local communities in supporting persons with disabilities and in raising awareness of disability needs and rights.
In recent years, the CFPDP has launched numerous national awareness campaigns, established awards and hosted events that provide substantial funding to organizations and projects such as the Canadian Paralympic Committee, Toronto Don Valley Rotary Club, Rotary Cheshire Homes, and the Canadian Helen Keller Centre. In 2017, the CFPDP helped raise more than $100,000 in support of two new student awards at Ryerson University: the CFPDP Disability Study Award and the CFPDP Fund for Physically Disabled Students. These awards support students who demonstrate a commitment to advancing disability rights and help those with disabilities off-set the costs of post-secondary education. In 1992, funding from the CFPDP supported the opening of Rotary Cheshire Homes – the world’s first and only home for persons who are deafblind. It offers permanent housing and has changed the lives of it’s deafblind tenants by providing a sense of community and support that enables them to experience life like never before. Similarly, it supported the opening of Canada’s first and only training centre for the deafblind community. The centre offers temporary housing and independent training for deafblind Canadians.
The CFPDP’s mentorship program demonstrates the organization’s ongoing commitment to ensuring that disability does not hold people back from realizing their dreams. The CFPDP continue to lead an attitudinal shift in how Canadians think about disability, accessibility and inclusion.
Mo Davies Small Organization for Excellence in Fundraising: Dying with Dignity Canada
Dying With Dignity Canada (DWDC) is the national not-for-profit organization committed to improving quality of dying, protecting end-of-life rights, and helping Canadians avoid unwanted suffering. A vocal champion of end-of-life choice in Canada for more than 30 years, DWDC was thrust into the international spotlight when the right to die was won in the Supreme Court of Canada’s Carter decision in 2015.
Since that landmark ruling and the legalization of medical assistance in dying in June 2016, DWDC has become a leading authority on assisted dying in Canada and a source of support for sick and suffering Canadians across the country. In addition to educating Canadians about their legal end-of-life options and advocating for assisted dying rules that respect the Constitution and Charter, DWDC provides personal support and patient navigation services to individuals with grievous and irremediable medical conditions, and their loved ones. The organization also supports healthcare practitioners who assess for and provide assisted dying.
In response to having its charitable status annulled in 2015 — just one month after the Carter decision — DWDC made significant changes to its fundraising strategy. Since then, DWDC has grown its email list by more than 228% and its monthly donor program has increased from just 75 donors to more than 1,000. The organization has also effectively mobilized its influential patrons, who have helped raise more than $200,000 in major gifts in the past three years.
In July 2018, the organization announced that it was the recipient of the largest donation in its 38-year history: a bequest of approximately $7 million from the late David Jackson, a long-time donor. This bequest stands to further transform the end-of-life rights movement and is a testament to the strong relationships that the DWDC board and staff cultivate with its donors, supporters, and volunteers.
Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy: Jamie Cleghorn & Max Armstrong
From a small lemonade stand in their neighbourhood to a nation-wide campaign, Jamie Cleghorn & Max Armstrong have shown passion, dedication and commitment to a cause they both believe in. Jamie was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 3, after attending D-Camps – a summer camp program by Diabetes Canada, he was inspired to give back. D-camps allows kids living with type 1 to have the full summer camp experience where they get a break from being different, they learn to be independent in managing their disease, and parents rest easy knowing there is full medical staff on site.
His best friend Max has been by his side since they launched and in 2008 “Put A Squeeze on Diabetes” was born! Year over year, their lemonade stand grew in success. They partnered with Diabetes Canada and have used technology to grow the event into first a province wide, and then in 2018, a National campaign. Families from across Canada can register, get a “Lemonade Stand in a Box” kit to host their own event, they can even receive donations online.
Lexus on the Park – a local GTA car dealership, partnered with the boys 4 years ago as the presenting sponsor and worked with the boys to secure their $100,000 National partnership with Canada One Auto Group (COAG) in 2018. This year their campaign has reached $135,000 and they are not done yet! They are an inspiration to all as young leaders in philanthropy.
Lifetime Achievement Award: Rivi Frankle
Rivi Frankle has dedicated a lifetime to strengthening the advancement community in Toronto. Her impact on the profession registers in the astounding number of people whose careers she has shaped through her example, her mentorship, and her willingness to make a call.
Over her more than 40-year career, she has emerged as an innovative, collaborative leader, helping several of Canada’s top institutions of higher education and research realize their most ambitious fundraising aspirations. Rivi’s work during the Great Minds Campaign at the University of Toronto, her alma mater, helped raise a record-breaking $1.1 billion. At Ryerson, Rivi transformed the way that the university engages with alumni and partners, and helped complete an unprecedented $200-million campaign in support of a range of projects – including the Lifeline Syria Challenge supporting dozens of Syrian refugee families through resettlement in Canada.
With a keen eye for talent and an ability to work with diverse personalities, Rivi mentored hundreds of people in a variety of advancement roles. She is an extraordinary team-builder, modelling the core values of integrity and inclusivity.
From early on, Rivi modelled commitment to diversity and inclusion, initiating programs aimed at engaging underrepresented groups and increasing international outreach. Career highlights include opening the University of Toronto’s Hong Kong office, establishing the office of LGBTQ Resources and Programs – the first office of its kind for a post-secondary institution in Canada – and honouring WWII veterans with honorary degrees.
Rivi has been a dedicated champion of fundraising over the past 40 years and continues to inspire the next generation of alumni and development professionals.
Outstanding Fundraising Professional: Cathy Mann, CFRE
Cathy Mann has dedicated her 24-year fundraising career to mentoring, teaching, research and diversity. She works in social change philanthropy and is a teacher and consultant. She is an active volunteer, speaker, writer, trusted advisor and mentor, inspiring and helping many in their careers. As an advocate for both in-person and online professional development programs, Cathy’s impact is far-reaching.
As a consultant, Cathy works primarily in the realm of social change philanthropy, supporting complex causes that are historically challenged when it comes to fundraising. Cathy raises the bar on fundraising with her clients in this sector by applying best practices and research to increase revenue and implementing sound infrastructure to support fundraising success well into the future.
Cathy has taught hundreds through Ryerson’s Fundraising Management Program over 16 years and acted as the Academic Coordinator from 2008 to 2018. She revitalized the program by developing a curriculum informed by research, best practices in fundraising and adult education practices. She insisted that instructors held the CFRE designation to ensure students benefited from practitioners with current skills. Cathy made sure classes were accessible to students across Canada by making content available both online and in-class.
As the founder of the AFP Greater Toronto Chapter’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Cathy was instrumental in embedding a conscious, thoughtful approach to diversity and inclusion matters throughout the fundraising profession in the Greater Toronto Area. In part thanks to her early efforts, the Chapter has evolved to now include an intentional focus on recruiting and retaining a membership that is inclusive and representative of the profession as a whole, and recognizes the importance of continuing this dialogue throughout any and all decision-making.
Cathy is a frequent speaker at AFP conferences and events and has hosted a number of workshops and webinars. She is also the AFP Greater Toronto Chapter’s first Chair, Research Track, for Congress 2018. Occasionally, she plays her ukulele in public.