Making a difference in healthcare: Maxine Granovsky and Ira Gluskin

Couple built relationships at Toronto hospital, then applied ‘transformative force’ where need was greatest

Sarah B. Hood  •  Canadian Family Offices
Published Oct 21, 2022  •  Last updated Oct 21, 2022  •  2 minute read
philanthropy granovsky gluskin
Maxine Granovsky and husband Ira Gluskin of Toronto are known for supporting numerous institutions, including the University of Toronto and the National Ballet.

These days, philanthropists aren’t just handing out dollars; instead, they want to make a real difference. They are doing this by investing significant personal time and, increasingly, gifts seen as transformational, like the Peter Gilgan Foundation’s recent $105 million gift to Trillium Health Partners Foundation in Mississauga, Ont.

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Gifts like these aren’t undertaken lightly. Here’s the story of one donor family and how they arrived at a strategy to achieve their philanthropic goals in the healthcare sector.

The relationship-builders: Maxine Granovsky and Ira Gluskin

Maxine Granovsky and husband Ira Gluskin of Toronto are known for supporting numerous institutions, including the University of Toronto and the National Ballet, but Mount Sinai Hospital is a special cause for them.

Formerly an executive of the family-owned Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd., Granovsky is now president of the investment-management firm Maxine Gran Investments. Ira Gluskin, formerly of wealth-management firm Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc., is now chief investment officer for their family office, Irager + Associates Inc.

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In 2004, they donated $3 million to establish Mount Sinai’s Granovsky Gluskin Family Medicine Centre. Granovsky co-chairs the Sinai Health Foundation and sits on the board of Sinai Health. She co-chaired the Renew Sinai capital campaign and spearheaded a recent $10-million fundraising campaign for a Centre for Nursing Excellence, to which she contributed $1 million.

Maxine Granovsky
Maxine Granovsky Photo by AGO

The couple’s biggest gift came in 2014, when they donated $10 million toward the hospital’s Granovsky Gluskin Division of Orthopaedics.

“We always understood that philanthropy was a critical piece of how our healthcare system can function,” says Granovsky. “We decided that we wanted to focus our philanthropic giving to one hospital and have a relationship with that hospital.” The couple chose Mount Sinai partly for its deep roots within Toronto’s Jewish community.

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“Our philosophy as donors is to ask the institution, ‘Where are your greatest needs?’” she says.

When the couple was considering a large donation, “there was a ‘beauty contest’ – four or five department heads gave presentations.”

Knowing how orthopaedic interventions had benefitted family members and having been impressed by the department head’s youthful energy, they chose orthopaedics.

“Philanthropy is maturing,” Granovsky says. For donors, “there’s a learning component, a relationship component and the feeling of being a transformative force.”

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