Who’s who: Big-ticket donations from Canada’s wealthiest people

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Generous Canadians made some transformational donations this year.

The country’s biggest donors are often entrepreneurs who are used to making an impact, and they want to do the same with their donations, says Celeste Bannon Waterman, partner at KCI, a fundraising consultancy firm with offices across Canada. “It’s about what causes they really care about. They must engage in terms of what change they want to see,” she says.

Larger donations generally go to major institutions such as universities and hospitals, says Sharilyn Hale, president of Watermark Philanthropic Counsel in Toronto. “These organizations offer large-scale visions … and the capacity to absorb and manage significant philanthropy,” she says.

But change is coming. Increasing numbers of women, next-generation family members and first-generation Canadians have begun making their mark on large-scale philanthropy, Hale says. Members of the rising generation are telling her that they want to make their own mark in their own way.

“There are also calls from the charitable community for the wealthiest philanthropists to think more deeply about how and where they direct their philanthropy, given the time-sensitive social and environmental challenges the world is facing,” she says.

Waterman says some big donors focus on business-related giving. The Weston Foundation, for instance, is aligned with the family business, making significant gifts to agriculture and food research. But some big gifts come from personal connections, such as to medical care or research related to a personal or family-member health crisis.

Here is a sampling of big donations given in Canada during the past year. Some of the largest were bequests, usually from individuals who had an established record of giving.

Miriam Bergen

Late Winnipeg business owner Miriam Bergen bequeathed all of the shares of her real estate firm Appleton Holdings Ltd., valued at close to $500 million, to the Winnipeg Foundation. The gift, the largest individual gift to a Canadian charity, is intended to see the company continue operating while being owned by the community foundation.

Bergen was generous throughout her life, but her cousin Doris Gietz told the Winnipeg Sun that most of her donations were given anonymously. Appleton, originally named Marlborough Developments, was founded by Miriam’s parents, Martin and Ruth Bergen, who immigrated to Canada from Europe during the Second World War.

Bergen was 66 when she died in 2022. Outside of her business, Bergen supported charity golf tournaments and attended every Winnipeg Blue Bomber home game, and she was a bird enthusiast.

Henry and Mary Rempel

The global nonprofit Mennonite Central Committee British Columbia was left a real estate portfolio worth more than $200 million when Henry Rempel died at 99 in June. Henry and his wife Mary, who died in 2014, had amassed property throughout British Columbia. He was a psychologist and she was a teacher.

The New Westminster couple lived quietly. They had worked with the Mennonite Central Committee from 2010 onward on developing a charitable relationship revolving around their land and rental building holdings. Both the Rempels came from refugee families – Henry’s Mennonite family fled Ukraine in the 1920s, and the MCC helped them come to Canada.

Carlo Fidani family and Orlando Corp.

The Orlando Corp., founded by the Fidani family in 1948, gave $75 million to Trillium Health Partners and the Trillium Health Partners Foundation in March. Two-thirds of the donation will go toward construction of the Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital.

Carlo Fidani is chair and CEO of Orlando, the Mississauga-based development firm. Last October, Fidani, through his FDC Foundation, committed up to $10 million toward the training of doctors at NOSM University, based in Sudbury and Thunder Bay, Ont.

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The Fidani family’s cause is health care and support for hospitals. In an article last year in Canadian Family Offices, Fidani said philanthropy is enjoyable and rewarding.

“Philanthropy has been a part of our family as long as I can remember. We are very fortunate to live in a country of opportunity, and philanthropy is a way to show our gratitude and give back to the community. But it’s also fun and rewarding, which is something often overlooked by folks.”

The Slaight family

The Slaight Family Foundation donated $26 million in September to 19 organizations that address mental health for young people. Over the years the foundation has donated more than $200 million to strategically targeted health care, international development, the arts, social initiatives and health care for seniors.

The family’s fortune was built in broadcasting. Allan Slaight, who died in 2021, owned rock radio stations and was president of Global Television and president and CEO of Standard Broadcasting Corp. And he was an original part-owner of the Toronto Raptors.

Allan’s son Gary is now president and CEO of the Slaight Family Foundation, which was founded by his father in 2008.

Gary’s brother Greg and Greg’s wife Diane made a direct donation of $60 million in July to Niagara Health Foundation for critical care equipment and other needs.

Diane Blais and Michel Lanteigne

Last December, Diane Blais and Michel Lanteigne gave Montreal’s Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine foundation $40 million for pediatric cancer research. It was the biggest donation ever to a Quebec hospital.

The gift from the couple was inspired by Lanteigne’s son Benoit, who died of leukemia in 1989 when he was eight. Lanteigne and Blais are former executives with Ernst and Young. “We want to see significant results that will have an impact on those kids that are fighting for their life,” Lanteigne told the Globe and Mail.

The couple will stay involved with the program they have funded, and a building at the hospital will be renamed for Benoit.

Joan Snyder

Calgary businesswoman Joan Snyder donated millions through her life, particularly supporting health care and women’s hockey. Last October, six months after her death, it was revealed she had left about $100 million to various Calgary institutions, including $67.5 million to the University of Calgary.

Snyder’s UofC bequest was earmarked, among other things, for the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases as well as establishing the Joan Snyder Fund for Excellence in Kinesiology.

Snyder was called the grandmother of Canadian women’s hockey – $2 million of the bequest went to the Joan Snyder Program of Excellence in Women’s Hockey.

“She not only gave financially at every level of female hockey in Canada, but she also was a huge cheerleader, a fan, a friend and a true grandmother to all female hockey players in this country,” Canadian star player Hayley Wickenheiser told the CBC.

Jonathon Sherman

In June, the Jewish Federation of Toronto announced Jonathon Sherman had donated $52 million to build an NHL-sized hockey arena north of Toronto to be called the Honey and Barry Memorial Arena in memory of Jonathan’s parents, Honey and Barry Sherman.

Honey and Barry were murdered in 2017 and the case remains unsolved.

“The arena announcement, of course, brings heavy emotions. At the same time, this week is really about celebrating my parents’ legacy of community leadership, rather than the tragedy and the unresolved case,” Sherman said in a statement to the Canadian Jewish News.

The Sherman parents had been generous to a number of Jewish, health care and education causes.

Sam Ibrahim

In May, Toronto businessman Sam Ibrahim donated $25 million to the University of Toronto Scarborough to establish the Sam Ibrahim Centre of Inclusive Excellence in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Leadership.

The Scarborough booster owns Arrow Group of Companies, a consulting and talent solutions firm, and the Scarborough Shooting Stars, a professional basketball team.

“In Scarborough we have incredible talent and extraordinary potential for innovation and entrepreneurship,” Ibrahim told CBC. “All we really need is the same level of access as everywhere else.”

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