The Great Canadian Giving Challenge saw incredible results from the second year of the campaign in June 2016, and the team at CanadaHelps couldn’t be more excited! With a 28 percent increase in donations from the campaign’s inaugural year in June 2015, and a 48 percent increase in donations when compared to a year prior to the campaign launch in June 2014, charities and Canadians have embraced the challenge across the country. More importantly, Canadian charities representing a vast range of charitable causes are praising The Great Canadian Giving Challenge for sparking charitable giving in June, a time traditionally known to have temperatures rise, and donations drop.
Read what some of the participating charities had to say about this year’s Great Canadian Giving Challenge:
“The demand for our services continues to rise each year, already we have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of patients admitted to our centre compared to last year. With $10,000 we could cover the costs of food for our patients for nearly 4 months! Food for our patients can be expensive, and not only that, but in our peak seasons we can have 200-300 animals in care each day.”
—Holly Duvall, Executive Director
Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation
About the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation: Since 1993, the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation has focused their work on assisting injured and orphaned wildlife in Calgary and southern Alberta, and every year they assist more than 1,600 animals in need. Learn more about the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation on their CanadaHelps Charity Profile Page.
“BC & Alberta Guide Dogs breeds, raises and professionally trains guide dogs for blind/visually-impaired individuals and autism support dogs for children with moderate to profound autism and their families. Our organization relies on the generosity of donors so that we can provide these dogs free of charge. Thank you to CanadaHelps, vital programs such as the “Great Canadian Giving Challenge” and to all the amazing donors for empowering our organization to help others!”
—William Thornton, Chief Executive Officer
BC & Alberta Guide Dogs
About the BC & Alberta Guide Dogs: Founded in 1996 and originating in British Columbia, the BC and Alberta Guide Dogs works to train Guide Dogs to assist those who are blind or visually impaired. Learn more about the BC and Alberta Guide Dogs on their CanadaHelps Charity Profile Page.
“Great Canadian Giving Challenge allows Island Deaf Hard of Hearing Centre (IDHHC) to not only reach out to current donors but to extend the invitation to others to join our giving team; this in turn helps spread the word about the unique work we do. Some examples of how funding can be used at IDHHC are: four 2-hour captioned sessions to allow a senior, with a profound hearing loss, to take part in a support group; allow a Deaf parent to attend a child’s graduation ceremony, through the use of a registered sign language interpreter; provide a new Deaf mother communication access and a standard First Aid course, with CPR & AED training; and provide a Parent Coaching workshop for hearing parents of a Deaf child.”
—Denise Robertson, Executive Director
Island Deaf and Hard of Hearing Centre
About the Island Deaf and Hard of Hearing Centre (IDHHC): The IDHHC focuses on providing assistance and services to individuals who are Deaf, hard of hearing, and living in the Vancouver Island area. From providing sign language interpreters, to facilitating Deaf Awareness Training workshops, IDHHC provides a wide range of services to those living in Vancouver Island and experiencing hearing loss. Learn more about the IDHHC on their CanadaHelps Charity Profile Page.
“The Great Canadian Giving Challenge gives our community a dream to rally around, increasing our donations in the process. Our generous supporters help us accomplish so much over the year, but if we won $10,000, we’d be able to direct funds to projects requiring more substantial investment, such as digitizing our archive of over 7,000 artworks to provide online access for the public, or encouraging young artists with a “Printmakers in the Schools” program.”
—Sara Kelly, Associate Director
Open Studio
About Open Studio: Based in Toronto, Ontario, Open Studio works to preserve and promote contemporary fine art prints. Making art accessible to the community, Open Studio provides scholarships, educational programming, portfolio reviews for artists, and also sells and archives prints among other work they do. Learn more about Open Studio on their CanadaHelps Charity Profile Page.
“Dedicated staff and volunteers are the backbone of PAL-Reading Services Inc., which provides free human-voice audio transcriptions of printed material for individuals who cannot otherwise access text. The Great Canadian Giving Challenge provides an immense opportunity for us to raise awareness and excitement about the work that we do. We’re a small organization, and an extra $10,000 would have a big impact on our financial stability, enabling us to maintain and possibly increase the level of services we provide to the print-challenged community.”
—W. Mark Fielding, Senior Program Manager
PAL-Reading Services Inc.
About PAL-Reading Services Inc: Providing access to free audio recordings of print materials to help individuals with visual impairments, PAL-Reading Services Inc. works to provide audio recordings of print materials for all those in need, whether they are in kindergarten or are a member of the workforce. Learn more about PAL-Reading Services Inc. on their CanadaHelps Charity Profile Page.
“Partners In Health Canada is a non-profit organization relentlessly committed to global health equity. This year, by providing us with the tools to engage and inspire our supporters, the Great Canadian Giving Challenge helped us move closer to our goals—bringing the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need of them and serving as an antidote to despair. Our donors know that $10,000 has a lot of reach the places we work—some of the poorest, most remote communities in the world—making the Challenge a vital motivating factor for that extra gift during the month of June.”
—Ashley Mogg, Development and Communications Coordinator
Partners In Health Canada
About Partners in Health Canada: For more than 25 years, Partners in Health Canada has worked to ensure all people, no matter their level of income, gain access to high-quality health care. Using a comprehensive approach to work towards this charitable mission, Partners in Health Canada focuses on children’s health, mental health, cholera, tuberculosis, nursing, surgery, and women’s health in addition to other health care priorities. Learn more about Partners in Health Canada on their CanadaHelps Charity Profile Page.
“For a small organization such as ours, it is important to raise awareness. The initiatives put forth by CanadaHelps, like the Great Canadian Giving Challenge, provide opportunity for us to touch base with our alumni families and with past donors to spread the word about our charity through social media and raise funds at the same time. If Pine River should win the $10,000.00, we will be investing in a Low-Ropes Challenge course which we hope to get installed at the Pine River campus to encourage leadership and team building development among our youth and their families.”
—Jennifer Blunt, Chief Executive Officer
Pine River Foundation
About Pine River Foundation: Providing assistance to youth aged 13 to 19 with addictive behavious or mental health issues, the Pine River Foundation raises funds for the Pine River Institute, a residential treatment centre which also incorporates the outdoors as part of their therapy. Learn more about the Pine River Foundation on their CanadaHelps Charity Profile Page.
“The Great Canadian Giving Challenge provides an opportunity for the rare community to rally together – the $10,000 prize is not only a tangible, achievable goal, but the challenge makes their donation stretch, and I think that is what makes it so attractive to our supporters. They get excited that their $5 donation to [the Turn the Map Green program] could mean $10,000 to Turn the Map Green.”
—Erika Kastner, Development and Communications Officer
rare Charitable Research Reserve
About rare Charitable Research Reserve: The rare Charitable Research Reserve focuses on ensuring future generations are guaranteed a future with an abundant and healthy natural environment. By working to educate young people and also maintaining 8 kilometers of trail that is open to the public, the rare Charitable Research Research Reserve is proud to offer the largest community garden in their community and welcomes the public to enjoy nature with them. Learn more about the rare Charitable Research Reserve on their CanadaHelps Charity Profile Page.
“The Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada is the largest Canadian wish granting charity that grants the heartfelt wishes of children diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses. The Great Canadian Giving Challenge provides our organization with a special opportunity to engage our supporters in the digital realm during a time of year when online giving is moderate. By underscoring the fact that every gift increases the possibility that our Foundation could win an additional $10,000, which coincidentally is the average cost of a wish, we were able to activate our donors and steeply grow online support via Canada Helps in June 2016. It was a fantastic communications and fundraising tool!”
—Jason Evanson, National Director, Development
The Children’s Wish Foundation
About The Children’s Wish Foundation: The Children’s Wish Foundation has worked for more than 30 years to grant more than 23,000 wishes to sick children aged 3 to 17 who have been diagnosed with life threatening illnesses. Represented in chapters all across Canada, The Children’s Wish Foundation grants more than 1,000 wishes each year—that equals to three wishes every day! Learn more about The Children’s Wish Foundation on their CanadaHelps Charity Profile Page.
“Promoting the Great Canadian Giving Challenge to our community is a great way to encourage individuals to give at a time when charitable giving is not so widely publicised (like during the holiday season). The incentive of helping us to win a donation of $10,000 is a great motivator for many of our supporters. We do not receive any government funding, so we are always looking for new ways to engage individuals with our cause to keep our shelter doors open to animals in need. It could save a life with emergency surgery. We take in many animals in need of costly emergency surgeries for serious injuries or illnesses. These surgeries regularly cost anywhere between $2,000 – $10,000. It could fund 133 spay or neuter procedures. Every animal is spayed or neutered before they go to their forever home – to ensure we are doing our part to curb pet over-population. It could cover our animal food bill for two months.”
—Rosie Blanning
Toronto Humane Society
About the Toronto Humane Society: Working to protect all animals from inhumane treatment, the Toronto Humane Society sees approximately 16,000 animals every year as their work never stops. Open 24 hours a day, every day, the Toronto Humane Society provides surgeries and treatments to animals in need of help. Learn more about the Toronto Humane Society on their CanadaHelps Charity Profile Page.
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