DONOR Julie Toskan-Casale

TITLE President, the Toskan- Casale Foundation

GIFT $176 million raised through AIDS Fund

For Julie Toskan-Casale, giving back is a family matter.Not simply because the Toronto entrepreneur and philanthropist heads up the Toskan- Casale Foundation — a family-run fund that supports grassroots organizations through direct grants — but also because she’s seen firsthand how vital bonds are fostered through community building.

That penchant for connecting people began as early as Toskan- Casale’s high school days when she met her future husband Victor Casale. But little did she know that Casale would go on to become a chemist, proving the ideal business partner for Julie’s brother Frank, the founder of globally renowned M.A.C Cosmetics.

After years of heading up the company’s successful AIDS Fund (which has raised nearly $176 million to date via its Viva Glam program),Toskan-Casale turned her attention to overseeing the family foundation in 2001, establishing the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI), an innovative program that encourages Grade 9 and 10 students to advocate on behalf of local charitable causes.

Now in its eighth school year,YPI is currently taught in more than 200 schools across Canada, as well as more than 100 schools in the United States, England and Scotland combined, with more than $4 million in grants disbursed to community-based charities.

YPI’s unique program sees students working in teams to research and visit their chosen organization before making a presentation on why their cause should be awarded a $5,000 grant from the foundation.

But while Toskan-Casale finds her own eyes being opened to the impact her foundation’s grants can have on charitable organizations across Canada and beyond, she stresses that it’s helping kids to see how they can help make a difference in their community that’s the real impetus behind YPI.

“I think if people have the opportunity to create a difference, if they know enough to see that change is required or improvements are necessary, then we have the responsibility to do something about it,”Toskan-Casale declares,“and not necessarily with lots of money, but there are many ways that people can have a significant impact.”

DONOR Isadore Sharp

TITLE Founder and chairman, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts

GIFT $5 million to the Ontario College of Art and Design

It was 1980, and Terry Fox, in the midst of a quixotic fundraising journey that many weren’t taking seriously, was at a low point in his morale.

He was on the verge of quitting his Marathon of Hope, but Toronto’s Isadore Sharp, who had lost a son to cancer a few years earlier, wasn’t about to let that happen.

As founder of the burgeoning Four Seasons hotel chain, Sharp arranged that his company would donate $2 for every mile Fox ran. But more than that, he took out ads in newspapers and magazines, eventually inviting 999 other companies to join forces.With Sharp’s dedication, $10 million was raised for the cause.

The effect on the young activist was remarkable.

“He heard about it, and he called me,”recalls Sharp, who had put Fox up at several hotels across the country.“You could hear the emotion in his voice. He said that, if one person cared enough, that’s all he needed to keep going.”

When Fox’s disease eventually forced him to cut his run short, Sharp made him a promise: he would continue the dream through an annual fundraiser.A few months after Fox’s death, Sharp made good on his word.The first Terry Fox Run was held on Sept. 13, 1981. It has since raised well over $500 million for cancer research. Fox’s mother once said that there would be no Terry Fox Run if it weren’t for Isadore Sharp.

Since then, Sharp and his family have been crucial contributors to numerous charitable causes.

In 2001, OCAD announced a gift from Sharp and his wife, Rosalie, of $5 million to help build the Sharp Centre for Design. More recently, a personal gift of $5 million from Sharp and his wife effectively completed the campaign to build the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

His role in supporting the opera house was more far-reaching than that single gift, though.

In 2002, he led a campaign that raised $20 million for the venue.

“It’s not something you automatically do when you become wealthy,”he says of the act of giving. “It’s about sharing with other people what you have,whether you’re in good fortune or not.”

DONOR Bill Holland & family

TITLE Executive chairman, CI Financial Income Fund

GIFT $26.2 million to the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital

One of the questions Bill Holland is often asked whenever the subject of his $26.2 million donation to the Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital and its foundation comes up is whether he has a personal connection to the facility.

It’s a fair question.The executive chairman of CI Financial Income Fund is the father of two teenagers, so it’s reasonable to think he might have a more heartfelt motivation for giving to the children’s hospital than merely a desire to help a worthy cause.

Holland and his family’s gift was the single largest gift ever given to a Canadian hospital specializing in the treatment and research of children’s disabilities. It also led to the hospital being renamed as Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital.

Holland says he didn’t know anybody at the hospital, then corrects himself.“Actually, that’s not really true.

I just didn’t realize how many people I knew who have taken their kids there for treatment, close friends some of them, and I had no idea until I became involved.”

As he talks, Holland becomes emotional about his experiences working with Holland Bloorview.

He recalls the first time he visited the hospital with his wife, Susanne, and daughter,Kate, who was just six years old at the time.

“What struck me is how lucky I am to be healthy, that my family is healthy,”he says.

“When you see people struggle to move even a few feet in a single day, it stops you cold, especially when they’re kids. It breaks your heart. But what surprised me is that the children were all incredibly happy, cheerful kids; the staff and volunteers were all wonderful; and everyone was so upbeat. I also know that it deeply affected my daughter. It’s a humbling thing for kids to see other kids in that situation. Afterwards, when I asked her how much I should give to the hospital, she said not all my money but half would be good.”

Located near Bayview Avenue and Eglinton Avenue,“right in my own backyard,”says Holland, Holland Bloorview is Canada’s largest children’s rehab hospital.

Each year, about 7,000 children from across Ontario and beyond come through its doors seeking a better life.

According to Holland Bloorview’s president and CEO, Sheila Jarvis, the Hollands’gift will allow the centre to continue the pioneering work in innovative treatments and technologies and to “recruit worldclass physicians, therapists and scientists, with an initial focus in the area of children’s brain injury,”Jarvis says.

“It will also fund a family leadership program that will see parents and youth work alongside clinicians to improve hospital care, train future health care professionals and support families.”