User:Oceanflynn/sandbox/Donner Canadian Foundation

The Donner Canadian Foundation is a family philanthropy based in Toronto, Ontario, created in 1950 by William Henry Donner (1864-1953), an American industrialist and philanthropist, with a mandate "to encourage individual responsibility and private initiative to help Canadians solve their social and economic problems." Donner's values that "support projects that advance the common good in Canada by encouraging private initiative, independence and individual responsibility" are still reflected in the philosophy of the Foundation. was founded in 1950 by William H. Donner, (1864–1953) a wealthy American businessman and philanthropist. In the mid-1960s, the Foundation began to focus on research on public policy. In 1967 the Donner family began providing research grants. They have contributed to over $100 million to more than 1,000 projects across Canada and around the world. From 1993-99, under the leadership of executive directors Devon Gaffney Cross and then Patrick Luciani, the foundation provided the seed money to start several conservative Canadian think-tanks and publications, and became the "lifeblood of conservative research" in Canada. In 1999, the American Donner heirs who control the foundation began donating more of its money to land and wildlife conservation, international development, medical research and the arts, reducing funding of conservative research (though it is still one of the most generous benefactors to the right in Canada).

Board of Directors

The chairman of the Donner Canadian Foundation is Allan Gotlieb. The Donner grandchildren were on the board of directors in 2003.

History

"Helen McLean: William Donner was an American industrialist who made Montreal his home beginning in the late 1930s. He started the foundation before his death and when he died he left some of his personal estate to the foundation as an endowment. The money was well invested and the capital grew and grew until we began giving grants in 1967. By then it was a sizable Canadian foundation. The Donner family is still very much involved with the foundation today. William Donner's grandchildren became involved in 1967 and members of the family have served on the board ever since. They take a really active role in the foundation."

1960s

In the 1960s it was decided that the foundation would focus on specific program interests, particularly research on public policy.

1993-1999

"From 1993 to 1999, under the leadership of executive directors Patrick Luciani and Devon Cross, it provided seed money to start a host of topnotch free-market think-tanks across Canada: the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, the Montreal Economic Institute, the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, the Society for Advancing Educational Research (dedicated to promoting charter schools), the conservative The Next City magazine (now defunct), and Energy Probe (a free market–oriented environmental organization)."

In 1994 with a mission to “encourage individual responsibility and private initiative to help Canadians solve their social and economic problems,” and an annual giving budget of over $5 million, the Donner made a huge difference."

In 1994 the Foundation began responding to a lack of nonpartisan institutions of policy development by giving Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) in Halifax a three-year grant of $450,000." By 2004 the Foundation had provided AIMS with more than $1.4 million. AIMS' then-CEO economist Brian Lee Crowley, former CEO of the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council and is currently Director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute claimed that, AIMS clear policy initiatives "effectively influenced behaviour." For example, "With Donner funding AIMS created a school performance measuring tool which could be applied to all Atlantic Canada secondary education." According to Crowley, "In the four years since Newfoundland adopted the tool... the province has risen four places on the national scale of provincial education outcomes." With Donner funding AIMS also "focused intensely for several years on the issue of equalization (federal provincial financial transfers) and its reconsideration" and was successful in influencing provincial premiers.

In 1997 the Foundation gave Frontier Centre for Public Policy in Winnipeg and the Montreal Economic Institute funding similar to AIMS.

"Under the (until late 1996) of American Devon Cross, former editor of the libertarian journal The Idler, the foundation gave out $2 million a year, almost exclusively to right-wing causes. By giving $400,000 to the Fraser Institute, bestowing large sums to fund the charter school lobby, bankrolling the conservative journals Next City and Gravitas, funding the market-oriented Energy Probe and its various spin-offs, and coming up with cash to launch the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, the Donner is a major actor in the campaign to "change the ideological fabric" of Canadian society. The Donner Foundation has adopted the strategies of its American cousins with a very focused, deliberate promotion of vehicles for the dissemination of neo-liberal ideas."

"Because private money is so scarce in Canada, even a small reduction in funds can have an important impact on the well-being of the conservative cause. Such is the case with the Donner Canadian Foundation, the lifeblood of conservative research in this country. A decade ago, with a mission to "encourage individual responsibility and private initiative to help Canadians solve their social and economic problems," and an annual giving budget of over $5 million, the Donner made a huge difference. From 1993 to 1999, under the leadership of executive directors Patrick Luciani and Devon Cross, it provided seed money to start a host of top-notch free-market think-tanks across Canada: the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, the Montreal Economic Institute, the Frontier Institute, the Society for Advancing Educational Research (dedicated to promoting charter schools), the conservative The Next City magazine (now defunct), and Energy Probe (a free- market-oriented environmental organization). According to the Donner's records, in 1997 it gave $4,632,944.49, or 69 per cent of its total budget, to public policy research. The bulk of it went to projects with conservative themes, such as advancing the role of free markets, the effects of trade liberalization, and the impact of taxes and regulation on jobs in Canada. In 1998, the Donner allocated $2,190,561, or 67 per cent of its budget, to the same sort of work."

1999

"But, starting in 1999, that figure dropped dramatically, to $1,041,802, or 25 per cent of that year's budget. Insiders say that the cuts happened when family members on the Donner's U.S.-based board decided they wanted more say in the granting process in Canada. And, besides funding projects that, in the words of then program director Sonia Arrison, "promoted liberty," the foundation also started backing causes that mattered to individual board members, including donating money to land and wildlife conservation, international development, medical research and the arts."

"In 1999, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren decided they would like to take a much more active role in giving and grantmaking, and see the foundation make grants in a wide variety of areas. We still consider public policy research as an important granting area, but it's now only one out of a number of areas in which we grant. But we support entirely the Donner Prize for the best book on Canadian public policy, and we have the Donner Lecture Series. Those inform public policy and we do make grants in the public policy area, both to universities and what might be called think tanks. It makes up approximately 20% of our grantmaking."

2002

In 2002 Allan Northcott of Max Bell Foundation and Shelley Uytterhagen of the Carthy Foundation and visited several private Canadian foundations including the Donner Canadian Foundation, Carthy Foundation, CRB Foundation, EJLB Foundation, Frosst Foundation, J. W. McConnell Family Foundation, Kahanoff Foundation, Laidlaw Foundation, Max Bell Foundation, Maytree Foundation, Muttart Foundation, Richard Ivey Foundation, W. Garfield Weston Foundation, and Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation.

2003

In 2004 "while the Donner's pro-individualist mission statement remains, only 26 per cent of its 2003 budget--$1,349,667--ended up in the hands of public policy researchers. (By comparison, the Donner gave half that much--$624,985--to animal welfare organizations, including $270,000 to the Calgary Zoological Society to repatriate its mountain bongo antelope to its native Kenya). Arrison, now with the Pacific Research Institute, a San Francisco-based free-market think-tank, calls the impact of the cutbacks on the conservative movement in Canada "devastating."

2004

"Allan Gotlieb, Canada's former ambassador to the U.S., who is now chairman of the Donner Canadian Foundation, says the organization is still "the most significant contributor among foundations to policy studies in the country." While he concurs that the Donner's funding for university-based research has declined, he emphasizes that the foundation continues to support groups like Winnipeg's Frontier Centre for Public Policy (focused on promoting fiscally conservative economic policies in the Prairies), the Toronto-based C.D. Howe Institute (a pro-market economic research centre), and the Fraser Institute. "I think the last five years has been very rich in support for these groups," says Gotlieb. "I think the impact has been greater in the last few years than in earlier times." As an example, Gotlieb cites the Montreal Economic Institute, the feisty voice of free markets in Quebec, which over the years has received, he says, "between $600,000 and $700,000" from the foundation. It's true that Canada's free-market proponents owe much to the Donner. Even with the cutbacks, the foundation is still one of the most generous benefactors to the right in Canada. The trouble is, they're one of the only groups that many researchers can rely upon for funding. And as the Donner goes, so go Canada's conservative scholars. "It's very difficult to get research money for Canadian conservative ideas," says Arrison. "The 'professional Canadians' [Arrison's term for government bureaucrats who grant research money] don't want conservatives to go anywhere . . . [They] want to keep Canada in one mode-they love state health care, they speak two languages. There's this idea of what Canada is, and there's this entire apparatus that exists to keep it that way."

"Since its inception, the foundation has distributed more than $100 million. How much did you grant last year? Is this level of giving expected to continue? HM: We made grants of about $7 million [in 2003] and $8 million [in 2002]. Barring an unbelievably negative stock market, which I don't think we are going to see, we don't intend to reduce the grants. There has been a change in the disbursement quota from 4.5% to 3.5%, but at this point we don't anticipate lowering our disbursements to meet only the 3.5%."

In 2004 Helen McLean, who was the executive director of the Donner Canadian Foundation since 2002 and with the Foundation since 1997, foresaw more involvement with international development in India and specific countries in Africa.

2009

"Of the $500,000 per year CDF distributes, about $100,000 goes to the likes of David Suzuki Foundation, Pembina Institute, and Tides Canada. In 2009 Donner Canadian Foundation gave grants to 80 charities. 12% of their budget goes to conservation. In 2009 they gave $400,000 directly to Canadian Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs)s. Other Donner grants indirectly aided these ENGOs. (34)

Donner Grants

"In 2013, the Donner Canadian Foundation supported more than 80 charitable organizations. The Foundation devoted approximately 20 percent of its granting to public policy research and education, and over 15 percent to international development and human rights projects. The Foundation also directed 20 percent of its granting toward conservation, and almost 25 percent toward organizations delivering social services. The Foundation's remaining granting sustained a variety of worthy projects."

List of selected grants

• 2010

• 2011

William H. Donner Foundation

In 1958, the William H. Donner Foundation in the United States used $2.5 million to fund five chairs in science at MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania thus creating the title of Donner Professor.

The Donner Canadian Foundation was established in 1950 and for 43 years was a typical, uncontroversial Canadian charitable fund. In 1993, the conservative American Donner heirs who control the foundation changed its primary focus to that of supporting conservative research.

The Donner Prize

The Donner Prize is an annual award, established in 1998, that "rewards excellence and innovation in Canadian public policy thinking, writing and research in Canada. In bestowing this award, the Donner Canadian Foundation seeks to broaden policy debates, increase general awareness of the importance of policy decision making and make an original and meaningful contribution to policy discourse." Donner Canadian Foundation for books considered excellent in regard to the writing of Canadian public policy. The grand prize is $50,000; short-listed finalists receive $7,500 each. To be eligible, a book must be on a single theme relevant to Canadian policy and be authored by one or more Canadian citizens. Entries are submitted by publishers, and selected by a five-person jury whose members are drawn from the ranks of Canadian professors, university administrators, businessmen, and politicians. The committee announces a short list in April of each year. The winners and runners-up are announced at an awards banquet in April or May.

Past winners include Michael Byers (2013), Jeffrey Simpson (2012), Peter Aucoin, Mark D. Jarvis, Lori Turnbull, Democratizing The Constitution Doug Saunders, Ken Coates (historian), Eric Helleiner, Mark Jaccard, David Laidler Tom Flanagan, David Gratzer and Thomas Courchene.

The William H. Donner Awards for Excellence in the Delivery of Social Services

"Social and community benefits receive about 20% of [DCF's] granting dollars. Environment and wildlife preservation receives about 20%. International affairs accounts for about 11% and international development is about 8%. We have had a very good relationship with the Nature Conservancy of Canada over the last couple of years and habitat preservation and restoration is very important to the foundation. We have supported bird corridors and land acquisition from BC to Nova Scotia. One of the things that we are quite proud of is our award for excellence in the delivery of social services. It has been going for almost as long as the book prize, and has created a way of reviewing organizations in terms of effectiveness - something I think is quite valuable to the whole sector." The William H. Donner Awards for Excellence in the Delivery of Social Services which issues nine prizes worth $60,000, administered by The Fraser Institute, is given annually. It based on 10 attributes including the volunteers they use and the results they get.

"In 2007 Simon House was the recipient of the William H. Donner Award for Excellence in Delivery of Social Services, the Donner Canadian Foundation Award for Excellence in the Prevention and Treatment of Substance Abuse, and the Peter F. Drucker Award for Non-Profit Management. The Donner Award is the highest award achievable in Canada for addiction treatment."

2009 Profiles of Excellence

Energy Probe

The Next City was founded in 1995 with Donner funds. The NEXT CITY is published by Energy Probe, an environmental organization that is pro-oil and "advocates privatizing every green space in Canada." It’s funded by the "Donner Canadian Foundation, which annually directs millions of dollars to groups like the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship, a group of university professors formed to defend J. Philippe Rushton." Lawrence Solomon is the editor of Next City and the founder and executive director of Energy Probe, a Canadian non-governmental environmental policy organization and fossil fuel lobbyist group. His writing has appeared in a number of newspapers, including The National Post where he has a column, and he is the author of several books on energy resources, urban sprawl, and global warming, among them The Conserver Solution (1978), Energy Shock (1980), Toronto Sprawls: A History (2007), and The Deniers (2008).Solomon opposes nuclear power based on its economic cost, is a global warming skeptic, and has been critical of government approaches and policies used to address environmental concerns. He has also written for American Forests, an environmental conservation organization.

• For his approach to global warming, see Humen, Brit, and Hill, Martin. "Is the Earmark System Really Being Reformed by Democrats?", Fox News, June 4, 2007.
• Also see "Lawrence Solomon biography", The National Post, and List of Solomon articles, The National Post, accessed August 2, 2010.</ref> Lawrence Solomon is executive director of Consumer Policy Institute.

Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship

"From 1995 to the present I ran a "merit vs. equity" lab funded mainly by the Donner Canadian Foundation of Canada by grants awarded to combat political correctness in universities. The main empirical aspect of this work (that I shall be continuing) is referred to in the last two sentences of the last paragraph of this home page." In 1997 John J. Furedy, president of Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship (SAFS) acknowledged the generous support by the Donner Canadian Foundation for his presentation on political correctness in academia defending the SAFS against its critics. The SAFS came to the defense of [[J. Philippe Rushton.

Critics

In 2003 Murray Dobbin, a Senior Advisor to the Rideau Institute on International Affairs, columnist for the Financial Post, guest editorial contributor to The Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star, and a board member and researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives journalist, author, broadcaster, and media analyst, described the Donner Canada Foundation as having changed the ideological fabric of Canada.

"Right-wing foundation used to be a minor force relative to their counterparts in the U.S. The main player in recent years has been the Donner Canada Foundation, the tenth largest in the country with an endowment of $100 million. Established in 1950 by American steel magnate William Henry Donner, who had taken an interest in Canada, the foundation was until 1993, the "epitome of middle-of-the-road Canadian liberalism."61 But since it was taken over by Conservative Donner family members, it has become one of the principal funders of right-wing propaganda in the country. Under the (until late 1996) of American Devon Cross, former editor of the libertarian journal The Idler, the foundation gave out $2 million a year, almost exclusively to right-wing causes. By giving $400,000 to the Fraser Institute, bestowing large sums to fund the charter school lobby, bankrolling the conservative journals Next City and Gravitas, funding the market-oriented Energy Probe and its various spin-offs, and coming up with cash to launch the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, the Donner is a major actor in the campaign to "change the ideological fabric" of Canadian society. The Donner Foundation has adopted the strategies of its American cousins with a very focused, deliberate promotion of vehicles for the dissemination of neo-liberal ideas."

— Murray 2003

Donald Gutstein, senior lecturer in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University, also described the Donner Canadian Foundation as a "key organization in the project to change the ideological fabric of Canadian society.

"Until recently, the leader was the Donner Canadian Foundation, a key organization in the project to change the ideological fabric of Canadian society. It is known as paymaster to the right, and it’s safe to say that the reactionary right would have made little headway in Canada in the past decade without Donner’s backing. Stephen Harper would be a nobody, for instance. Donner, with assets of $200 million, gives out two million a year to right-wing causes. In the mid-1990s, it established three new libertarian think tanks: the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, in Halifax, the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, in Winnipeg, and the Montreal Economic Institute. In 2002, the latest year for which figures are available, Donner contributed nearly half a million dollars to the Fraser Institute, including $200,000 for Donner Awards in the Delivery of Social Services. This is a program to undermine government by ostensibly demonstrating that the voluntary sector does better than the public sector in delivering social services. (So who needs government?) In their fawning coverage of the institute’s anniversary party, reporters never asked who has poured $100 million into the right-wing think-tank, and why. Donner also gave $100,000 to start CanStats, a Fraser Institute division that purports to monitor how the media report science and statistics. Most of the work is done by ideologues who are neither scientists nor statisticians."

— Gutstein 2005

External links

• Donner Prize, official website