When our donations are more than small change

It’s that time of the year again, and like me, I am sure many of you are thinking about what donations to make — personally and on the corporate front — before the year ends. Allow me to make three suggestions that are completely biased. Feel free to add your own in the comments.

Less than a third of immigrant and refugee journalists are employed in Canadian media. It is a serious, unjust imbalance. Because immigrant journalists are rarely seen in Canadian newsrooms, immigrant stories are rarely told in mainstream Canadian news. New Canadian Media , our pro-bono client (the image is from our campaign for NCM), is an award-winning journalism not-for-profit that corrects this deficit by hiring immigrant/refugee journalists and showcasing immigrant stories that better serve the 22%+ of Canadians who are immigrants. It has been recognized by the Government of Canada as one of only eight registered journalism organizations that can accept your tax-deductible donation.

Mayank Bhatt ???? ???? and I were close friends and co-founders of the Tartan Turban Secret Readings, a reading series that makes time and space for IBPOC writing in Canada. Mayank passed away on 1st August 2022 after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. His friends and family have set up The Mayank and?Mahrukh Bhatt?Scholarship, a writing scholarship to honour his memory.?The scholarship aims to support a student enrolled in the Humber School for Writers : Graduate Certificate in Creative Writing program who is of high merit and in financial need.?Donations are tax-deductible.

POCAM - People of Colour in Advertising & Marketing is a volunteer-run, federally incorporated not-for-profit that exists to ensure the voice, vision and talent of BIPOC professionals are fully and fairly present in Canadian advertising and marketing. POCAM created The Call for Equity with its 15 demands for create justice, equity and inclusion in the industry and tracks progress publicly via the Call for Equity Progress Tracker. It also runs Visible & Vocal (3rd edition currently in field), the only “by, for and about” BIPOC study on the experience of #BIPOC professionals in #advertising, #marketing and #design. To make a donation, email the POCAM steering committee at [email protected]. Donations are not tax-deductible.

Other causes

Please also consider giving to:

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at https://give.umanitoba.ca/nctr

Indian Residential School Survivors Society https://www.irsss.ca/donate

Help kids in Ukraine survive a wartime winter. (You can also donate to UNICEF’s efforts to support children in other crisis zones at unicef.ca). https://secure.unicef.ca/page/98630/donate/1?ea.tracking.id=22DIEM01HBE

You can make a similar donation via the Canadian Red Cross. https://www.redcross.ca/donate/appeal/donate-to-the-canadian-red-cross-fund#a0650cb6-ce29-4c40-b663-e749a0a9163f

Nia Centre for the Arts ' new facility (opening in Winter 2023) will be the first professional, multi-disciplinary centre for Afro-diasporic art in Canada. https://niacentre.org/donate/

Support the David Suzuki Foundation 's vitally important science-based not-for-profit environmental work, during this climate emergency.

Disclosure: While I and/or Barrett and Welsh have been actively involved with some of these not-for-profits, we receive no financial gain from any contribution you make. Think of our involvement as a superpower rather than a bias; it allows me to say with certainty that your donation will have a genuine impact.