Our Founding Story

Our giving circle was founded in 2018 by nine women across Canada who believe that opportunities arise when women from diverse backgrounds come together to make change happen. Each of our founding members has her own story and motivation, but what unites us is a commitment to making the world a better place through giving. By joining forces and pooling our giving dollars, we want to enhance the impact of our donations and create a thoughtful community of givers to make a difference in the lives of women and girls across Canada. 

In formulating our vision for GROW, we spent the first year researching the biggest gaps for women in Canada, both geographically and thematically. We learned about pay, jobs, personal security, single parenting, education, and poverty gaps for women living in Canada’s 25 most populous cities. This helped formulate our desired impact and legacy, resulting in our giving plan, which we refer to as our “investment framework”. We discussed several possible elements, such as grass-roots initiatives, nationwide programs, social focus, research-based STEM, and leveraging and assisting local programs to expand to new regions.

Ultimately, we decided to focus our giving on three themes, poverty, education, and childcare, all of which we review annually as we evaluate current needs and our impact to date.