Toronto, ON · Private foundation
Balsam Foundation
To receive and maintain a fund or funds and to apply all or part of the principal and income therefrom from time to time to one or more qualified donees within the meaning of the Income Tax Act (Canada) as amended from time to time; and to undertake activities ancillary and incidental to the attainment of the above charitable purposes.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under C$10k1 grant · C$2k
- C$10k–50k7 grants · C$185k
- C$50k–250k19 grants · C$2.2M
- C$250k+3 grants · C$1.4M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| PARK PEOPLE | C$680,477 |
| PHILIP AZIZ CENTRE FOR HOSPICE | C$474,000 |
| UHN FOUNDATION | C$250,000 |
| ALLIANCE FOR HEALTHIER COMMUNITIES | C$235,000 |
| THE BENTWAY | C$235,000 |
| FRIENDS OF RUBY ( THE CHARITY ) | C$200,000 |
| FOODSHARE TORONTO | C$195,000 |
| TAIBU COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTRE | C$166,000 |
| RISE ASSET DEVELOPMENT | C$150,000 |
| ENVIRONMENT FUNDERS CANADA | C$150,000 |
| GROWING NEIGHBOURHOODS FOUNDATION (BUILDING ROOTS) | C$125,000 |
| COMMUNITY FOOD CENTRES CANADA | C$100,000 |
| HOMEWOOD RESEARCH INSTITUTE | C$100,000 |
| THE CATHERINE DONNELLY FOUNDATION | C$80,000 |
| ST. MICHAEL'S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION | C$80,000 |
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
29 repeat relationships — 23 still active in FY2024, 6 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 76% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; C$904k went to new ones.
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.”
Backed again, and grew
- MUMcMaster University7× · 2017–2024 · C$9.1M · revenue +39%
- UFUHN FOUNDATION5× · 2020–2024 · C$8.8M · revenue +124%
- UHUNIVERSITY HEALTH NETWORK2× · 2021–2022 · C$5.0M · revenue +22%
Funded once
- 5C519 Church Street Community Centergraduatedone grant, 2018 · C$900k · revenue +72%
- FFFOUNDATION FOR SOCIAL CHANGEone grant, 2022 · C$150k · revenue -30%
- CRCANADIAN RED CROSSone grant, 2023 · C$150k · revenue -48%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent CRA filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matches that aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
The purpose of toronto foundation is to create a more fair and justice society where everyone can thrive by mobilizing those with resources and the will to partner with others. the foundation publishes research including the toronto's…
The toronto rehabilitation institute foundation's mission is to raise grant and steward funds to support the mission of the toronto rehabilitation institute (which is part of the university health network) to develop solutions for people…
LEAP Pecaut Centre for Social Impact initiates and leads multi-sector collaborations to tackle some of society’s biggest problems in education employment and health. Over five years taking their needs and stages of development into…
First the Foundation brings donors to the table as community builders helping them formulate and realize their philanthropic goals matching their interest and concerns with community needs and organizations and finding innovative and…
CIFAR’s research programs are at the heart of its operations designed to push the boundaries of knowledge and create long-term societal impact. Currently CIFAR supports 15 research programs across diverse fields from artificial…
HealthBridge works with partners world-wide to improve health and health equity through research policy and action in the following programming areas: Food and Nutrition: combating hunger and malnutrition and improving food security;…
Mental Health Research Canada (MHRC) is a national charitable organization that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Canadians by advancing mental health knowledge. Our vision is to create a Canada with better mental health for all…
Canada Healthy Communities Initiative is an investment from the Government of Canada to transform public spaces in response to COVID-19. Indigenous Peoples Resilience Fund a fund that is built upon the resiliency of and guided by…
Michael Garron Hospital Foundation raises funds and engages our community in support of Michael Garron Hospital a vibrant community teaching hospital serving more than 400 000 people in 22 distinct neighbourhoods in East Toronto. With…
Casey House Foundation raises funds to support exemplary health care and compassionate support at Casey House a hospital unlike any other. As a sub-acute specialty hospital in Toronto they offer comprehensive inpatient and outpatient…
The Foundation provides funds to qualified donees to further its charitable interests. Examples include: City of Toronto City of Burlington City of Brampton.
Vancouver Foundation leverages the generosity of donors towards projects initiatives and organizations working to create meaningful and lasting impact on our communities. We continued delivering a number of grant programs and initiatives…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Anishnawbe Health Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Raising the Roof Chez Toit. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
51 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2024.
Each one resolved to its own CRA returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2024, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 51 of the 54 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds McMaster University ↗
- Who funds UHN FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY HEALTH NETWORK ↗
- Who funds PARK PEOPLE ↗
- Who funds PHILIP AZIZ CENTRE FOR HOSPICE CARE ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S AID FOUNDATION OF CANADA ↗
- Who funds CamH Foundation ↗
- Who funds Community Food Centres Canada ↗
- Who funds THE TORONTO PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Friends of Ruby ↗
- Who funds ALLIANCE FOR HEALTHIER COMMUNITIES ↗
- Who funds RISE ASSET DEVELOPMENT ↗
- Who funds 519 Church Street Community Center ↗
- Who funds EVERGREEN ↗
- Who funds FOODSHARE TORONTO ↗
- Who funds GROWING NEIGHBORHOODS FOUNDATION (BUILDING ROOTS) ↗
- Who funds TAIBU COMMUNITY HEALTHCARE ↗
- Who funds THE BENTWAY ↗
- Who funds Makeway Foundation (Tides Canada) ↗
- Who funds GILDA'S CLUB ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF GREATER TORONTO ↗
- Who funds MABELL EARTS ↗
- Who funds THE CATHERINE DONNELLY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CANADIAN ROOTS EXCHANGE ↗
- Who funds THE CIRCLE OF PHILANTROPY ↗
- Who funds FOUNDATION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE ↗
- Who funds CANADIAN RED CROSS ↗
- Who funds FOUNDATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP ↗
- Who funds HOMEWOOD RESEARCH INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds The Governing Council of the University of Toronto ↗
- Who funds Rexdale Community Health Centre ↗
- Who funds ANISHNAWBE HEALTH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LOFT COMMUNITY SERVICES ↗
- Who funds GREEN COMMUNITIES CANADA ↗
- Who funds CEE Centre for Young Black Professionals ↗
- Who funds ST. MICHAEL'S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds STREET HEALTH COMMUNITY NURSING FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NEIGHBOURHOOD INFORMATION POST ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Toronto Foundation · Fondation Écho /Echo Foundation · The J W McConnell Family Foundation/La Fondation de la Famille J W McConnell · The Peter Gilgan Foundation · The McLean Foundation · Makeway Foundation · Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto · The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation · Toronto District School Board · The Catherine Donnelly Foundation · The George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation · J.P. Bickell Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.