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Canadian charitiesAlso receives grants — funding profile →

Toronto, ON · Private foundation

The Brian and Joannah Lawson Family Foundation

The primary purpose of the foundation is to disburse the income from its investments and gifts received to qualified organizations to further the philanthropic objectives of brian and joannah lawson and their offspring.

C$6.6M
Granted FY2024still arriving
12
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
Regions reached
C$4.0M
Largest
01What you fundRead
02Your edgeRead
03Your fieldRead
01What you fund
01FY2024 · 12 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • C$10k–50k2 grants · C$30k
  • C$50k–250k5 grants · C$700k
  • C$250k+5 grants · C$5.9M
C$200,000
Median grant
2
Regions reached
C$261M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
TRINITY COLLEGEC$4,000,000
COMMUNITY FOOD CENTRES CANADAC$705,000
THE GOVERNING COUNCIL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTOC$500,000
UPPER CANADA COLLEGEC$415,000
THE NEW FARM CENTRE FOR CLIMAE ACTIONC$265,000
ST. CLEMENT'S SCHOOLC$200,000
CANADIAN ORGANIC GROWERS INC.C$200,000
FARMERS FOR CLIMATE SOLUTIONSC$150,000
ECOLOGICAL FARMERS ASSOCIATION OF ONTARIOC$100,000
CULTIVATE CANADA SOCIETYC$50,000
POWER TO GIVE FOUNDATIONC$15,000
ROSEDALE UNITED CHURCHC$15,000
02Your edge
repeat funding

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.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
C$31M · 16 repeat orgsC$2.0M to everyone else

16 repeat relationships — 7 still active in FY2024, 9 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

16
13

Total granted

C$31M
C$931k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+43%
+44%

Still filing today

94%
92%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; C$1.0M went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

  • TC
    TRINITY COLLEGE
    4× · 2019–2024 · C$12M · revenue +19%
  • UO
    University of Toronto
    7× · 2017–2024 · C$7.7M · revenue +43%
  • CF
    COMMUNITY FOOD CENTRES CANADA
    7× · 2017–2024 · C$4.8M · revenue ×12 · 60% of their budget

Funded once

  • BH
    BRANKSOME HALL
    one grant, 2022 · C$500k · revenue +17%
  • SF
    SHOREFAST FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · C$200k · revenue +51%
  • TS
    The Stop Community Food Centregraduated
    one grant, 2017 · C$70k · revenue +37%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent CRA filings.

03Your field

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.

1
Canadian Agri-Food Foundation
—
2
Canadian Centre for Food and Ecology
—
3
Grand Challenges Canada Foundation
—
4
Environment Funders Canada / Philanthropie Canadienne pour l'environnement

All of environment funders canada's programs are designed to expand the scope and effectiveness of grantmaking in support of the canadian environment and to support a vibrant network of philanthropic and other funders working individually…

—
5
International Development Research Centre

Created by Parliament in 1970 IDRC has been committed in supporting research in developing countries undertaken by the people of those countries for their own development. IDRC has five areas of focus: Climate-Resilient Food Systems Global…

—
6
Generate Canada Inc.

Generate Canada is a national charity that connects problem-solvers across sectors and value chains to generate solutions to the most complex challenges at the nexus of environment economy and society. The organization’s vision is a strong…

—
7
Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development

The Pembina Institute promotes public education and information that increases understanding about environmental and global energy issues. We provide research analysis and recommendations to inform policies and practices related to energy…

—
8
Weston Family Foundation / Fondation de la famille Weston

The foundation supports the charitable sector by making grants to qualified donees that operate in the areas of education conservation neuroscience microbiome research and scientific research in canada's north. the qualified donees that…

—
9
Canadian Climate Institute L'institut climatique du Canada

1. to advance education by: a) conducting research relating to climate change and publishing the results of such research to the public; and b) producing and publishing educational materials resources and other supports designed to…

—
10
Maple Leaf Centre for Action On Food Security

The maple leaf centre for action on food security provided grants to organizations engaged in testing and expanding innovative approaches to food security as well as to those that promoted knowledge sharing and collaboration around food…

—
11
Td Friends of the Environment Foundation

Td friends of the environment foundation (tdfef) is a national charity that funds environmental projects across canada. with the support from our donors td fef has provided more than $117 million to over 29 000 environmental projects and…

—
12
Aqueduct Foundation

Aqueduct Foundation is an independent cause-neutral foundation with donor advised legacy and charity funds. The Foundation's mission is to facilitate personal philanthropy which it carries out by making grants to Canadian qualified donees…

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Cultivate Canada Society and the most unlike its peers is Branksome Hall. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

02the grantee network

32 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. 32 of the 34 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.

4
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
10
Early backer (in before they grew)
32/32
Grantees still filing
25/32
Grew since you first funded

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%C$1.0MC$10MC$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetTRINITY COLLEGE — C$12,000,000 over 4y, 12% of budgetUniversity of Toronto — C$7,670,800 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetCOMMUNITY FOOD CENTRES CANADA — C$4,812,830 over 7y, 60% of budgetHEART AND STROKE FOUNDATION — C$2,350,000 over 6y, 0.5% of budgetTHE CANADIAN ORGANIC GROWERS — C$1,700,000 over 6y, 50% of budgetECOLOGICAL FARMERS ASSOCAITION OF ONTARIO — C$700,000 over 5y, 34% of budgetTrinity College School Foundation — C$585,000 over 6y, 4.5% of budgetBRANKSOME HALL — C$500,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetOntario Water Centre — C$458,500 over 5y, 5.5% of budgetUPPER CANADA COLLEGE — C$415,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetTHE NEW FARM CENTRE FOR CLIMAE ACTION — C$265,000 over 1y, 36% of budgetSEEDCHANGE — C$208,000 over 2y, 1.8% of budgetST. CLEMENT'S SCHOOL — C$200,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetSHOREFAST FOUNDATION — C$200,000 over 1y, 6.1% of budgetCULTIVATE CANADA SOCIETY — C$150,000 over 3y, 14% of budgetFARMERS FOR CLIMATE SOLUTIONS — C$150,000 over 1y, 4.7% of budgetROSEDALE UNITED CHURCH — C$94,430 over 8y, 1.9% of budgetThe Stop Community Food Centre — C$70,000 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetPRINCES CHARITIES — C$50,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetMETROPOLITAN UNITED CHURCH — C$35,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetST MICHAEL'S HOSPITAL — C$25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCALADA'S WALK OF FAME — C$25,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetTHE SARAH MCLAUGHLAN FOUNDATION — C$25,000 over 1y, 6.2% of budgetPOWER TO GIVE FOUNDATION — C$15,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF GUELPH — C$10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHeadwaters Health Care Foundation — C$10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetTHE POLLUTION PROBE FOUNDATION — C$10,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetOTTAWA HOSPITAL — C$10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMcConnell Foundation — C$6,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetTIDES Canada — C$5,300 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCENTRE FOR ADDITION AND MENTAL HEALTH — C$4,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetROBERT HARDING FOUNDATION — C$2,250 over 2y, 0.2% of budget
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.

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.

Toronto FoundationJackman FoundationCanada GivesTemerty FoundationWeston Family Foundat…Conam Charitable Foun…R. Howard Webster Fou…Arrell Family Foundat…Cidel FoundationAqueduct FoundationGiftpact Foundation I…Wcpd Foundation
Toronto FoundationON12.7× affinity14 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Toronto Foundation · Jackman Foundation · Canada Gives · Temerty Foundation · Weston Family Foundation / Fondation de la famille Weston · Conam Charitable Foundation · R. Howard Webster Foundation / Fondation R. Howard Webster · Arrell Family Foundation · Cidel Foundation · Aqueduct Foundation · Giftpact Foundation Inc. · Wcpd 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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from the Canada Revenue Agency’s published T3010 data — your own annual information return and the multi-year returns of the 34 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year) — each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program description on its T3010; we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without a BN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

Generated from your T3010 annual information return for the fiscal period ending 2024-12-31, as published by the Canada Revenue Agency in 2024. Amounts are Canadian dollars, as filed and never converted. Registered as a private foundation under foundations.

Source object 829613215:2024-12-31 · View the T3010 on the CRA register

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