Build a solid case if you are seeking donations, says Wes Hall
March 16, 2023
Entrepreneur Wes Hall was exposed to philanthropy long before he knew what it meant.
Abandoned at 18 months old with a younger brother and four-year-old sister in Jamaica, their grandmother – upon learning of their plight – left the plantation where she was working and brought a trolley to fetch the young ones to a two-bedroom tin shack where she was raising seven other grandkids and a special needs daughter.
“Though she died in poverty, she was one of the most generous people I have known,” he said at the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Greater Toronto Area Black History Month event discussing the excellence of Black philanthropy. “That is why I have always had this view that we should give back. Far too many people believe that you have to be rich before you give back.”
Hall is quick to dispel that notion.
“There are things you can do in your community to give back, but people wait until they have money and they think philanthropy is only about money,” he noted.
About a decade ago, Hall got an opportunity to give back in a big way to his birth country.
Outgoing SickKids Hospital Foundation Chief Executive Officer Ted Garrard paid a visit to his Bay St. office and informed the WeShall Investments founder there was just one pediatric oncologist in Jamaica.
“He told me that if a child in Jamaica is sick with cancer or a serious blood disorder, they have about a 50 per cent survival rate because of mis-diagnosis and the rate in Canada is close to 90 per cent,” he recalled.
Garrard proposed a plan to bring Jamaican doctors to Canada to train at SickKids.
“Ted said we are going to take them back to Jamaica, build a telemedicine facility and track the cases of pediatric oncology in Jamaica and make sure we do something about it,” said Hall.
To do that, Garrard told Hall he needed his support to raise money.
“When I asked him what he wanted from me, he said ‘I would like to have $1 million’,” the businessman recounted. “I said you have it and he walked out of my office with $1 million just by asking. A lot of folks don’t ask Black people for money because they don’t think we can afford it and we are not going to give them.”
With Hall’s donation, SickKids Foundation - in response to the inequality of outcomes combined with a needs assessment survey identifying huge gaps in care in the Caribbean -- launched the Caribbean SickKids-Caribbean Initiative (SCI) to help build health care capacity in not only Jamaica but Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago and the Bahamas by training health care professionals, providing consultation and diagnostic expertise and developing and expanding access to treatment and supportive care.
Capacity building is the program’s core capability.
Since the inception of the initiative in 2013, a local hospital-based oncology database was created, a data manager in each partner country was hired to capture demographic, treatment and outcome data which will help to improve the clinical management of paediatric patients and inform the design of future interventions, and telemedicine rooms in Barbados, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and the Bahamas were established to enable medical professionals in the Caribbean to connect with SickKids oncologists and hematologists and other global medical institutions to collaborate on clinical consultations and facilitate training and education to support the early identification and treatment of children in the Caribbean.
A nursing training program to further educate and train nurses in specialized areas of treatment for cancer and blood disorders was also developed.
Hall’s generous largesse also led to an invite to the SickKids Foundation Board.
“I said yes to that and so many things have been done together not only for the Black community, but for all communities in terms of the work we have done,” he said. “So what I say to folks is that it is in our DNA since we were born. When I came here at age 16, every single penny I made from side jobs while I was in high school was sent to my grandmother. I did that until the day she died. That is philanthropy. We do that when we send money back home to look after our families. When people say Black people don’t give money, that is not true.”
The SickKids Foundation Board includes three other Black professionals – real estate entrepreneur Isaac Olowolafe Jr., global information technology leader Claudette McGowan and BMO Wealth Management head Deland Kamanga.
Just last month, AFP Greater Toronto Area Chair & President Jennifer Bernard – considered one of Canada’s leading fundraisers – was appointed Garrard’s replacement at SickKids Hospital Foundation.
Hall said there is a generation of successful Black people who are looking to make a difference.
“They are not just going to write cheques indiscriminately,” the BlackNorth Initiative founder added. “They are going to make sure that people are building a case just like Ted who had a case that resonated with me. Because of that, I could not say no as I had the means to say yes. I can go back to Jamaica and see the impact that initial donation has made. As a result of me taking the lead, others jumped on board and we raised $8 million in just over two years. I encourage you to just find a way to donate.”
Brentyn Hall (l), Colin Lynch, Jennifer Bernard, Wes Hall & Sandra Sualim (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
Other panelists at the AFP Greater Toronto Area event were Hall’s son – Brentyn – who chairs WeShall Investments Philanthropy Committee, TD Asset Management Managing Director & Head of Global Real Estate Investments Colin Lynch and McGowan.
Claudette McGowan (Photo contributed)
A professional association of individuals and organizations that generate philanthropic support for charitable institutions, the AFP has, since 1960, inspired global change and supported efforts that have procreated over $1 trillion.
The nearly 30,000 members in about 240 chapters raise approximately $100 billion annually.
“We are larger than gas and the retail sector, we are eight per cent of GDP and over 1.5 million people work in philanthropy,” said Bernard. “So we are an incredibly important sector.”
As part of the organization’s 2019-23 strategic plan, attracting, serving and retaining membership that is representative of the diverse community and those served by its work is among five established goals.
“This programming we are providing tonight is for our members, but more importantly those that don’t know much about philanthropy and those who are trying to open a conversation about equity, diversity and access,” Bernard pointed out. “It is not just for the allies, but those that want to become allies and it is part of our ongoing work. We put this panel together because we still need to dismantle a lot of systemic racism in philanthropy on both sides.”
In June 2024, Sandra Sualim will replace Bernard as the AFP Greater Toronto Area Chair.
“We just didn’t want to focus on Black individuals receiving a handout or being the recipients of charity,” the Humber River Hospital Foundation President & Chief Executive Officer noted. “We wanted to showcase the excellence of Black philanthropy and us helping each other as leaders in this field.”
The event took place at Toronto Dominion Centre.
