Charity Gift Guide 2018: Women’s health & empowerment

by W. Andrew Powell

The holidays are coming up quickly, and it’s really one of the most wonderful times of the year. While the holidays are all about celebrating loved ones though, they’re also about giving, and more importantly, giving back.

To launch The GATE’s annual holiday gift guides, I want to once again remind everyone that there’s no better time to donate or give to a charity than right now. We encourage you to give to a local charity, like a food bank, or somewhere that is doing good for your community, but if you’re looking for a good cause, I’d like to recommend three great causes for women this year.

Whether you want to do good for women’s health, help empower women and advance gender equality, or join a movement to ensure more women are getting opportunities making film, these are three great initiatives that are doing important work in Canada.

Heart and Stroke Foundation | #TimeToSeeRed

Heart and stroke is the #1 cause of premature death in women in Canada. According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, 53% of women with heart attack symptoms actually don’t recognize the signs. What’s worse though is that two-thirds of all research into heart disease and strokes focuses on men.

Through their latest #TimeToSeeRed initiative, the Heart and Stroke Foundation are prioritizing equitable representation in research to better understand how women’s hearts and brains are different.

Visit heartandstroke.ca/women and click the Donate button to make a one-time or monthly donation.

Canadian Women’s Foundation

The Canadian Women’s Foundation has one main objective: “Together, let’s empower women and girls to move out of violence, out of poverty, and into confidence and leadership.”

Through donations and support, the foundation helps fund programs in communities across Canada, with a focus to help women and girls who face multiple barriers, and towards programs that have been developed in collaboration with the people they help.

With the support of Canadians, the programs they fund help fight sexual violence, they teach leadership, support employment programs, and they empower girls for tomorrow.

Support the Canadian Women’s Foundation by visiting canadianwomen.org, and click on the Donate button for a one-time or monthly donation.

Share Her Journey

Female storytellers should be an integral part of our entertainment industry, but the numbers are frankly disheartening.

In 2017, looking at the top 250 films, the Toronto International Film Festival found that only 18% of the films employed women directors, writers, producers, editors, and cinematographers.

Of the same 250 films, 30% featured zero or one woman in a job behind-the-scenes, and just 1% of the films employed 10 or more women, while 70% of the films employed 10 or more men.

Women deserve equal representation in the stories that we tell as a society, and through Share Her Journey, the goal is to raise money to mentor and showcase female creators.

Visit www.tiff.net/shareherjourney and click on the Donate button to make a one-time or monthly donation.


Do you support a charity that deserves more attention? Talk about why they’re important on Twitter with the #GATEGiftGuides hashtag, or in the comments below. If we get enough comments and ideas, we’ll do a second charity roundup in December.

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