News

Sitting in his corner office at Rogers Communications Inc., RCI.B-T Edward Rogers has just received an unusual request from Hollywood. Matt Damon needs a favour.

“He wants me to be in his next Jason Bourne movie,” Mr. Rogers deadpans. “But I just don't have the time.”

It's not entirely implausible, but even Mr. Rogers can't help but laugh at the joke. “Not really,” admits the son of the late Ted Rogers, who at 40 is starting to grey like his father, the cable titan who built Rogers Communications. “Maybe as one of the guys getting shot in the background or something.”

In truth, Mr. Rogers and Mr. Damon have forged an unlikely partnership in recent years. Their foundation, a charity called One X One that was started five years ago to raise money for impoverished children at home and abroad, has become one of Hollywood's hottest causes. It made CNN at length last year during the devastating floods in Haiti and, a few weeks from now, it will be showcased on HBO's Entourage .

It is a rare turn in the spotlight for the normally reserved Mr. Rogers. As the curtain rises on the Toronto International Film Festival this week, the most sought-after ticket in town will have nothing to do with the festival itself. Instead, it will be the private gala he hosts at his Forest Hill home to raise money for One X One (pronounced “one by one”).

Bill Clinton will attend, Elvis Costello will perform, and a who's who of Corporate Canada, from Research In Motion co-chief executive officer Jim Balsillie to Toronto-Dominion Bank deputy chairman Frank McKenna will rub shoulders with the likes of Mr. Damon and musician Wyclef Jean, who are the faces of One X One internationally.

Though friends know him as gregarious, Mr. Rogers has often been considered the shy son of Ted. He continues to quietly head up the cable division at Rogers and serve as chairman of the trust that controls the family's voting shares while new CEO Nadir Mohamed takes the reins of the company.

But outside of work, Mr. Rogers says he has big ambitions for One X One. The foundation began nearly five years ago in his backyard when Joelle Adler, CEO of clothing retailer Diesel Canada, approached him for funds to backstop her idea of starting the organization. Neither figured at the time it would spread to Hollywood, but the growth of the foundation has been a lesson in brand building.

Named as such because it's based on one person helping one child through donations, Ms. Adler said the foundation began to gain momentum when Mr. Damon, an activist for clean water for children in Africa, came to Toronto to host the group's fundraiser in 2006. Soon after, the actor lent his support full-time, as other celebrities like Mr. Jean came aboard.

Since then, companies such as Pepsi, through its Quaker and Dole brands, have signed on. The charity sends food to children in impoverished parts of Canada, such as native communities in northern Manitoba, as well as children in Africa. The One X One brand is now on Dole juice boxes and Mr. McKenna has come aboard as chairman of the charity.

But the moment that put the charity in the spotlight came last year, right after the film festival, when floods ravaged Haiti, Mr. Jean's homeland.

With international aid slow to materialize, Mr. Jean, Mr. Damon and Mr. McKenna boarded a plane borrowed from a Canadian executive and departed Toronto to bring supplies of food and water to the small island nation. Their arrival in the country made the news on CNN and attracted the attention of the Clinton Global Initiative, headed by the former president.

“It started out as the building of a brand, and then building the brand to the point where partners like Pepsi could say, ‘Wow, let's put the One X One brand on 72 million juice boxes,'” Ms. Adler says. The strategy borrows from the brand-building approach of Brad Pitt's Make it Right charity that helped build homes in New Orleans.

Mr. Rogers believes One X One can get a lot bigger. His pet project has the same structure as running a business, he figures. Though the foundation has raised $7-million in a few short years, he suspects it can be scaled up. After opening a U.S. office last year, it has the potential to be taken to other countries.

“My dad always taught me, some of the difference between people who fail and people who don't, and companies who fail and companies who don't, is they just keep going, they never stop,” Mr. Rogers said. “It [One X One] has the ability to raise many more times the money that it has,” Mr. Rogers said.

The fact that the evening has become a hot ticket, is purely by accident, he says. “We're not vying for that,” Mr. Rogers said.