The donor: Jaimie Grossman
The gift: $100,000 and climbing
The cause: Kensington Health Centre and Hospice
When Jaimie Grossman was building his online ad business called Uptrend Media Inc., he vowed that if he ever sold the company he would make a donation in honour of his father, Larry, and grandfather, Allan, both long-time Ontario politicians.
That moment came in 2010 when Yellow Media bought Uptrend. Mr. Grossman had been involved with several charities before, including a family foundation set up shortly after his father died in 1997. But now he went in search of something he could take on in a big way.
A family friend introduced him to Toronto's Kensington Health Centre and Hospice, located on a site once known as Doctor's Hospital, and Mr. Grossman immediately felt a connection. His father had fought to keep Doctor's Hospital open in the 1980s, battling his own government along the way. "They explained how much my father did for Doctor's Hospital," Mr. Grossman recalled from his home in Toronto. "I decided that this was right for me."
Mr. Grossman donated $100,000 to the centre. He also became deeply involved in fundraising, taking a seat on the Kensington Foundation board and heading a number of committees. He recently helped organize the foundation's annual golf event which raised around $160,000 this year.
"A lot of people think I'm crazy to be this involved," said Mr. Grossman, 41, who spends much of his non-Kensington time as an investor and director of several companies. "But I'm doing what I can. And it's all in the name of my father."