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Reeta Roy quietly leads Canada’s largest private foundation, which will soon increase its focus on creating opportunities in this country’s indigenous communities.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail

In her eight years at the helm of Canada's largest private foundation, Reeta Roy has pounded peanuts in Zimbabwe, met with dairy farmers in Kenya and listened to career aspirations of young women in Rwanda.

She has also overseen the largest private scholarship program ever implemented for African youth and forged scores of partnerships with local organizations.

Few may know it, but the low-profile, Toronto-based MasterCard Foundation she runs is not only, by far, the largest private foundation in Canada, it is one of the biggest in the world. Formed in 2006 with a donation of about 13.5 million shares from MasterCard Inc., an endowment then worth $500-million, the value of its holdings has since ballooned, to $11.6-billion in assets.

A few characteristics set the foundation apart: its work is focused squarely on Africa (though plans are under way to add funding to support indigenous communities in Canada); it operates independently from the company; it deliberately backs women and girls; and it is led by a woman, herself no stranger to struggle.

Born in 1964, Ms. Roy grew up in Malaysia, the daughter of two immigrants from southern Thailand and Calcutta. Both parents worked in health care, her father as a doctor, her mother a nurse. Her father died when she was 14, leaving her mom to raise two children on her own.

"She's been a huge influence, first because of her own struggles, as a woman – she had that idea of being independent, pursuing your own interests, not being constrained," Ms. Roy said in an interview. "And education was always that passport to the future. That has stayed true for me, and that's the story of my life."

Ms. Roy left home at 16 to attend high school in the United States, eventually winning a college scholarship and experiencing first-hand the benefits of mentors, professors and people who "expose you to different ideas and make you curious."

She spent two years at the United Nations and 17 years in the private sector – working at health-care giants Bristol-Myers Squibb and Abbott Laboratories. She learned to create startup projects, present a vision, articulate ideas and how to scale good ideas. She came to Canada in 2008 after being recruited for the top job at the foundation. At the time, she was the fourth employee. Now, there are 85 staff members in the Toronto office and several more based in Kenya.

The foundation's work has directly affected the lives of 10.6 million people in 31 African countries, through skills training and matching young people to jobs, high school and university scholarships and financial services for farmers. It aims to reach 20 million by 2020.

Ms. Roy has kept the foundation's focus on Africa, where she sees both need and opportunity as greatest – it is the second-fastest growing region in the world that also has the highest poverty rates. Of the clients reached so far, 51 per cent are women, and two-thirds live in rural areas. So far, the foundation has dispersed $865-million.

Of the more than 19,000 scholarships it is funding, two-thirds of students are women and most are studying in Africa. Most scholarships go to disadvantaged youth to attend secondary school, which is often not free. It also grants scholarships for university students; 179 scholars are now attending Canadian universities – the University of Toronto, McGill University and the University of British Columbia.

At U of T, Sylvia Mwangi is now in her last year of industrial engineering, on a four-year MasterCard scholarship. The 23-year-old grew up the eldest of four girls in the central highlands of Kenya, her family of modest means.

Studying in Canada has meant opportunity for growth, "whether it's intellectual or personal … and you're able to gain multiple perspectives," she says. She is optimistic about the future and wants to work to improve health care in Kenya. She hopes to "show what's possible" to her younger sisters back at home.

Ms. Roy says her team has learned lessons along the way. "We're not perfect," she says. In the beginning, the focus was on reaching as many people as possible; now, she speaks of institutional, and systemic change as bigger measures of success (for example, one secondary-school scholarship program in Kenya has climbed from 350 students in 2009 to 10,000 today as other aid organizations have added funding; its president now pledges to make secondary school free for everyone).

Thinking has also evolved about how the poor access financial services. In its early years, microcredit was often seen as a magic bullet against poverty, before research showed mixed results. That concept expanded into microfinance – a broader array of services, including savings programs. Ms. Roy says her priority is financial inclusion.

"What we have learned and what I think the world has learned very clearly is that poor people are no different than all of us. People need a range of tools: credit, savings, insurance, pension, housing finance, education finance, the full breadth. And more than just those tools – they need to be conversant and educated about how to use those tools…and use those tools in a way that's relevant to their lives."

Financial inclusion increasingly means services may not come from a traditional bank at all – they could come from a mobile phone company, an agricultural supplier or a seed distributor, a local shop or a designated agent in the village.

"If I am a farmer and I live in rural Tanzania, there is no bank for 25 kilometres, I'm not going to be able to walk … but I could go to a Coca-Cola distributor or a little grocery shop who I trust, and I could sell my produce there, I could get cash or I could ask for a loan …."

The foundation may keep relatively quiet, but it has prominent board members: Jim Leech, chancellor of Queen's University and former head of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, is chairman, while past members include Governor-General David Johnston, former Irish president Mary Robinson and Nigel Wright of Onex Corp.

Ms. Roy describes the relationship with MasterCard, the company, as a separation of church and state. Still, she acknowledges that the philanthropic work of the foundation benefits the company. "We bear the same name – there is a halo that accrues to the company, of course," she says.

Presumably, it's not all altruism – some of these grads will be strong job candidates in the coming years for the company; others may well become customers.

Reflecting its private-sector origins, the foundation's focus is on a hand up rather than a hand out – its slogan is "opportunity for all to learn and prosper." This means supporting entrepreneurship, training future leaders, and using technology to connect farmers to new markets.

Girls will remain a focus. Its programs "favour girls, because hurdle rates are higher," Ms. Roy says, adding that such investments have a multiplier effect. "There are so few things we know, after billions of dollars in development … but one is that investing in girls, the payoff, from health care to mortality rates, income streams, health of children, the education of children, it's just so profound."

Though the foundation's work is overseas, funding has also flowed to Canadian groups. It has spent nearly $250-million on Canadian organizations working in Africa, such as Save the Children, and on those working with African students in Canada.

To celebrate its 10th anniversary last summer, the foundation gave each of its full-time employees $10,000 to spend on charities. Staff wound up giving nearly $120,000 to indigenous organizations, and $215,000 to causes in Toronto, such as sports programs and support for homeless youth.

Now, the foundation is setting its sights closer to home: on supporting education efforts in indigenous communities.

Ms. Roy has made it a personal interest – studying success stories of communities where graduation rates have risen; reading through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's reports and recommendations, and seeking partners in indigenous communities. She expects the foundation will announce a commitment "of several million" dollars in 2017, as Canada celebrates its 150th birthday. She hopes that will spur others to join in.

"At this historic moment at the conclusion of Truth and Reconciliation Commission's report, findings and recommendations, and the government embracing them and stepping up … it's an opportune time," says Ms. Roy.

Her awareness about indigenous issues began with two people: former prime minister Paul Martin and Governor-General Johnston.

But the spark came from listening to a speech in May by Murray Sinclair, former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, about the impact of residential schools, and what it meant to have his identity stripped away.

"It was very inspiring. When I also read the recommendations, particularly around education, culturally relevant content, the importance of language, of knowing who you are … that resonated very deeply."

She plans to use lessons learned in the foundation's work in Africa – seeking local partners, listening to those on the ground, learning from them, then expanding. Her motto, she says, is try, start, learn, grow.

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Tickers mentioned in this story

Study and track financial data on any traded entity: click to open the full quote page. Data updated as of 28/03/24 7:00pm EDT.

SymbolName% changeLast
KO-N
Coca-Cola Company
+0.25%61.18
MA-N
Mastercard Inc
+0.76%481.57

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