Jonathan Drouin keeps his savings book up to date by promising to donate $500,000 from his own pocket to the Fondation du Center Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM). Halfway through his engagement, he has already donated over $300,000.
• Also read – Philanthropy: $2 million awaits in the coffers of the PK Subban Foundation
• Also read – Far from the promised $10 million: misleading words in PK Subban’s donation announcement
On September 19, 2017, the then 22-year-old Quebec forward announced that he was “committed to a personal donation of half a million” over the next 10 years. This equated to an average of $50,000 per year.
As of March 31, 2022, the Canadian had donated more than $300,000, according to official records listed in the Fondation du CHUM’s annual report.
The foundation also stated that it recently received the ice hockey player’s annual dues.
For the sake of transparency, the Fondation du CHUM has confirmed the Canadian forward’s past earnings to the Journal.
“Jonathan is keeping his word and he is up to date on the amount to be paid. The Foundation is also very grateful for the quality of this commitment,” said the Foundation’s Director of Marketing and Communications, Stéphanie Marcotte-Côté.
Other engagement
In addition to the money coming out of his own pocket, Drouin has also pledged to help the Fondation du CHUM raise $5 million through various fundraising activities by 2027.
And again, the 27-year-old ice hockey player is ahead of his target.
After five editions, the Jonathan Drouin Annual Golf Tournament has raised a total of $3.17 million in funds from the public for the benefit of the foundation, despite the raging pandemic.
Different post
On Jan. 19, our Bureau of Investigation revealed that former Canadian player PK Subban had played with words in a major public disclosure in September 2015. At the time, he announced a seven-year donation of $10M to the Children’s Hospital of Montreal Foundation.
To this day, the athlete boasts on his website that he “donated $10 million to Montreal Children’s Hospital” in 2015. However, the vast majority of this sum comes from donations from the public.
After our questions, Subban stated that $6.3 million had been raised. He did not want to name the proportion of his own contribution. But annual reports from the Hospital Foundation put it at less than $1 million.
Prior to Subban and Drouin’s signings, other Canadiens players had also made public announcements of charitable partnerships for 20 years.
More donations that made headlines
A unique device in Montreal
A year after his bitter battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Saku Koivu established his foundation in November 2002. His goal was to raise the $8 million in donations needed to provide a positron emission tomography scanner and a computed tomography (PET/CT) scanner).
The Montreal General Hospital would become the only facility in the region equipped with this cancer cell detection device. The CH captain at the time had personally paid several hundred thousand dollars for his foundation to purchase the imaging equipment. This was revealed on September 27, 2005.
According to hospital data, more than 2,500 patients a year benefit from this nuclear medicine tool.
Another thanks to Max Pacioretty
After his horrific injury on the Bell Center ice in March 2011, Max Pacioretty decided to get involved by raising funds to equip Montreal General Hospital with a state-of-the-art magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine.
This tool is used to detect signs of mild and severe brain damage.
“This $12.6 million investment was made possible thanks to our $5.5 million contribution, including a $2.6 million donation from the Max Pacioretty Foundation,” the 2017-2018 read the Montreal General Hospital Foundation.
The biggest donor
In a whole different league, wealthy 92-year-old American businessman Warren Buffett announced in 2022 that he would bequeath more than 99% of his fortune to family charities: the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, the Sherwood Foundation, the NoVo Foundation, and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, to which he donated nearly $1 billion.
During his lifetime, the major philanthropist, nicknamed the “Oracle of Omaha,” gave $48 billion to charities, according to Forbes, which describes Buffett as the world’s largest donor.
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