With summer in full swing and July upon us, we’re excited to announce the Great Canadian Giving Challenge has had another GREAT year!

For a third year in a row, CanadaHelps, along with our partner GIV3, challenged Canadians to give their favourite Canadian charity the chance to win a $10,000 donation in the Great Canadian Giving Challenge. How it works is simple. Every $1.00* donated on CanadaHelps.org or GivingChallenge.ca in June enters their chosen charity to win the $10,000 grand prize that is randomly drawn on July 1^st, Canada Day!

From coast to coast, Canadians gave generously making the 2017 Great Canadian Giving Challenge our best one yet! We started the 2017 Great Canadian Giving Challenge off with a bang in Ottawa! On June 1^st, CanadaHelps and GIV3 joined three charities based in our nation’s capital and took to the streets to launch this year’s challenge. Plus, charities across the country rose to the challenge all month long to encourage their supporters to donate. They launched special campaigns, sent emails, shared and tweeted to compete fiercely!

Of the charities who participated, here are the top 10 charities in the 2017 Great Canadian Giving Challenge listed in no particular order:

1. Edmonton Food Bank
2. Victoria Sexual Assault Centre Society
3. BEAR With Us Sanctuary and Rehabilitation for Bears
4. Phoenix Youth Programs
5. British Columbia and Alberta Guide Dogs
6. PAL-Reading Services Inc.
7. Toronto Humane Society
8. Providence Healthcare Foundation
9. Dr. Jay Children’s Grief Centre
10. Unity Project for Relief of Homelessness in London

And The Winner Is…

Bright and early on Canada Day, we drew this year’s winner and contacted them to share the exciting news. Congratulations to the Central Alberta Humane Society for winning the 2017 Great Canadian Giving Challenge! Learn more about their charity and the work they do on their Charity Profile Page, and hear what Tara Hellewell, Executive Director of the Central Alberta Humane Society had to say about the surprise:

“To be the one charity drawn from literally thousands across the country is unbelievable! $10,000 for a small charity like ours will make a huge difference.  Our budget is already stretched to the max so this could not have come at a better time. With Alberta’s difficult economy this past year demand for services is up. We don’t receive any government funding, and times have been tough for our donors who still try to give what they can.  These funds will directly support the medical care of animals in shelter.  Medicines, vaccines, spay/neuter and life saving surgeries will all be possible because of this wonderful gift!”
—Tara Hellewell, Executive Director, Central Alberta Humane Society

We would like to also send a big thank you and congratulations to the lucky donors Jim and Marion Damiani who made the winning donation to the Central Alberta Humane Society! Hear what they had to say about the exciting news:

“When I opened my email from CanadaHelps yesterday I was at first suspicious that this might be a phishing scam when I saw “Winning and $10,000” in the content. I continued reading to realize that this was not a scam and we were elated to hear that our monthly donation was the winning ballot in the Great Canadian Giving Challenge! Throughout our many years in Red Deer we have witnessed the good that the Central Alberta Humane Society has provided to the most vulnerable throughout good and bad times, most of all functioning for many years in a cramped, overcrowded location. Through the support and donations of many they were finally able to move into their beautiful, expansive building in 2010. What a great day that was! So many times when we donate to charities we often dwell on the tax-savings benefit that they will provide us whereas our donations mean everything to those that we support. Thank you CanadaHelps and The GIV3 Foundation for providing this gift to such a worthy charity.

—Jim & Marion Damiani”

Updated on November 1, 2024