Ottawa gives back this Tuesday
Margaret Miedema, head of fundraising at Canadian Blood Services, has worked to promote stem cell research for cancer treatment. | Photo Credit: Margaret Miedema
On the heels of Cyber Monday’s online gorging, the Giving Tuesday movement wants to shift people away from mass consumerism and toward the spirit of giving.
Margaret Miedema, a long-time philanthropist and director of fundraising and development for Canadian Blood Services, was at City Hall along with 29 other charity representatives to promote the third year of Canada’s involvement in the event.
Before she got into the not-for-profit sector, Miedema worked in analytical chemistry.
“I call it my before children and after children life,” she joked.
Miedema said the organization’s ground-breaking work on an umbilical cord blood bank inspired her own sense of giving.
“It was their first-ever fundraising campaign,” Miedema recounted. “They set out to build a public umbilical cord blood bank – to collect umbilical cord blood for stem cells to be used in cancer treatments and up to 80 diseases and disorders,” she said. “It was the science part of me that was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is just so cool.’”
Miedema noted that Giving Tuesday was a major component of promoting fundraising for the cord blood bank. In all of 2013, Canadian Blood Services raised approximately $27,500 in online donations. But in 2014, on Giving Tuesday alone, the non-profit raised $38,000.
Beacon Hill-Cyrville councillor Tim Tierney congratulated the charities that came to City Hall to promote Giving Tuesday, noting that people from his community are always in need of more help than what the government can provide.
Councillor Tim Tierney poses with representatives of local charities at City Hall to promote Giving Tuesday.
Giv3 and Canada Helps – two organizations that encourage people to give to charities – partnered up in 2013 to bring Giving Tuesday to Canada. While the charity day originated in the United States, it has since spread globally to more than 70 countries.
Lys Huggessen, president of Giv3, said it’s difficult to measure the total amount of engagement from the day because the movement is open and not limited to fundraising. But since its inaugural year online donations have tripled.
Even though the day relies on grassroots efforts, Huggessen called Giving Tuesday a “social media phenomenon” with platforms like Twitter helping engage people in the community.
Barbara Cartwright is one of Ottawa’s distinctive women for her continuing work with the not-for-profit sector.
Barbara Cartwright is being honoured as one of Ottawa’s “distinctive women” and has worked with Canadian Federation of Humane Societies for more than four years. Before that she worked in Uganda with the Jane Goodall Institute.
“What keeps me going is making a difference in the world,” she said. “I love helping other people or animals, but actually the fact of being able to make a positive influence in the world and do it as a job makes it worth it.”
She advised anyone in Ottawa who wanted to get involved to pinpoint exactly where they’d like to put their efforts, and then keep updated through their websites to see if volunteer opportunities arise.
“Everyone can do philanthropic work, that’s what I love about it honestly,” Cartwright said.
