The People Behind Northpine

May 2026

As founders and funders of Northpine, we believe we are accountable to all Canadians due to the generous tax deductions we receive in funding Northpine. This letter is addressed to you, as well as all other stakeholders.

Since 2021, Northpine has focused on the needs of Canada’s under-served and under-invested Canadians, those who are often both overlooked and voiceless. This remains Northpine’s mission.

At the outset, we identified communities in which we believed Northpine could make a difference: Refugees; Formerly Incarcerated Persons and Youth Exiting Care and two regions: Scarborough and Newfoundland & Labrador. Winnipeg has recently been added to the list.

We consider our donations to charities as investments requiring measurable and achievable social returns. While we invest in charities, we care more about the people they serve.

Our first three years were a steep learning curve. Giving away large sums of money effectively is not easy. Having donated $130 million across more than 100 ventures, we were seeing mixed results and frankly we were not as good as we hoped at investing impactfully. Certainly, we were supporting good organizations doing good things for their communities, but were we making a difference where it mattered the most? Were we helping people at risk of poverty get needed housing, good jobs, happier lives? That is the strategic challenge that mattered to us.

To over-simplify, we would like to help people move from precarious situations to taxpayers contributing to our society. Typically, to do so, we need to fund charities that singly or together provide a collection of aids. For example, a person leaving prison may need housing, support for addiction and help with mental illness, job training and well paying long term employment.

Achievement and failure need to be measured. Otherwise we will never know the score; nor the cost per success - the social ROI.

We resolved to get better.

Now after five years, and a total of $ 290 million committed to over 300 ventures, we believe we are starting to make good progress, or at least getting closer to our strategic goals. We credit the skills of our dedicated team of professionals who learn quickly about what is working and not working and often bring their own lived experience to the portfolios they serve. This website documents their progress in this challenging and rewarding work.

We confidently speak for the whole Northpine team in committing to you that we will relentlessly pursue our goals to better serve these communities.

Sincerely,

Cathy and John Phillips