Mark S. Bonham- For visionary philanthropy to LGBTQ initiatives.
Mark is being honoured for his continued and extraordinary support as a generous donor, volunteer and ambassador. He is an active supporter of the arts, education, health and the LGBTQ community, whose significant contributions have had a lasting impact, particularly at Casey House.
Mark S. Bonham has been an inspiration to Casey House for almost 20 years and is Casey House’s greatest financial supporter. In 2000, Mark made a truly transformational gift of $2.5 million. The expansion of Casey House in 2017 would not have been possible without Mark’s generous contribution to the project seventeen years earlier. This level of support was unheard of at the time within the HIV/AIDS community. This contemporary facility allowed Casey House to expand its services along with its physical and clinical capacity, marking the evolution from a hospice founded in 1988 to a specialty stand-alone hospital and global leader in HIV/AIDS care.
Mark inspires others to get involved and reaches out to his network introducing new donors and volunteers to Casey House. Most recently, Mark led a capital project fundraising effort by bringing together a group of philanthropists to support building the rooftop terrace and healing garden for inpatient clients.
A thought leader and hands-on philanthropist, Mark S. Bonham has also played a significant role in advancing other organizations across the greater Toronto area for causes near and dear to his heart.
Such as being co-chair of Egale Canada Human Rights Trust’s capital campaign for a new building dedicated to homeless LGBTQI2S youth. Mark’s generosity to this community also enabled Inside Out, the world’s third largest LGBT film festival, to establish an annual scholarship for LGBT-identified filmmakers and greatly expand its operations.
At the University of Toronto, he established the Bonham Scholarship for Rotman School of Management students. And the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies was established in 2005 through his generous $1M endowment. Today, it is the largest degree-granting program in the world in the subject of sexual diversity and includes an undergraduate program and collaborative graduate specialization with over 350 students.
Casey House extends warm congratulations to Mark on achieving this recognition of his generosity.