How It Works

416Cares was conceived in December 2018 as a social and fun way to enable friends to make a sizeable charitable impact. Building on the ideas of the 100 Who Care Alliance, we bring together a group of friends, and friends of friends, for social evenings that do some good.

Twice a year, 100 or so friends meet on a weeknight at a pub or restaurant in central Toronto, donate $100 each ($50 for under 30’s), pick a local charity together and write them a cheque for $10,000+.

How Do We Pick the Charities?

Anyone can nominate a charity once they make their donation and check-out on the web site - there is a box to fill in. It must be a registered Canadian charity that is focused on the Toronto area (ideally a charity for which $10,000 would make a big difference). Three of these nominated charities are drawn randomly, a week before the event. Note that if a member purchases, say, 2 tickets but only nominates one charity, that charity is entered twice in the random draw, once for each ticket purchased. The nominating members are informed a few days before the event that their charity was chosen to be presented, and they are asked to make a very short, maximum 4-minute speech about the charity at the event (no slides, just a microphone).

On the night of the event and after the short speeches, each member present votes by ballot for one of the three charities. The charity with the most votes is the "chosen" charity and the two other charities are the "runners-up". The "runners-up" each receive $1,000 and the "chosen" charity receives the balance of the donations (hopefully still $10,000+!). Members agree to support the charities that are chosen according to this formula. You must attend the event in order to vote!

Soon after the event (as soon as we can set it up), cheques are presented to the chosen charities.

Charities that have previously been chosen and awarded a cheque for more than $10,000 from 416Cares will be ineligible to be nominated in future. However, charities that have been runners-up and received a cheque for $1,000 can still be nominated again at subsequent events.

How Much Goes to the Charities?

All of it. Every cent of your donation ($100 per ticket or $50 per ticket if you are under 30) goes directly to the charities chosen at the event, with no overhead or administrative costs reducing your contribution. This is thanks to the generosity of the 416Cares founders who have agreed to cover these costs including all credit card transaction fees and the monthly cost of hosting this e-commerce website. You will receive a charitable donation receipt directly from one of the three charities (note that some charities only issue receipts at the end of the calendar year).

416Cares is not a registered charity. Money is collected and managed by two members of the 416Cares steering committee through a dedicated bank account and then donated to the charity chosen. The proof of accountability is that you receive a charitable donation receipt from the charities chosen! In addition, we are also happy to share all financial records with anyone who has donated at any time - just ask us!

The current steering committee members managing the money are James Mackintosh and Anthony Boright - we can be reached through the Contact Us Form.

Steering Committee:

Nancy Eisenhauer, Cathy Grierson, Sue Barrett, Jake Baillie, Zoe Mackintosh, Dione Goyette, Gavin McCulloch, Anthony Boright, Cindy Tripp, James Mackintosh, Emily Ross.

Thank you to the 416Cares founders for covering all operating expenses:

Nancy Eisenhauer, Tom Eisenhauer, Natalie Williams, John Cook, Sarah Pendleton, Tom Heintzman, Martha McCall, Angus Tucker, Jane Tucker, Cindy Tripp, Anthony Boright, James Mackintosh, Sue Mackintosh.