Scott Baker, Executive Director, WE Charity
We have declined to participate in this podcast because it is widely known that Canadaland does not operate with a commitment to facts, unbiased reporting, or basic journalistic integrity. Over the past 23-years, WE Charity co-founders and staff have dedicated their lives to helping children. The result is a sustainable development model that has empowered over one million children and families around the world to lift themselves out of poverty. The organization started in 1995 with the name “Free The Children” because it funded groups to kick-down doors to free child labourers. We quickly realized that returning freed children to impoverished families simply results in the children being sold again. The key to ending child slavery and child labour is eliminating its root cause, extreme poverty. Reflecting our new mission, the organization evolved its name to “WE Charity,” and lifts people out of poverty in five key ways. In villages around the world, WE Charity provides education, clean water, healthcare, food security, and opportunity for jobs. Its impacts include building over 1,500 schools and school rooms serving 200,000 students, providing 30,000 women and their families with economic empowerment, and delivering healthcare and clean water systems. To date, over one million lives have been transformed. Every decision we make, is based on our mission to help end extreme poverty for children, including the creation of a social enterprise in 2005 to fund the charity. We believe that it’s expensive and wasteful for charities to spend money on telemarketers, street canvassers or Sunday morning television commercials. Instead, ME to WE Social Enterprises sells socially conscious products to earn income to fund the charity. It’s similar to the Grameen Bank, which received the Nobel Peace Prize for using the social enterprise model to provide micro credit programs lifting millions out of poverty. ME to WE is simple: a minimum of 50 per cent of the social enterprise profits go to WE Charity, while the other half is reinvested to grow the social mission. ME to WE exists solely for the purpose to help WE Charity, and that relationship and purpose has been independently verified by government agencies, a retired Supreme Court Justice, and celebrated by groups such as Ernest & Young,B Corp, and KPMG. ME to WE has provided over $20 million in cash and in-kind cost offsetting to WE Charity to help children. Towards our goal to help end global poverty, we work in meaningful partnership with some of Canada’s biggest companies. This is common among many charities, such as Bell’s Kids Help Phone and CIBC Run for the Cure. Although no company is perfect, we carefully select companies with a proven commitment to continuously strive for progress and social-responsibility. The in-kind and financial support of companies results in WE Charity achieving a remarkably low administration rate of less than 10 per cent. This means that over 90 per cent of every dollar donated goes directly to programs benefiting children. Because we believe in the mission we have a dedicated, hard-working staff of more than 1,000 team members around the world. An independent study showed that 98 per cent of WE employees believe they are making a positive change in the world. WE Charity is one of the largest and most successful charities founded in Canada and headquartered in Canada. We are very proud of what has been accomplished and we have found our life’s purpose, in helping others. Unfortunately, over the years, we have also found that the occasional person will find their own purpose in life, by seeking to tear others down. This is often for their own agenda, such as personal economic gain by driving clicks and ad revenue to a website. We’re grateful for the positive coverage we’ve received from credible media outlets such as 60 Minutes, The New York Times, and The Economist, along with notable recognitions such as the Nelson Mandela Humanitarian Award, the Roosevelt Freedom Medal, and the Order of Canada. Most importantly, we’re thankful for the support of over 4 million supporters annually who enable us to fulfill our mission of lifting more than one million children and families out of poverty.