Maple Bear Gives Back: Community Investment Strategy Launches in Brazil

Giving back, or community investment, is not new to Maple Bear at a local or national level, but for the first time ever, Maple Bear Global Schools is launching an international fundraising campaign to support the Terry Fox Foundation, with Maple Bear Schools in Brazil serving as the pilot country.

This school-based fundraising and community-building event, entitled a Terry Fox Thanksgiving, celebrates Canadian Thanksgiving and Terry Fox together, demonstrating the gratitude typically expressed during Thanksgiving celebrations and providing a mechanism for the students to give back to their communities. As a global initiative, Maple Bear plans to phase this fundraising campaign into its schools in other countries over the next few years.

Maple Bear Global Schools is committed to supporting local and national initiatives as well, and the partnership with UNICEF in Brazil, which has been in place for a few years now, is a great example. This past year, Maple Bear Global Schools donated $100,000 USD to UNICEF in Brazil to fund School Active Search, an innovative social technology aimed to support municipal governments to carry out active search for out-of-school children and adolescents, in order to improve their knowledge on the causes for school exclusion, and follow them after returning to school.

To launch its global commitment to giving back, Maple Bear Global Schools is excited to share its new Giving Back video, which demonstrates how social responsibility and community service are integrated into Maple Bear’s culture at both the national and global level.

For this global, strategic initiative to be successful, maximizing the impact of the investment is critical, and as a result, Maple Bear has created a new role, Manager of Community Investment to lead its giving back initiatives. Michelle Tice, based at Global Headquarters, is the new Manager, Community Investment.

Michelle holds a BA in International Relations from the University of British Columbia and an MBA from Canada’s prestigious Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario and has over 25 years of broad ranging communications, marketing and sales experience in corporate, non-profit and entrepreneurial environments.

For the past decade, she has developed an expertise in community investment and fundraising in the social services, youth amateur sport and education sectors, including several years leading communications and fundraising with West Point Grey Academy, a private school in Vancouver. She is also fluent in German and has a working knowledge of French.

Michelle will be Maple Bear Schools’ key contact for any questions or ideas about charitable giving, at all levels – local, national and international. Michelle can be reached at michelle.tice@maplebear.ca.