BY MARY DICKIE 

It’s a long way from the offices of a high-profile fashion magazine in Toronto to a medical charity’s temporary optical clinic in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, but the contrast between those two very different worlds is exactly what Noreen Flanagan is after. Flanagan is the editor in chief of ELLE Canada magazine, and while her job often requires travelling to glamorous locales, there’s a kind of satisfaction she only gets from donating a week or two of her time to Medical Mission International (MMI), a charity that provides medical services for people in developing countries.

In February, Flanagan, a former nurse, travelled to Bolivia with a group of volunteers that included her sister Jean, a physician in Vernon, B.C., to provide glasses, eye surgery and optical support for the residents of Santa Cruz.

“It’s a great thing for someone who doesn’t necessarily have a medical background, because you get this wonderful hands-on experience,” she says. “You are giving people glasses, and it’s really a very intimate exchange that you have with them. In some cases, they haven’t seen clearly for many years, and when you put glasses on them suddenly they can read. It’s very moving.”

BY JIM BARBER

Seana O’Neill was sitting on her dock on Clement Lake in Wilberforce, Ontario, in the early summer of 2002, when she realized that once she returned to Toronto for work her Haliburton-area cottage was going to sit vacant for weeks. Hence, the idea for Cottage Dreams, which lends cottages to cancer survivors.

“My mom is a two-time survivor of breast cancer, and we had a cottage growing up on Lake of Bays in Muskoka, so we spent a huge amount of time there. It just made sense that when I had my own cottage, and going through the cancer scares with my mom, that we could do something with it,” O’Neill tells Samaritanmag.com.

She decided to look into lending her cottage to survivors of cancer, as a way for them to get away with friends or family and celebrate survivorship, and see if other cottage owners would be willing to do the same thing.

“I tried to get rid of the idea, because it didn’t fit into my world to do anything like this, because I was going back to the film industry, but it wouldn’t leave me,” she says. “So I started looking into it, through contracting a lawyer, contacting a cottage rental agent, and contacting my insurance broker saying, ‘I’ve come up with this idea, and I have narrowed it down to a plan. What do you think?’”

BY KAREN BLISS 

Bryan Adams was recently honoured with the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award at the 2010 Juno Awards in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, which he was unable to accept in person when the Icelandic volcanic ash alert grounded flights all over Europe and the U.K.

The Canadian rocker, who has sold more than 75 millions albums worldwide, has been giving back in a big way since the beginning of his career but is a little embarrassed to be receiving an award for his philanthropy.

Bryan Adams at The Bread of Life home for children living with AIDS/HIV in St. Vincent  photo courtesy of The Bryan Adams FoundationI don't give back in order to get slapped on the back, explains Adams. I give back because my music has given my name the ability to help others.

By Jim Barber 

When executives with the Canadian branch of the Baskin Robbins ice cream parlour chain went looking for a cause to support, they followed their U.S. counterpart and chose firefighters, the very men and women who risk their lives to protect the communities in which the company does business.

So starting last year, the 31 Cent Scoop Night: 31 Reasons Never to Forget event has helped raise awareness and funds for the Canadian Fallen Firefighters Foundation, a registered charity that has dedicated itself to honouring and preserving the memory of firefighters who lose their lives on the job, and supporting their families.

BY CORI FERGUSON 

It might be Global Medic’s quick-draw approach to disaster response that has led some to brand them as cowboys in the aid world. It could also be the piss and vinegar commitment its executive director Rahul Singh brings to wringing the most from every dollar, but either way Singh doesn’t much care what others think; he just wants to get in and get out and get the job done — as fast as is humanly possible.

Based in the Greater Toronto Area, Global Medic utilizes a network of volunteer first responders (predominantly police, fire and EMS workers) prepared to depart at the drop of a hat and provide essential lifesaving resources and emergency medical care in disaster zones around the world. When Global Medic shows up, theirs are almost always among the first sets of boots on the ground, bringing desperately needed drinking water and emergency medical aid to victims of natural disasters.

BY NICK KREWEN 

Harvey McKinnon has made a lot of money for a lot of non-profits.

By his own estimation, the author of 2008’s 11 Questions Every Donor Asks and founder of Canadian fundraising consultancy Harvey McKinnon Associates, has raised “a couple hundred million dollars” for organizations as diverse as Amnesty International, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Ontario March of Dimes, the Sick Kids Foundation, Ecojustice, Oxfam Canada, Greening Australia, and even the Vancouver Aquarium.

Based in Vancouver and Toronto, Harvey McKinnon Associates doesn’t just specialize in getting these non-profits money, but in building relationships and direct response.  Although he and his 17 staffers employ a number of techniques — direct mail, monthly giving, legacy marketing, development audits and others — to raise money for the organizations that hire them, McKinnon, a former Oxfam Canada senior development officer, says there are three key rules to remember when engaging potential donors.