About the CANFAR Legacy Project

CANFAR’s Legacy Group History

In March 2011, prominent business and professional leaders from Toronto’s LGBTQ community established CANFAR’s Legacy Group to address the growing concerns of HIV rates among young gay men.

As a pay-it-forward movement, these leaders wanted to invest in research, awareness and social programming devoted specifically to revitalizing HIV-prevention programs for young gay men.

The Legacy Group held their launch event in the private home of one of its members and has secured long-term financial commitments from its growing membership. The continued fundraising efforts of the Legacy Group helped CANFAR fund research projects focused on designing more effective prevention programs targeting the young gay male community.

In April 2012, Legacy Group Ottawa with Legacy Group committee Chairs, Chris Kelly and David Hoe, hosted their very first reception.

In 2013, the Legacy Group welcomed members from Vancouver. All three cities and their Chairs, Christopher Kelly (Toronto), David Hoe (Ottawa) and Christopher Garland (Vancouver), hosted private receptions throughout the year to engage influential business leaders from the gay community.

Funding Research Initiatives

In addition to hosting receptions to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS, the Legacy Group also funded research initiatives.

CANFAR partnered with the Boys’ and Men’s Health Initiative of the Institute of Gender and Health (IGH) to fund a $1.5 million team grant. Part of a health initiative entitled, Advancing Research to Improve Boys’ and Men’s Health, this research study focused specifically on HIV prevention targeting men who have sex with men (MSM), particularly young gay men. The CANFAR Legacy Group has committed $80,000 per year over the course of five years to this exciting initiative; the Institute of Gender and Health will complement this commitment by contributing $200,000 per year for the same time.

The Legacy group has also funded two other important research projects entitled:

Young MSM’s Risk, Networks and Care Engagement, by Dr. David Brennan, University of Toronto, and Pilot Implementation of Latino Gay Poz Sex, by Dr. Beatriz Eugenia Alvarado llano, Queen’s University.

Legacy 2.0

In April 2019, CANFAR refreshed its Legacy network, and called it Legacy 2.0, with a reinvigorated mission to help end the HIV epidemic in Canada by focusing on HIV prevention among youth at risk aged 15-25. With nearly 200 members, Legacy 2.0 facilitates sharing the CANFAR narrative to a shifting and diverse demographic of both traditional and upcoming donors and amplifies impact through the use of social media to convey CANFAR key messages.

CANFAR Legacy Project

For 2023, our membership has been renamed as the CANFAR Legacy Project, to better convey our mandate as we go national with chapters in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal – with more on the way.