B.C. philanthropists including Bob Gaglardi, Michael Audain and Ryan Beedie said their donations are shaped by personal religious and philosophical beliefs.
The Story
Bob Gaglardi, founder of Northland Properties Corp. and its chairman emeritus, linked his long record of charitable giving to his upbringing in a deeply religious family and a commitment he said he made to his parents.
Gaglardi’s parents, Phil and Jennie Gaglardi, were Pentecostal ministers, and his father later entered politics as a Social Credit cabinet minister. Gaglardi said that in 1944, his parents went to a “derelict” church building in Kamloops and worked to grow their congregation.
He said his family urged him to pursue ministry, but he told them he was “not selfless enough to be a pastor,” and added, “I couldn’t give as much as they could. They gave everything.” Instead, Gaglardi said he promised that if he went into business and generated wealth, he would provide money to support the ministry and society.
The 85-year-old estimated that over the decades he has paid to upgrade 78 Christian churches of various denominations across B.C. He said his donations have also helped train people for ministerial positions, along with larger gifts toward health care and education.
According to Gaglardi, his family donated $25 million in 2017 to Vancouver General Hospital and UBC Hospital. He also said a $15-million donation to create the Phil & Jennie Gaglardi Tower at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops was announced in 2021, and that a $10-million donation supported a business-studies academic building at Thompson Rivers University, now the Bob Gaglardi School of Business and Economics.
Gaglardi’s description of his roots in religious teaching was echoed by other B.C. philanthropists. Michael Audain, 89, said he is driven by biblical teaching that “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter heaven,” and added, “You can’t take it with you.”
Audain described his approach to sharing as something he said he was taught by his parents. He said he has supported art on a large scale, including a $100-million commitment to the Vancouver Art Gallery’s capital campaign for a new gallery on the southern two-thirds of Larwill Park, bounded by Cambie, Dunsmuir, Beatty and West Georgia streets.
Vancouver Art Gallery co-CEO Sirish Rao said work is continuing on the plans, adding, “we’re very actively working on the new designs with our architects.” Audain said his $100-million commitment stands, but said the effort has taken “so many years.”
Audain also said he gave about $4 million toward St. Paul’s Hospital, which he described as under construction on the False Creek Flats, and that it was intended for public art programs at the new hospital. He said he also made an art-related contribution to the Espace Riopelle–Michael Audain Pavilion at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, describing the foundation’s $10-million role and saying his family contributed an additional $75 million to $80 million in the value of art.
Polygon Homes chair Michael Audain said he steers much of his philanthropy to art in part because he believes governments do not prioritize public spending in the arts. He said his Audain Foundation has more than $500 million set up as an endowment with five per cent to be spent annually.
Ryan Beedie, 57, criticized the use of endowment funds as an approach to philanthropy. The Beedie owner said he launched the Beedie Luminaries Foundation in November 2018, on his 50th birthday, and created a $50-million registered foundation aimed at removing barriers to higher education for students facing financial adversity while supporting their long-term success.
Beedie said he did not use an endowment model because he wanted to give away both capital and income more quickly, adding that otherwise, “the money sits in the foundation and is dead money.” He said one of his larger donations, made with his late father Keith Beedie in 2011, was $22 million to Simon Fraser University, which renamed its business school in their honour.
He said more than $12 million has been earmarked for a multi-phase Burnaby Hospital redevelopment. In recent years, he said his philanthropy has also been shaped by music fundraising through benefit concerts hosted at Stanley Park’s Malkin Bowl, including events in September and in 2025 and 2023 that he said supported the Tyler Robinson Foundation and the Greater Vancouver Food Bank, with fundraising totals reported as rising from initial amounts through his matching contributions.
Beedie said the concerts began in 2016 as a way to celebrate the company and himself, and said he will also support philanthropic projects when friends are passionate about them.
He added that his broader view of giving ties to a belief that free enterprise and capitalism can flourish when successful people are visibly philanthropic so that, as he put it, donations add legitimacy to the system.
← More stories