WE Charity

"Free the Children" redirects here. For the book about the free school movement, see Free the Children (book).
WE Charity
Formation1995
TypeInternational charity and educational partner
HeadquartersToronto, Ontario, Canada
Founders
Craig Kielburger
Marc Kielburger
Websitewe.org
Formerly called
Free the Children

WE Charity (French: Organisme UNIS), formerly known as Free the Children (French: Enfants Entraide), is an international development charity and youth empowerment movement founded in 1995 by human rights advocates Marc and Craig Kielburger.[1] The organization implemented development programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America, focusing on education, water, health, food and economic opportunity.[2] It also runs domestic programming for young people in Canada, the US and UK, promoting corporate-sponsored service learning and active citizenship.[3] Charity Intelligence, a registered Canadian charity that rates over 750 Canadian charities, rates the "demonstrated impact" per dollar of We Charity as "Low" and has issued a "Donor Advisory" due to We Charity replacing most of its board of directors in 2020.[4]

WE Charity is related to other ventures from the Kielburgers, including the for-profit Me to We, which was the title of a 2004 book by Craig and Marc Kielburger,[5] and We Day, a series of large-scale motivational events held in 17 cities throughout the school year.

A scandal arose when the charity was selected by the Canadian federal government in 2020 for a $43.53 million contract to oversee $900 million for the Canada Student Service Grant,[6] but the decision was reversed after ties between the organization and the Trudeau family, including payments to Justin Trudeau's wife, brother, and mother, as well as the family of former Finance Minister Bill Morneau, were called into question.[7][8][9]

On 9 September 2020, We Charity announced that it was winding down its operations in Canada and selling its assets to establish an endowment that will help sustain ongoing We Charity projects around the world.[10][11][12] The announcement also explains that the existing board of directors, the existing Canadian employees, and the Kielburgers would leave We Charity Canada.[13]

In November 2020, a Wikipedia investigation found the Wikipedia article for the WE Charity was illicitly modified by "paid agents who used deceptive online identities" from Israeli online reputation management service Percepto International. The Chief Operations Officer for WE Charity, Scott Baker, denied involvement with the sockpuppetry and Percepto declined to comment.[14]

In November 2021, CBC News reported that the WE Charity misled donors about the school they built in Kenya. "Far fewer schools were built than were funded by donors, a fact that leaked internal WE documents show was co-ordinated at the highest levels of the organization." WE Charity denied the report.[15] CBC reported that, likely in a "co-ordinated campaign", a large number of groups and individuals wrote letters and emails discouraging them from reporting the story in the months leading up to its publication. The messages largely came from educators and charities, and included a full-page advertisement printed in several newspapers in September that argued that the news report was not in the public interest.[16] On 8 February 2022, WE Charity filed a defamation lawsuit over the report in District of Columbia District Court.[17][18]

  1. ^ "Doubt cast over Trudeau's assertion that only WE Charity can run $900M student grant program". Yahoo News. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 3 July 2020. Archived from the original on 13 July 2020. WE Charity, which was started by human rights advocates Marc and Craig Kielburger in 1995
  2. ^ "WE Charity". Charity Intelligence Canada. Archived from the original on 2019-06-05. Retrieved 2019-06-19.
  3. ^ Duffy, Andrew (2015-04-25). "Free The Children at 20: An unlikely Canadian success story". Ottawa Citizen. Archived from the original on 2019-08-10. Retrieved 2019-06-19.
  4. ^ "WE Charity". Charity Intelligence Canada. Archived from the original on 2019-06-05. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  5. ^ Kielburger, Craig & Marc (2004). Me to We: Turning Self-Help On Its Head. Toronto: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0470835109. [verification needed]
  6. ^ Zimonjic, Peter (July 16, 2020). "WE Charity contract could have been worth up to $43.53 million, says Chagger". CBC News. Archived from the original on August 21, 2020. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  7. ^ D'Amore, Rachael (2020-07-13). "WE Charity tries to 'set record straight' over contract in full-page newspaper ads". Global News. Archived from the original on 2020-07-13. Retrieved 2020-07-13. Trudeau's personal ties to the charity came under heightened scrutiny last week after the organization confirmed it made payments to both his brother and his mother.
  8. ^ "A simple guide to the new crisis engulfing Trudeau". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2020-08-20. Retrieved 2020-08-21.
  9. ^ McGregor, Janyce (July 10, 2020). "Bill Morneau has family ties to WE Charity, did not steer clear of cabinet discussion of contract". CBC News. Archived from the original on July 10, 2020. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  10. ^ "WE Charity winding down operations in Canada". CTVNews. 2020-09-09. Archived from the original on 2020-09-10. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
  11. ^ "WE Charity closing operations in Canada". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 2020-09-09. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
  12. ^ Charity, W. E. "WE Charity Canada to wind down operations and set up endowment fund to support education and humanitarian programs". newswire.ca. Archived from the original on 2020-09-10. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
  13. ^ "WE Charity Canada to wind down operations and set up endowment fund to support education and humanitarian program" (PDF). 2020-09-09. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
  14. ^ York, Geoffrey; Kerr, Jaren (2020-03-11). "Wikipedia probe finds illicit editing of WE Charity pages". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 2020-11-10. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  15. ^ Pierce, Matthew; Cashore, Harvey; Kelley, Mark; McKenna, Kate (2021-11-18). "WE Charity misled donors about building schools in Kenya, records show". CBC News. Retrieved 2021-12-02.
  16. ^ Fenlon, Brodie (November 20, 2021). "What happened behind the scenes of our WE Charity investigation". CBC News. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  17. ^ "WE Charity v. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation". law.com.
  18. ^ "WE Charity Sues the CBC's "The Fifth Estate"". Fair Press. February 15, 2022.