One teacher. Three students. A movement that grew from there.
The story of The Betty Foundation, the people behind it and how we keep our promises.
Elizabeth "Betty" Hayes taught grade 11 English in Sault Ste. Marie for thirty-one years. In 1984, on a teacher's salary that barely covered her own rent, she wrote three personal cheques that paid for three of her graduating students to attend community college. None of them had thought university was for them. All three graduated. One went on to become a circuit-court judge.
Betty kept doing this — quietly, without anyone outside her family knowing — until she died in 2013. Going through her papers, her granddaughter found ledgers documenting forty-one young women whose first year of post-secondary Betty had paid for. The Foundation was founded in her name a year later.
What we do today
We do four things, with three rules: keep it personal, keep it small, keep it accountable.
- Mentorship — six-month, one-to-one pairings between a Canadian woman and a vetted mentor in her field.
- Scholarships — the Hayes Scholarship awards up to $8,000/year toward tuition, childcare and the practical costs of going back to school.
- Leadership Circles — two-year cohort programs of eight women navigating the same career stage.
- The Bridge Fund — small, fast, no-strings micro-grants for the practical things ($500 – $2,500) that derail a career.
How we operate
We are a registered Canadian charity (82736 1294 RR0001). We publish independently audited (KPMG) financials every year. 92% of every donated dollar reaches a program; the remaining 8% covers our small office, our two full-time staff and the technology that matches mentors to mentees.
We accept zero government funding so that our programs are never subject to political pressure. Every dollar we operate on comes from individual donors, foundations and corporate partners who agree to our charter of independence.
Our team
Two full-time staff (a programs lead and an operations lead). A board of seven volunteer trustees, including three former mentees. A roster of 1,180 volunteer mentors who give an average of 18 hours per pairing.
Our promise
If you donate $30, $30 worth of mentorship hours happen. If you donate $8,000, a young woman gets a year of school. If we ever drop below 90% of donations going to programs, we will tell you on this page first and explain why. So far, in eleven years, we never have.