Taxpayers stuck with growing bill from equity-obsessed city charity
Emails show that despite efforts by the non-profit to reach people digitally, an end-of-year call for donations drew just 11 clicks.
Author of the article:Justin Holmes
Published Sep 21, 2025 • Last updated 3 days ago • 5 minute read
Conrad the Raccoon plaque on Yonge St.
Heritage Toronto’s Conrad the Raccoon plaque at 819 Yonge St. has a couple of admirers on Wednesday September 10, 2025. The city charity, which is responsible for historical plaques, put up the tribute to the internet sensation in July, intended as something it could make that would be “quick and fun.” Photo by Jack Boland/Toronto Sun
Heritage Toronto, the City of Toronto charity responsible for historical plaques and walking tours, has struggled with public engagement even as its government funding has soared, documents show.
Emails, released to the Toronto Sun after a freedom-of-information request, show the non-profit is holding fewer public plaque unveilings and working instead to reach people digitally – however, an end-of-year call for donations in a 2024 email drew just 11 clicks.
The emails suggest the city charity’s spending tied to “equity” exceeds six figures annually. One email boasted 40% of tours and 47% of plaques in 2023 “featured equity-deserving people and communities.”
Executive director Allison Bain declined the Toronto Sun’s request for an interview but agreed to have her communications manager, Lucy Di Pietro, reply to questions via a written statement.
The Sun asked for the emails after Heritage Toronto’s 2025 operating budget, published during City Hall’s regular budget process, flagged sponsorship revenues – money from corporations and groups like city BIAs – as well below target for 2024. While Bain attributed that to a “deferral of funds” in an email exchange with the Sun, she conceded that private donations, which also fell short, were a challenge in the “current economic climate.”
In a chart of Heritage Toronto’s funding from 2014-24, most forms of revenue appear largely flat over a decade. However, government funding more than doubled, from $312,000 in 2014 to $639,000 in 2024.
Heritage Toronto operational revenue
This chart depicting operating revenue over 10 years at Heritage Toronto was included in an email to staff at the city charity. Photo by Heritage Toronto
Di Pietro said that line graph was meant to show funding “trends” and lacks context. It was created for Heritage Toronto staff, who are privy to crucial details “not explicitly stated in the email.”
“In fact, all areas of revenue have experienced growth since 2014,” she wrote. “For example, our earned and ticket revenue has risen from $4,914 to $74,730, and donations and foundations have doubled from $57,529 to $113,946.” Government funding as a percentage of the operations budget “has ranged from 44% to 57%. Last year, it was 52%,” she wrote.
The sponsorship funding flagged in the budget is expected to grow 19% this year, Di Pietro said, adding that it’s too early to make predictions about individual donations, which largely come in the fall.
One of the documents supplied to the Sun, however, shows the average donation for the non-profit’s walking and bus tours plummeted to a paltry $1.81 per attendee in 2023, far below expectations and short of the $4.05 average in 2022. Heritage went into 2024 budgeting for drops in both private donations and corporate sponsorships.
Di Pietro said that difference is “offset by the move to a paid ticket model and a focus on ticket revenues.” Ticket sales are up by half this year and donations per tour attendee were up by a quarter in 2024, she added.
Key to Heritage Toronto’s finances is TD Bank, which sponsors its tours program and what it calls its “equity heritage initiative.” While TD has provided five years of funding for the equity initiative, a “development notes” document warned Heritage Toronto potentially faces “the loss or massive reduction in TD funding in 2026.”
(Di Pietro said the charity is “optimistic about continuing to work with TD.” The bank did not respond to a request for comment.)
Jackie Shane plaque
This Heritage Toronto plaque featuring Jackie Shane, a transgender musician, is mentioned in emails from the charity released to the Toronto Sun. A live event was held for its unveiling, which is less common for Heritage Toronto now than before 2020. Photo by Jack Boland/Toronto Sun
Di Pietro said managing the large pool of “project-directed” money requires “a constant balance … We can’t undertake project work that leads to either an operational surplus or deficit.” But in a June 2024 email to three staffers, Bain said the charity had a $100,000 operational deficit on its equity work – a big chunk for an organization with a total budget not far above $1 million.
“I do have to note that we are running a $100K deficit in our equity work, so we could cancel some things but expenses would have to rise in other areas in order to avoid generating an operational surplus,” Bain wrote, adding that she was “committed to leveraging as much of our resources as possible to address equity work which can be sustained once the TD grant expires.”
And in an email about digital ads in February that year, Bain told Di Pietro “the only way we could afford this (is) if we charged to equity.”
This focus has been no secret. Equity is the central theme in the charity’s latest State of Heritage report, which features images of a drag brunch, a lesbian bathhouse and vulgar graffiti at the former Ryerson University.
While plaques manager Chris Bateman said in a May 2024 email that a new online focus means the charity reaches “far more people overall with plaque programming” than pre-COVID, when it held more in-person events, other emails show the digital shift has been challenging.
Di Pietro told Bain in a November 2024 email that while they “barely use” YouTube, “anyone can see that” a Heritage Toronto video “has had 146 views with 0 comments and 5 likes.”
That followed an email in which Bain fretted that other than a Heritage Toronto staffer and two people with City Hall, “only 11 people clicked on the link” calling for end-of-year donations.
“That is not good news for us finding new donors,” Bain wrote. (Di Pietro told the Sun the soft response to one “wide communication” was not a concern.)
The non-profit has worked to widen its audience.
A plaque memorializing a dead raccoon — dubbed Conrad — was placed on Yonge St. in July. Meg Sutton, Heritage Toronto’s plaques co-ordinator, told The Canadian Press that community engagement was the goal of the plaque.
A year before, in July 2024, Bain got an email from Bateman that brought up Conrad – and floated an alternative critter candidate for a new plaque.
“I’m looking for something quick and fun that wouldn’t require extensive research, consultation or stakeholder review. We did a serious subject last year (the Chinese Exclusion Act), so I’m seriously considering Ikea Monkey or the raccoon that people built a shrine for,” Bateman wrote. (Di Pietro said there is no current plan for an Ikea Monkey plaque.)
jholmes@postmedia.com
Historical plaque maker Heritage Toronto has struggled with public engagement even as its government funding has soared, documents show.
torontosun.com