Network looks to tap into philanthropy to boost funding for affordable housing

In 2021, after the Swedish private equity giant Nordic Capital acquired RLDatix, a Toronto-based health care tech firm, Sarah Paul and her husband Cary Lavine, one of the company’s early finance partners, both quit their jobs and set up a family foundation, endowing it with $6-million. They decided to focus on community giving. Ms. Paul, who has a background in public policy and an interest in climate change, identified affordable housing as one potential channel for their philanthropy.

She did some research and came across Resolve, a Calgary-based partnership involving developers, philanthropists, non-profits and all three orders of government. Between 2012 and 2018, it raised $75-million in private donations and leveraged another $200-million in public dollars to construct 21 new affordable housing projects with about 2,000 units, mainly for homeless individuals and low-income seniors.