NKPR Founder and APJ Co-Chair Natasha Koifman attend the 15th Annual Artists For Peace And Justice Fundraiser During Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 9, 2023, in Toronto.Ryan Emberley/Supplied
The organizer: Natasha Koifman
The pitch: Raising $35-million and climbing
The cause: Educating children in Haiti
Back in 2009, Natasha Koifman didn’t know much about Haiti until she ran into some friends who’d returned from a trip to the country.
Her friends told her about the dire poverty and how many Haitians live on as little as $2 a day. “I started doing more and more research on it and I just thought, how is this possible?” she recalled from Toronto where she heads NKPR, a public-relations firm she founded in 2002.
Ms. Koifman wanted NKPR to have a philanthropic mission and she partnered with Artists for Peace and Justice, a charitable foundation launched in 2009 by film director Paul Haggis that focused on education in Haiti.
Ms. Koifman hosted a fundraising event during the Toronto International Film Festival in 2009 to raise money for the Haitian projects. She barely pulled in $50,000. “Most people didn’t even know where Haiti was,” she said.
The following year Haiti was struck by a devastating earthquake, which drew global attention. Ms. Koifman and a team of celebrities raised $5-million to help Artists for Peace and Justice build a high school in Port-au-Prince.
Ms. Koifman is chair of the Canadian and U.S. branches of Artists for Peace and Justice (Mr. Haggis stepped down in 2017 amid allegations of sexual assault) and she has helped raise $35-million in total for the school, which offers free education. Next month, she’ll host her annual TIFF fundraising gala, which regularly raises around $1-million. The event is also donating funds this year to the Jane Goodall Institute, a global charity dedicated to conservation.
Artists for Peace and Justice works in Haiti with the St. Luke Foundation and so far they’ve helped educate more than 31,000 students. And despite the current political chaos and gang violence, Ms. Koifman said the school has been able to keep operating.
“The people are hopeful and they’re amazing,” she said adding that she used to make regular visits to the country. “It’s just that they’ve had so much violence and corruption that’s not their doing. And so our hope is that through education we’re able to actually help these kids and help their communities.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify that Ms. Koifman is chair of the Canadian and U.S. branches of Artists for Peace and Justice, and $35-million was raised in total by both branches for the Port-au-Prince school.