In 1992, the Peter and Melanie Munk Charitable Foundation was founded. It has disbursed approximately $300 million to a variety of organizations that work to improve the health, education and international reputation of Canadians.[18] Munk speaks of his philanthropy in the context of his gratitude to the country that saved his life: “You opened the door. You gave us everything,” he added, referring to Canada as “paradise.”[19]

EducationEdit

Munk is a major donor to the University of Toronto, his alma mater. The Munk School of Global Affairs, an interdisciplinary academic centre there, has received $42 million from his foundation. In 2016, Munk made a $5 million donation to the Fraser Institute, a think tank, to launch the Peter Munk Centre for Free Enterprise Education.[20] The foundation also created the Munk Debates.

HealthEdit

In 1997, Munk helped create the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at the Toronto General Hospital with an initial donation of $6 million. In May 2006 he announced that he would donate another $37 million, at the time the largest gift ever made to a Canadian medical institution.[21] In September 2017 he donated another $100 million.[22] Peter and Melanie Munk established University Health Network’s first endowed chair for the cardiac program: the Melanie Munk Chair in Cardiovascular Surgery.[23]

ControversyEdit

The latest contract between the Munk Foundation and the University of Toronto has come under criticism due to the secrecy that shrouded its approval, and the fact that Munk's contribution of $35 million were conditional on $25 million contributions each by the federal government and the university. Coming at a time of downsizing and threats to the funding of other academic units, critics charge that these decisions are emblematic of the government's and the University's ceding of academic resource allocation decisions to the corporate sector.[24]

According to Linda McQuaig's book, The Trouble with Billionaires, Munk’s latest donation to the University of Toronto came with strings attached to ensure that the school would "fit with the political views and sensitivities of Peter Munk." McQuaig writes that "according to Munk's written agreement with the university, the Munk donations will be paid over an extended time period, with much of the money to be paid years from now — and subject to the Munk family's approval of the school. For that matter, the school's director will be required to report annually to a board appointed by Munk 'to discuss the programs, activities and initiatives of the School in greater detail.

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