CEO Benjamin Bakst and CFO Elliot Kazarnovsky, co-founders of Toronto-based real estate company Marlin Spring, have launched the Marlin Spring Foundation. The non-profit organization is dedicated to supporting groups with youth-focused mandates in three key areas: education, mental health and youth programming. The foundation is committed to working with NGOs that have a track record of success, it says in a news release.
“Since we launched our real estate business five years ago, we have been dedicated to giving back to the community,” says Bakst. “Now, we will be supporting the greater community on a broader level. Our mission is to create lasting change for those that are the most vulnerable yet have the most potential – our children.”
Kazarnovsky says: “We will accomplish this in three ways. First, as an international company, Marlin Spring is experienced in various business development initiatives. Through the foundation, we will work with organizations to offer strategic direction on planning, budgeting and outcomes to achieve optimum success. Essentially, we will utilize our business as a resource in the partnership. The second is through corporate and individual donations and the third is through volunteers who help facilitate our programs.”
The first partnership is Marlin Spring Foundation’s support of WE Well-being program, says the company. This is a new initiative from WE that empowers people of all ages with tools, resources and capacity building opportunities to promote and nurture their own positive mental well-being and the mental well-being of their community. The foundation will help deliver the program into Grade 6 classrooms across Canada.
“This foundation’s objective is really a first, since the programming we have outlined has previously been offered only to students at the university level,” says Bakst. Our program roll-out will include 70 schools the first year, 500 the next and 5,000 in the third year. The momentum will be incredible.”
Marlin Spring is a Toronto-based real estate investment firm which strategically acquires, develops, constructs and repositions residential assets throughout North America. Since 2013, Marlin Spring has seen substantial growth having acquired over 30 residential projects, consisting of 8,600 residential units which are currently in various stages of development, construction repositioning and completion across Canada and the United States.
