Lambda Foundation

Purpose	Equality/human rights in Canada
Headquarters	Ottawa Ottawa Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario... , Ontario Ontario Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
Location	Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
President	Gary Sealey
Website	http://www.lambdafoundation.com
Charitable no.	862758448 RR0001.

Lambda Foundation is a registered Canadian Charity with the mission of creating scholarships, awards, and bursaries in support of lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

, gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

, bisexual and transgender

Transgender

Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....

 (LGBT

LGBT

LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

) studies, and education and awareness, in advancement of equality and human rights.

Lambda Foundation is governed by a national Board of Directors. Gary Sealey is currently the president of the foundation. Lambda's charitable registration number is 862758448 RR0001.

History

For many years, Lambda operated as a spin-off project from an unincorporated club, Lambda Business and Professional Group. The Lambda Business and Professional Group sought charitable status and eventually underwent a name change to Lambda Foundation for Excellence, and its fundraiser, Wilde About Sappho, was one of Canada's largest literary activities.

After establishing five scholarships in partnership with five universities, Lambda incorporated under the name Lambda Literary and Scholarship Foundation - Lambda Foundation being the short version.

Lambda Foundation received charitable status, its activities having grown into education and research.

Universities

Lambda Foundation's Scholarship Programme is the first series of national, annual university scholarships in Gay and Lesbian Studies. The Canadian coast-to-coast programme arranges for and endows annual scholarships in Gay and Lesbian Studies. To date, scholarships have been established on seven university campuses: Carleton University

Carleton University

Carleton University is a comprehensive university located in the capital of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. The enabling legislation is The Carleton University Act, 1952, S.O. 1952. Founded as a small college in 1942, Carleton now offers over 65 programs in a diverse range of disciplines. Carleton has...

, Université de Montréal

Université de Montréal

The Université de Montréal is a public francophone research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It comprises thirteen faculties, more than sixty departments and two affiliated schools: the École Polytechnique and HEC Montréal...

, University of Guelph

University of Guelph

The University of Guelph, also known as U of G, is a comprehensive public research university in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1964 after the amalgamation of Ontario Agricultural College, the Macdonald Institute, and the Ontario Veterinary College...

, University of Manitoba

University of Manitoba

The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...

, University of New Brunswick

University of New Brunswick

The University of New Brunswick is a Canadian university located in the province of New Brunswick. UNB is the oldest English language university in Canada and among the first public universities in North America. The university has two main campuses: the original campus founded in 1785 in...

, University of Ottawa

University of Ottawa

The University of Ottawa is a bilingual, research-intensive, non-denominational, international university in Ottawa, Ontario. It is one of the oldest universities in Canada. It was originally established as the College of Bytown in 1848 by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate...

, and University of Victoria

University of Victoria

The University of Victoria, often referred to as UVic, is the second oldest public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It is a research intensive university located in Saanich and Oak Bay, about northeast of downtown Victoria. The University's annual enrollment is about 20,000 students...

. There is also a Friends of Lambda scholarship at the University of Saskatchewan

University of Saskatchewan

The University of Saskatchewan is a Canadian public research university, founded in 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. An "Act to establish and incorporate a University for the Province of Saskatchewan" was passed by the...

, College of Law (Foster Prize in Human Rights).

Each university selects candidates and projects, based on academic merit and relevance to the LGBT community. Students meeting these criteria are welcome to apply to the participating university, regardless of sexual orientation, gender or any other grounds.

Schools

Expanding beyond universities, Lambda worked with local community leaders in 2007 to establish awards for high school students at Gulf Islands Secondary School on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

.

Scholarship/award recipients

Lambda Foundation scholarships have been awarded to a wide range of students in arts, literature, social sciences and other sciences, professional schools and secondary schools. The awards highlight the value of gay and lesbian studies, to both the LGBT community and more broadly. A listing of recipients can be found at the Lambda website.

Other forms of support

With the assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts and Carleton University, Lambda sponsored a Writer-in-Residence, Ivan Coyote, at Carleton University during 2007-2008.

In December 2008 Lambda supported an education and research initiative with Queer Peace International (QPI) to co-produce the publication, Breaking Free: Sexual Diversity and Change in Emerging Nations, which examines ways in which sexual/gender minorities in developing countries empower themselves, educate their communities on gender and sexuality differences, and work collaboratively with international allies.