When Arthur Chan was three and a half years old, he was diagnosed with leukemia. He spent the next three and a half years receiving chemotherapy treatment.

Following a full recovery, Arthur grew up in a family united by a common desire to make a difference by giving back to the community. In 2010, when he was 14, Arthur brought together eight of his friends to found the Young Ambassadors Program at BC Children’s Hospital with the goal of “youth inspiring youth to live a meaningful and fulfilling life.”

Seven years later, the group consisted of over 300 high school students, who collectively contributed over 25 000 volunteer hours to the group, raising $1 million in the process.

By then, Arthur had graduated, and was looking to make an impact beyond the youth program he founded. He teamed up with several other leaders from the Young Ambassadors Program, to launch the Dare to Dream Destiny Foundation (D2D) which has the mission of “building communities by supporting initiatives and helping those is need with a focus on youth-related causes.”

D2D provides a place for young adults to work together on philanthropic goals. Through their engagement in D2D the youth team are gaining business development experience while giving back to the community – both in Vancouver and beyond.

“Giving back to communities — in Vancouver and beyond — through philanthropy is a privilege for me and the D2D team,” says Arthur Chan. “Not only are we affecting real change for youth-related causes, we are also learning new skills we can use in other areas of our lives.”

 

One of the D2D’s youth team’s greatest achievements to date is the ideation, creation, launch and successful management of Canada’s first e-Philanthropy Store. Arthur had the idea of combining the universal love for fashion, the dominant force of e-commerce and support of generous donors. The D2D e-Philanthropy Store provides an opportunity for people to engage in philanthropy either as a donor of quality used goods or as a buyer or as both. The concept is bringing awareness of and engagement in philanthropy to a new generation in an appealing and universally accessible way.

Since D2D launched, the youth team had given over 25,000 volunteer hours to promote, progress, and innovate in philanthropy, raising over $445,000 to support eight charity partners, including VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation.

Following a joint nomination from VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation and BC Children’s Hospital Foundation, Arthur has been awarded a 2018 Giving Heart Award for Outstanding Youth Philanthropist from the Greater Vancouver chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). We would like to congratulate Arthur and the entire D2D team for their remarkable contributions.