Thoughts of a $20 million gift didn’t enter Edmund Dawe’s mind when University of Manitoba President Dr. Emőke Szathmáry invited him to dine with her and graduate Marcel A. Desautels in Toronto.

The historic donation came as a surprise to Dawe, especially since his conversation with Desautels never touched upon dollars and cents. Instead, the music dean recalls how he and his businessman-turned-philanthropist host spent the evening talking about their shared passion: music.

Dawe laid out his vision to transform his faculty into a primary destination for Canadian and international students.  Desautels, who has sung for most of his life and even once considered a career in the opera, listened with interest.

Forty-eight hours later, Dawe is back on campus in Winnipeg and gets a call from Elaine Goldie, the university’s vice-president (external).

“She said to me, ‘Edmund, I hope you’re sitting down,’” he recalls.

Coincidentally, a massive redevelopment called Project Domino at the University of Manitoba includes a new, larger home on campus for the music faculty—one with sufficient space to house Dawe’s vision.

Dawe’s message had struck the right chord with Desautels and the eight-figure gift that resulted was unprecedented. Donations of this magnitude are rare among music faculties in Canada.

Dawe describes the donation as “historical and transformational.” It will be used to usher in a new era for the university’s music program under a new name: The Marcel A. Desautels Faculty of Music. No longer grounded due to lack of funds, Dawe’s vision for the faculty will take flight as soon as possible. “My first priority will be to continue to attract outstanding faculty members and students to our programs,” he says.

Desautels’ gift will flow into the Faculty of Music during the next five years and create a significant endowment fund for the music faculty.  It will also support the renovations of the east wing and Auditorium of Taché Hall, the new home for the music program under Project Domino. A detailed plan for how the endowment revenue will be allocated is still in the works but it will include:
• renewable, full-tuition scholarships and entrance awards for undergraduate students
• special prizes in performance
• graduate fellowships
• support for innovative faculty research and interdisciplinary collaborations in scholarly work, performance, and composition
• chairs/professorships

During the last 12 years, Desautels’ philanthropic organization The Canadian Credit Management Foundation (CCMF) has given more than $80 million to select universities across Canada. He established the foundation, with him as its president and CEO, in 1996 using proceeds from the sale of Creditel of Canada Ltd. As president and CEO of that firm for 25 years, Desautels grew the organization into Canada’s largest commercial credit information and debt recovery service. From day one, the purpose of the CCMF was to fund innovative new programs at select Canadian universities.

“Marcel believes in educating the whole person in a way that integrates knowledge for a purpose, and maximizes what graduates can do for their society. This belief has guided his actions as a businessman, an employer and a philanthropist,” President Szathmáry says.

“Every student should have the opportunity to be exposed to music in one way or another – by either learning to play an instrument, in the area of dance, by singing solo or in a choir, etc.” Desautels explains.  “Exposure to music is important for the complete development of a person.”

During his career, Desautels observed flaws in the way people did business and how the profession was being taught. As a philanthropist, he seeks out schools and programs where outside-the-box thinking spawns new ways of addressing these shortcomings. His first gift to the University of Manitoba was allocated to fellowships in finance in the I.H. Asper School of Business. A multi-million dollar gift followed to the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Law. Faculty of Law Dean Harvey Secter devised a program directed to the specific needs of small and medium-sized businesses—two key drivers of the Manitoban economy. Desautels, who holds bachelor, master and honorary doctorate of law degrees from the University of Manitoba saw the potential in the program; family and privately owned business in Manitoba represent approximately 75% of GDP and employment, and more than 75% of new jobs created in the Province.  Desautels, through the CCMF, provided $5 million to establish the Marcel A. Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and the Law.

Innovation and a desire to ‘zig’ where others have ‘zagged’ are terms that could describe Dawe’s dream for the Faculty of Music. Come September 2008, his faculty will offer one of the most comprehensive programs in Canada leading to a Bachelor of Jazz Studies degree.  His overall plan is to balance traditional degree programs with innovative courses and collaborations with other faculties, and with the wider artistic community. “We have a great faculty so we’re in a position to build on our strengths,” says Dawe. “What we need to do now is develop innovative and interdisciplinary programs to equip students with the necessary skills to meet the varied demands of a wider range of modern career options,” says Dawe.

For the first time this year, he partnered with another faculty on campus – a practice known as interdisciplinary study – to create a course in anatomy for musicians. “We had an occupational therapist from the university work with a musician colleague to teach our students about physical issues surrounding singing and playing various musical instruments” he says. Ultimately, the goal is to make the Marcel A. Desautels Faculty of Music a nationally recognized centre of excellence.

Each musician who enters the new facility that bears his name will be reminded of Desautels’ generosity. He wants to help students and perpetuate higher learning in Canada. For starters, he understands that to attract the best students to your school or program you have to employ the best minds. So, one of the things he does with a gift is create new endowed chairs or support existing ones. A chair is a prestigious faculty position; the endowment part of the equation is the money set aside to offer the chair salary top-ups or research support—the incentives necessary to bring these elite researchers and teachers on staff. 

It’s always been a challenge for a small, arts-based, faculty like Dawe’s to attract gifts for scholarships. He says Desautels’ donation will eliminate this problem. “A big challenge for a small music faculty like ours has always been attracting and retaining undergrad and grad students,” says Dawe. “In the past, we haven’t had funds to offer significant scholarships and bursaries. So, the biggest impact of the CCMF’s gift will be on the students.”

Desautels’ generosity has helped raise the bar for teaching and research excellence at Canadian universities. And while some faculties and programs now bear his name, Desautels keeps a low profile, eschewing public praise and fanfare.

Szathmáry says that Desautels’ generosity has left an indelible mark on the landscape of Canadian postsecondary education for generations to come.

“As a distinguished graduate and incredible benefactor of both the University of Manitoba and other Canadian universities, Marcel has set an example that few might be able to follow but all can admire.”