Norm Danniels Family Foundation Champion: An Interview with Norm Danniels

March 18th, 2025

The Danniels Family

What motivated your interest in environmental issues?

I spent my entire career working in the natural health product industry, so wellness, including the health of our planet, has been a long-standing focus for me. I started when health food was a fledgling category and the people involved were motivated by their personal passions, not because of any significant monetary opportunity. It truly was a labour of love in those early days.

I worked within a community of people that cared about the integrity of our food supply and recognized the need for people to nourish themselves properly in order to stay well. That thinking certainly dovetails with Gaia, sustainability, and our environment.  

As part of the launch of a new vitamin brand in the 1990s, we invited our customers to join us in our commitment to the planet. We developed our Go Green initiative where a portion of our sales would be donated to a worthy environmental cause each year. Many consumers appreciated that gesture, and the brand developed a loyal following, in part, because of that commitment.

How did you learn about Trees for Life?

After selling my business and transitioning into retirement, I wanted to continue to embrace a similar philanthropic effort.

I have three daughters who are all quite globally conscious, so the decision was made to start a family foundation to pick up where our vitamin brand had left off, including an annual donation to a worthy environmental cause. Over the past few years, we have gone from a single donation to several, and we have broadened the range of charities that we support. However, the environment; locally, nationally, and globally is still our primary passion.

So, this is where Trees for Life popped up for us. It checks many of the boxes that we care most about. 

You have made repeated annual donations and recently a multi-year gift to Trees for Life. Why?

After our initial donation, Mark Cullen called and asked if we’d be interested in seeing some of your project sites. My youngest daughter and I joined Mark for a tour where we saw first-hand the impact being made.

Not only were we impressed by how generous Mark was with his time, and the personal connection that we made, but also with his passion for restoring the urban canopy in the city that we call home, with some of the sites being just blocks away. It all felt very good and very much in line with our own passions. I think of Mark and the work of Trees for Life, every time I drive past those sites.

Since then, we have also participated in the annual golf tournament, which was another way to get a glimpse inside the organization, to see its reach, and hear some stories from the many partners that it supports. We look forward to our family joining in at a tree planting this year. Because ultimately, getting more trees in the ground is really the goal, and that’s what Trees for Life is all about.

We quickly saw the merit in evolving our support from that initial donation into something more ongoing.

What do you hope to achieve through the Danniels Family Foundation?

In addition to fostering a culture of philanthropy, it provides a financial education for my daughters. The Danniels Family Foundation’s funds sit with a wealth management firm. The girls work with the team that invests the foundation’s money, with the proceeds of those investments funding our giving. As a result, they have a vested interest in the portfolio’s performance, with an eye on preserving the capital and its ability to generate revenue for the coming years. These are life skills that will benefit them personally, along with steering our foundation towards becoming a generational enterprise for our family.   

At Christmas time each year, we hold a family meeting to determine the charities that we’d like to support in the upcoming year. Each of us comes prepared with suggestions and a rationale on why our choices should be considered.  It’s been an interesting evolution that provides different perspectives and widens everyone’s view. 

This past Christmas, we decided that Trees for Life would become the first charity we would support on an ongoing annual basis.

Is there anything else you’d like others to know about your support of Trees for Life?

Trees for Life also offers a unique approach where they’re able to amplify donor dollars by requiring partners to supply at least 50% of the cost of a planting project, either through funds or in-kind value of trees or planting materials. Eligible projects receive matching dollars from NRCan, through the 2 Billion Trees Program. It’s a great way for us to maximize the impact of our charitable giving.

But beyond the giving itself, we’re enjoying the personal, memory-making events that Trees for Life, and Mark in particular, are so good at providing. I can’t wait to have my whole family out at a spring tree planting.