sM | The Tegan and Sara Foundation was born from a tour you went on in 2016 for your 8th studio album and the larger dialogues you were having across North America. What connected with you and Sara the most from those conversations, and how did you want to channel that connection into action?

TQ ─ As members of the queer community, we’ve always had queer issues and organizations on our radar. In 2016 we became a big enough band that many people were looking to us to raise money for their organizations. So we started exploring the idea of setting up our own foundation, traveling across the country for months talking about the major issues with both grassroots and large organizations. One of our takeaways was that there weren’t a lot of large organizations that were centering women specifically. So that became our focus. A lot of our funding goes to organizations that center trans people, women of color and same-sex partnerships that have domestic abuse, for example. 

Our organization needs to be really nimble and flexible, so each time a big issue hits the news, we’re able to get money out the door quickly. I think that makes us different from other organizations. We see ourselves as finding and vetting great organizations within the LGBTQ+ community so people can trust us. We’re really trying to listen to what the grassroots organizations are looking for and get them money quickly with less red tape, administrative costs, and paperwork.

sM | The foundation has an incredibly stellar board of directors. A truly pan-Canadian roster of activist, artists – from Elliot page to Vivek Shraya in Calgary to a Toronto powerhouse Syrus Marcus Ware – what were some of your priorities in building this team and how much are they able to enact their visions?

TQ ─ Ethically, morally, I am committed to racial justice and giving back to the parts of the LGBTQ community that have been overlooked, so we wanted to make sure that our board reflected academics, healthcare professionals, the corporate world, but also the social justice and more anti-establishment world. Sarah and I see ourselves as ambassadors from within the system. We understand we’re not big enough to act outside the system, but that doesn’t mean we can’t load up our board with people who are working outside the system to make sure that our compass is aligned properly with what we believe. We’re trying to take money from inside the corporate world and distribute it to grassroots, political, and social justice organizations. We definitely don’t want to be a celebrity foundation that’s just paying lip service and looking for attention so we can feel good about ourselves. We really want to help people.