Massey Foundation : The Massey Foundation was incorporated by the Massey family in 1919 to administer the funds made available from the last will and testament of Hart Almerrin Massey (1823-1896). In his lifetime, Hart A. Massey had contributed generously to the arts and charities in Toronto including the construction of the Fred Victor Mission, Massey Music Hall, and the Burwash Hall student residences at Victoria College. His will bequeathed funds for a trust to support the arts, music, education, and religion. Under the leadership of Chester Daniel Massey and his son Vincent Massey, it embarked on the construction of Hart House, a student community centre at the University of Toronto, in 1911. It opened in 1919 at a cost of nearly $2 million and was the catalyst for the incorporation of the Foundation. Vincent Massey succeeded his father as chair of the Foundation in 1926 ensuring that Hart House continued to be the focus of its charitable activity until the outbreak of the war.
In response to Canadian participation in the Second World War, the Massey Foundation created Garnons Convalescent Home in Hertfordshire, England in 1940 for recovering Canadian military officers. Vincent Massey was serving at the time in London as the High Commissioner for the Canadian government. In the postwar era, the Foundation diversified its charitable activities by establishing the Massey Medals for Architecture and Geography, and contributing to the National Gallery of Canada, Upper Canada College, and smaller causes like the Commonwealth Youth Movement, Student Christian Movement, and Les Visites Interprovinciales, among many others. In 1959 the Foundation controlled about $4.2 million in assets when it embarked on its most ambitious project, the creation of Massey College, a multi-disciplinary college including a library, residences and other facilities for graduate students at the University of Toronto. Massey College opened in 1963 but its construction and establishment exhausted the greater part of the Foundation's wealth.
After Vincent Massey's death in 1967, his son Hart Massey became the driving force behind the Foundation which moved away from funding religious programs under his leadership. Though it had less funds at its disposal than before it built Massey College, the Foundation continued to foster achievement in the arts, music, and education in Canada, with the development of the Crafts Collection being one of Hart Massey's special projects in the 1970s. Geoffrey Massey became the chair of the Foundation after the death of Hart Massey in 1997.
