Driving Progress for an Inclusive Economy: BMO Donates $1.5M to the UofT Institute for Gender and the Economy 

As part of our Purpose to Boldly Grow the Good and our commitment to dismantling systemic barriers to equality, BMO is donating $1.5 million to the Institute for Gender and the Economy (GATE) at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.  

BMO’s donation will support GATE’s research agenda, including a global collaboration on the care economy and studies of behavioural interventions to create inclusive organizations, thereby enabling GATE’s mission to use rigorous academic research to change the conversation on gender and the economy. 

Since GATE was founded in 2016 by Sarah Kaplan, Distinguished Professor in Gender and the Economy, it has promoted an understanding of gender and other inequalities, and how they can be remedied in the world of business – and, more broadly, the economy. GATE has funded over 50 group and individual researchers investigating topics as varied as de-biasing job ads, care work, fair lending practices and women in STEM. It has engaged hundreds of undergraduate, MBA and Ph.D. students in taking a gender-inclusive perspective to create innovative solutions to complex problems through design sprints, case competitions and the MBA Student Fellowship Program. GATE also brings its transformational insights to a broad range of audiences through its platforms, including social media, webinars, public events, conferences and courses, including an offering on Gender Analytics with Coursera and a Rotman Executive program on Inclusion by Design. 

Our gift will provide funding for the newly renamed BMO GATE MBA Fellowships, which issue a bursary each year for five Rotman students to work on a project related to the mandate of GATE. Congratulations to the inaugural recipients of the BMO GATE MBA Fellowships: Syed Ahmad Nafisul Abrar, Alex Foty, Nishtha Taneja, Wendy Nguyen and Corrina Vali. 

“BMO’s gift is transformational for GATE. Their backing supports cutting-edge research and ensures our MBA fellowships program can continue for the next five years. We are grateful to BMO for recognizing the importance of rigorous research and training on achieving a more inclusive economy.”

– Sarah Kaplan
GATE Director and Distinguished Professor of Gender and the Economy at the Rotman School

“GATE’s research is driving the discourse on gender and the economy forward, providing important data and evidence that can be used to inform systemic change here in Canada and around the world. Supporting research like this is an important part of how BMO is eliminating barriers to a more inclusive society.”

– Helen Seibel
Head of Employee and Community Giving at BMO