Your donation funds our regeneration work to make waterfront improvements, close trail gaps, expand and move the Trail closer to the water’s edge.
Donate Financially
Make a secure online donation through our CanadaHelps page. Electronic charitable receipts will be sent by email following your donation.
Mail your tax receiptable donation to:
The Waterfront Regeneration Trust
4195 Dundas Street West, Ste 327
Toronto, Ontario M8X 1Y4
You can also call us at 416-943-8080.
Donate Securities
Make a secure online donation of securities through our CanadaHelps page. A donation of securities or mutual funds is the most efficient way to give charitably. Since capital gains taxes don’t apply, our charity receives the full fair market value when the security is sold, and you get a tax receipt which reflects your larger contribution. This allows you to give more and get more.
Tribute Donations
Making a gift in memory of a loved one who has passed away is a special way to honour their memory and to express your condolences to their family.
Donate Your Time
The Waterfront Regeneration Trust welcomes volunteers and has several opportunities to get involved throughout the year. Opportunities include:
- Volunteer Trail audits
- Great Waterfront Trail Adventure cycling and driving volunteers
- Promoting the Waterfront Trail at outdoor shows and events
If you would like to get involved as a Waterfront Regeneration Trust general volunteer, please send an email to info@wrtrust.com.
Click here if you are interested in becoming a Great Waterfront Trail adventure volunteer.
Why Donate?
The Waterfront Regeneration Trust is a small registered charity leading a partnership of over 155 communities, First Nations, public and private organizations, and all orders of government to implement, expand, promote and maintain the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail. Since 1995, the Trail has been recognized as the first step of a broader strategy to regenerate the waterfront as part of the Lake Ontario Greenway Strategy developed by the Waterfront Regeneration Trust and its partners.
The goal of the Strategy is to foster a commitment to actions that will regenerate a healthy and sustainable waterfront that is clean, green, accessible, connected, open, usable, diverse, affordable, and attractive. As of 2021, the Trail is roughly 3,600 km long, extending from the Quebec Border on the St. Lawrence River to Sault Ste Marie near Lake Superior. The entire 3,600 km are signed and mapped. Interactive and downloadable maps and recommended itineraries are available to the public for free. Experiencing the Trail fosters a sense of stewardship, that supports the goal of a protected waterfront. There is a lot of Trail, making for a lot of experiences.
Funds donated to the Trust assist us in our ongoing projects to expand, promote and improve the Trail and to support our community partners in their own ongoing regeneration work. Here are some of the successes of nearly 25 years of Great Lakes Waterfront Trail:
- Working with MTO Eastern region to extend the trail at the western terminus of the Thousand Island Parkway by one kilometre to connect to bike lanes on HWY 2. The project vastly improves trail user safety.
- Closing the west Whitby gap with an expansion that connects two provincially significant wetlands and the Lynde Shore Conservation Area to the Trail in partnership with Durham Region
- Creation of 1200 km Lake Ontario Watershed network with 9 signed connector routes between the Greenbelt Route and the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail in partnership with the Greenbelt Foundation.
- Establishing the first signed continuous route in Northern Ontario between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury. Involved securing participation from the Province to add wide shoulders to 50km of provincial highway needed to achieve a continuous route.
- 10 major waterfront promenades
- 3 bridges
- Improvements to 16 waterfront parks
- 7 new cultural heritage facilities
- Interpretation of 15 waterfront habitats
- 3 major brownfield rehabilitation projects
- 18 significant waterfront habitat restoration projects
- 2 harbour/marina revitalization projects
- Award-winning trail-user resources
- 77% of Ontario cyclists are aware of the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail
- Attracted 3 major events to Trail from outside Ontario
- Great Waterfront Trail Adventure-popular annual cycling event showcasing progress on the waterfront and bringing knowledge about the Trail to more and more people
- The majority Lake Ontario communities have a vision for the waterfront (82%) and for public waterfront access (89%).
- 140+ projects planned or underway on the waterfront led by community partners.
The Great Lakes Waterfront Trail is a foundational piece of the growing province-wide cycle network, serves as a backbone for emerging active transportation strategies in smaller communities, and as a common ground for community partners across Southern Ontario and the Near North.
This video by 2017/2018 Great Waterfront Trail Adventure Tour youth ambassador Stephanie Woodworth captures her experience along the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail, and what the Trail means to so many of those who experience it on our annual awareness ride.