As an organization built on principles and values informed by Christianity and The Bible, The Buckspring Foundation’s activities and initiatives are done in the example of Jesus Christ.  We believe in pairing need with need, and that our greatest hurts can become our greatest strengths, both for ourselves, and for others. In the spirit of loving our neighbours as ourselves and through our activities and projects, we look for opportunities to meet practical physical needs, emotional and psychosocial needs.  We look for opportunities to gently and respectfully provide an answer to the hope that we have, and the reasons we do what we do.

OUR STORY

Paul & Elizabeth Brandt began their journey into philanthropy began in the unlikeliest of places.  After a trip with World Vision to promote their work in AIDS and Famine ravaged Malawi in the early 2000’s, the realities of what they had witnessed didn’t impact them until their return to Nashville.

“It was Thanksgiving time, and we were shopping at the grocery store.  Liz and I began to banter back and forth about what size turkey we needed, for the two of us, that year for the holiday.  In the wake of the starving and debilitated people we had just spent time with in Malawi, the absurdity of our conversation hit us at the same time.  Our eyes met over a freezer full of frozen turkeys, and we both started crying.  It was clear to us in that moment that the focus of our lives had changed.”

Through child sponsorship promotion, and by lending their celebrity platform to various causes including The Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation where Paul used to work as an RN, World Vision, Samaritan’s Purse, and others, the platform afforded to them by Paul’s music proved an effective way to raise funds and awareness for the benefit of others.  

In 2010, CMT Canada proposed that Paul film a television series which would entail building homes for people in need.  Recalling the impact international travel to developing countries had on her and Paul, Liz proposed that the theme of the series should include asking families at risk of homelessness if they’d be willing to build homes in a developing country.  In return, for their risk and effort, they would receive a new home of their own in Canada.  The idea of “pairing need with need for a local and global impact” caught fire, and within 6 months over 1.4 million was raised to begin the project.  In partnership with CMT (Canada) and Habitat for Humanity and Samaritan’s Purse, the seven-part TV documentary called “Paul Brandt- Build It Forward” took real-life families at risk of homelessness and worked with them to build their own homes (five in Calgary, two in the nearby town of Cochrane). Not only did the families help build the homes, but they then traveled to help others in impoverished areas of Mexico and earthquake-ravaged Haiti build new homes— completing the cycle of receiving and giving back.

During the filming of Build It Forward, Paul and Liz felt a need to incorporate a foundation which would allow them to direct funds raised through their philanthropic efforts more specifically towards projects that were of importance to them.  Application was filed and “The Build It Forward Foundation” was approved as a Registered Canadian Foundation.  To avoid confusion as a foundation limited in scope to home-building, it was eventually re-named to The Buckspring Foundation.

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