United Way’s new chief takes thoughtful, outside-the-box approach
The son of Italian immigrants, Daniele Zanotti’s life and work reflect the newly amalgamated Toronto and York Region United Way that he leads.

TheStar.com
Oct. 30, 2016
Laurie Monsebraaten

When Daniele Zanotti was 6, his mother took him to Italy to say goodbye to his dying “nonno” or grandfather.

But as his mother whisked him along a darkened hospital corridor, Zanotti noticed another man alone in a nearby room moaning softly. With his nonno’s bedside surrounded by grieving relatives, the boy slipped away unnoticed.

His panicked mother eventually found her son sitting by the lonely man’s bed telling him about Canada in broken Italian dialect. The man was smiling.

“He needed someone too,” Zanotti recalls telling his mother.

It is a sentiment the newly-appointed president and CEO of United Way Toronto and York Region still carries today as he leads this fall’s campaign to raise $101.5 million for more than 200 community service agencies focused on poverty, youth unemployment and strong neighhourhoods.

“Community is at the core of everything we do,” he says in an interview in the charity’s downtown Toronto offices.

Zanotti, 48, took the reins of the merged charity in July after former CEO Susan McIsaac left to spend more time with her family.

As the former head of United Way York Region from 2007 to 2015, Zanotti championed the merger with Toronto “from day one.”

The Steeles Ave. boundary was always artificial, he says, because people access services on both sides of the street. The goal was to find a better way to support them.

A key driver for Zanotti during those years was his organization’s 2008 study that compared the suburbs of York with the inner suburbs of Toronto in the late 1970s, when downtown poverty began to migrate outwards.

The study’s release, in the middle of a field in Richmond Hill, foreshadowed many of the challenges the region is facing today, he says.

While wealthy subdivisions of four-bedroom homes with three-car garages were grabbing the headlines, poverty was creeping into pockets of Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan.

“We had this massive pace — and changing face — of growth and a complete lack of social infrastructure to meet the needs,” Zanotti recalls.

“The deep social issues that we were grappling with as a region — increasing poverty, neighbourhoods falling behind and stubborn youth unemployment — were much bigger than York or Toronto and needed deeper infrastructure to resolve,” he says. “So thus started our journey and collaboration right through to the merger.”

The amalgamation was completed in July 2015, making it the largest United Way in the world in terms of coverage and fundraising. Zanotti joined the merger as senior vice-president of resource development, in charge of last year’s campaign that raised a record $100.2 million, surpassing its goal by $200,000.

Former Toronto city manager and United Way board member Shirley Hoy says Zanotti’s reputation as a “thoughtful, out-of-the-box thinker” with a foot in both Toronto and York, made him a natural choice for the top job.

This is especially true as the charity expands beyond its traditional workplace campaigns to private donors and millennials who want to be more involved in the charitable causes they support, she adds.

“He is someone who has the understanding of where we’ve been and where we need to go,” Hoys says. “He is a great listener. He has compassion. And he is a wonderful storyteller with a great sense of humour.”

A diminutive dynamo, Zanotti understands how to translate the United Way’s inner city neighbourhood strategy into the suburban and rural areas of York.

“The clip of poverty in York is faster than the national average,” Zanotti notes. “How we approach it might be different in Markham than in Toronto. But the issues are the same.”

Instead of the 20,000 sq. ft. community hubs the United Way has built in areas such as Rexdale and Victoria Park, a repurposed storefront on Main St. might be the answer for rural Whitchurch-Stouffville, he says.

Instead of building social housing to address the critical need for rental accommodation in York, the charity is partnering with regional planners, business and community leaders to look at more innovative rental options, he adds.

The United Way has just launched its first Career Navigator pathway for youth in York and has already enrolled 60 at-risk young people in programs geared to employment in computer systems design, retail, construction, health care and food services, he notes.

And it supports three agencies connected to Immigrant Welcome Centres in York that are bustling with English-as-a-Second-Language classes, child care and employment help.

As the son of Italian immigrant parents who each worked two jobs to build a life in Canada, Zanotti shares many of the experiences of newcomers today.

“I think I knew one word of English when I started Junior Kindergarten in my local Catholic school,” he laughs, adding that the word was probably “bathroom.”

Just as many immigrants today double up with relatives when they first arrive, Zanotti’s family lived with his uncle Frank and Aunt Lina near Lawrence Ave. W. and Keele St. until his parents could afford to buy their own modest bungalow nearby.

Uncle Frank, who worked evenings as a janitor for the school board, looked after Zanotti during the day while his parents worked.

Once the family had moved into their own home, his parents played host to more relatives from Italy who bunked in their basement until they gained a foothold in Canada, a practice still common among newcomers today, he says.

Zanotti recalls how his father welcomed every politician’s lawn sign at election time because it meant there would be wooden stakes for his beloved tomatoes. Canning those tomatoes and making wine were backyard traditions that forged strong neighbourhood bonds and a sense of belonging.

“What I used to think of as an Italian value of family and community is really at the core of all our care and work at United Way,” he says.

“The issue for newcomers in Toronto and in York hasn’t changed,” he continues. “How do we create places and spaces for them to feel connected to their community? This need to belong is as urgent today as when my parents arrived.”

Zanotti’s life and work is a reflection of the larger community he serves.

He grew up in North York, attended St. Michael’s College School in midtown Toronto before it became a private school. His BA is from York University and he completed a Master’s in social work at the University of Toronto.

When he was married in 1995, Zanotti and his wife Lily, bought a home in Vaughan where they still reside. Daughter Bianca, 19, studies journalism at Ryerson and a son, Noah, 16, is following in his father’s footsteps at St. Mike’s.

But Zanotti worries about the opportunities for young people today.

“We know from our research that the pathway to success is taking over 15 years. And it depends on where you live and the networks you build,” he says. “I worry that the son or daughter of immigrant parents today is not going to get the same shot at success I had.”

Zanotti’s first job out of school was at the Rexdale Community Health Centre where he helped bring in free and low-cost dental care. Six years later, he moved to York Region human services where he researched youth homelessness and launched an early years strategy and in 2001, he jumped to United Way York to direct allocations.

“From that first interview . . . I knew I had to do everything necessary to become a leader at United Way,” he recalls.

Along the way, Zanotti developed a strategic plan as head of Family Day Care Services in 2003 and led a $20 million-plus fundraising campaign to build Villa Colombo Vaughan for Villa Charities Foundation from 2004 to 2007 before becoming CEO of United Way York Region later that year.

Zanotti graduated from university in 1993, just before the former Mike Harris government’s massive social service cuts began to bite in 1995.

When it became clear there was an urgent need for dental care in the Jamestown social housing community, the newly-minted social worker’s first thought was to find a free program for the residents.

But even though he learned in school about the importance of holistic change involving services, advocacy and cash, he hadn’t fully understood how it worked on the ground until then, he recalls.

It took engaging residents and local dentists, reaching out to the Ontario Dental Association and lobbying the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Community and Social Services.

And it took forever.

“But only when all of those ingredients came together were we able to open a dental clinic at the Rexdale Community Health Centre, one of the first of its kind — and still standing — that was this testament to ‘community is the answer.’ ” he says.

It is a message he has never forgotten.

“I’m impatient generally on most things,” he says. “But I fully believe that with United Way, the means is the end. And I’m willing to be patient in the process of dealing with some of these stubborn issues. Because sometimes, that’s the only way.”