Marika Shaw
Marika Anthony-Shaw played the viola as a touring member of Grammy award winning band Arcade Fire for 9 years. She also led the band’s philanthropy and community outreach. While playing on stages around the world, Marika and her fellow band members could feel the incredible energy of thousands of people coming together to experience something profound. Motivated by this potential, Marika dedicated herself to building a new organization, PLUS1. PLUS1 empowers artists to partner with their fans to drive awareness, advocacy, and resources for organizations doing proven, measurable work to increase equity, access, and dignity for all.
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Accountable Activism: A New Form of Power
What would the world look like if art and culture harnessed the power of existing crowds to raise large sums for global change? What if every live event that brought people together simultaneously collected and directed funds to emergent world crises? Marika Anthony-Shaw, founder and CEO of PLUS1, is turning these questions into a reality.
Almost ten years ago, Marika and her fellow Arcade Fire band members initiated a simple campaign where they added $1 to every concert ticket sold to raise relief funds for Haiti. Today, Marika has effectively built a global movement for good by partnering performing artists with high impact nonprofits. With over $7 million raised and granted to over to 250 organizations, the PLUS1 community continues to grow every night and create opportunities for everyday people to have meaningful and direct impact on world events.
In this empowering keynote, Anthony-Shaw discusses her work with philanthropic organizations and reveals strategies for individuals to get involved with causes that they care about. Offering realistic plans for engaging one’s own communities, whether on campus or online, she outlines how any individual can join people together in a shared mission, harness the power of collective energy and positive action to make a real difference in the world.
See Marika Shaw in action.
If you’re interested in justice, she’ll show you just how far a dollar can go.
Marika was raised in B.C. by her mother – a linguist and academic who works with First Nation communities in language revitalization – who taught Marika the value of identity and the power of language. Marika has degrees in Music performance and Education from McGill University. She sits on the Board of Directors of Partners in Health Canada, and on the PIH Board of Trustees in Boston. She frequently advises and speaks on the power of collective impact and the intersection of effective philanthropy, art, and social justice including at C2 Montreal, the Forbes Under 30 Summit, universities and other engagements globally. She lives in Montreal with her husband, record producer Marcus Paquin, and their young daughter.
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Arcade Fire: Being the DifferenceMarika Anthony-Shaw and Will Butler of Arcade Fire talk with Marquette University about the ideas behind the beginning of PLUS1.
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PLUS1 is affecting real change by harnesses the convening power of audiences to be an engine for real change.In Live Music, Small Acts of Change Add Up to a Big Difference
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PLUS1 Founder Marika Anthony Shaw Is Changing How We Give“Awareness and advocacy and talking about the issues is so vital and we have the power to do that as people who hold a microphone every night,” says Marika Anthony-…
