Community Grants Program

Each year, the program guidelines include detailed eligibility criteria for applicants to review before applying. We fund federally registered charities and other qualified donees working within the capital region. A qualified donee is defined under the Federal Income Tax Act as those organizations that can issue official donation receipts for gifts they receive from individuals and corporations. For a full list of types of organizations that qualify as qualified donees, see the CRA website

We take our responsibility seriously to understand the issues impacting our community and the charitable organizations working to solve them. We participate in strategic partnerships and research collaborations to gain deeper insight into the needs, challenges and opportunities of our local charitable sector. We also intentionally engage community members with diverse perspectives and experiences as subject matter experts and committee members. They help inform our granting priorities and guide our application review processes.

We also draw on data from the State of the Sector Reports, Architects of Belonging, Victoria’s Vital Signs report and information and data collected during collaborative community events to help inform our granting processes. Through these efforts, our goal is to save charitable organizations time and better support their efforts so they can continue to accelerate impact in our community.

Program Guidelines developed for each granting call provide information about assessment criteria and funding priorities. We encourage applicants to review these guidelines carefully prior to completing their applications.

The Community Grants Program distributes grants to registered charities and other qualified donees using funding from the following sources:

Discretionary Funds: This fund type allows donors to support an area of interest without having to designate a specific charitable organization. Their donations are permanently invested, with a portion of the returns granted through the Community Grants Program each year to local registered charities. The investment of these endowed funds and the annual distribution rate that is applied to the market value of the funds each year determines how much funding we have available to allocate through the program.

Donor Advised Funds: Donor Advised Funds are established by donors who want to remain an active participant in annual granting. Their donations are permanently invested, with a portion of the returns made available for granting to the Canadian registered charities of their choice each year. While grant applications are not proactively shared with donors, our staff will inform them if an applicant aligns with their expressed interest. The donor can then make a donor advised grant recommendation to support that application.

Community Action Funds: These non-endowed funds allow donors to give confidently to areas of greatest need within cause areas that matter to them including the environment, health, food security, gender equity and more. All gifts made to the Community Action Funds will be allocated to approved Community Grants Program applications.