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Community Vitality Grant Program in Canada

Deadline: 17-Feb-22

The London Community Foundation (LCF) is pleased to launch Community Vitality Grant Program to support innovative projects seeking to improve the quality of life for their region’s citizens.

Focus Areas

The proposal must address at least one, up to a maximum of three, of the Vital Signs issue areas featured in London’s 2021 Vital Signs Report: Be The Change.

  • Education
  • Gender Equality
  • Racial Equality
  • Food Security
  • Housing
  • Well-Being
Principles

The proposal must address one or more of the Foundation’s granting principles:

  • Emphasize prevention rather than remediation
  • Encourage networking and collaboration among organizations
  • Demonstrate innovative or interdisciplinary approaches
  • Develop local leadership capacity
  • Reflect diversity and inclusivity
  • Provide leveraging possibilities
Funding Information
  • Applicants are welcome to request a grant up to $350,000 – which may include up to 50% for capital expense if those costs are directly related to the proposal’s program or objective.
  • This is a general guideline and does not preclude consideration of proposals requesting more, as there is a total $1,000,000 available to be granted.
  • Disbursement may be requested over one, two, or three years.
Criteria

Applications should propose an approach to tackling a community issue area in LCF’s catchment in a way that:

  • Is substantively new for, meaning it:
    • Is a new approach to an issue
    • Is a different way of framing/conceiving an old issue
    • Brings together different partners in new ways
  • Proposes significant change to the current state of affairs, as follows:
    • Alters the current system
    • Takes an undesirable trend and turns it around
    • Substantially improves results of current methods
    • Fills an important, unaddressed gap in the community
  • Is innovative while still accountable and measurable, by:
    • Grounding the proposal’s assumptions in evidence or a credible “change theory;” What makes the approach plausible
    • Identifying an “accountable strategy” and including process milestones, outcomes and success indicators
    • Providing evidence of capacity to deliver on your proposal’s progress and outcomes
  • Benefits LCF’s catchment by improving, or leveraging resources/investments by:
    • Attracting contributions from other sources (funders, sponsors, partners etc.)
    • Sharing and using local resources and expertise more effectively
    • Finding innovative efficiencies in systems or services
    • Having a primary focus on, and only using the Community Vitality Grant funding on, LCF’s catchment area.
Eligible Expenditures
  • The Foundation will consider supporting most expenditures required to implement the proposal. There are some limitations on capital expenditures as well as expectations related to staffing expenses and programmatic-type proposals.
  • An explanation for these limitations/expectations follows.
    • Capital Expenditures
    • Staffing
    • Programs
Eligibility Criteria
  • Qualified Donee Applicant
    • Although there may be two or more organizations applying together for support of a proposal, only one organization is required to serve as the Qualified Donee Applicant.
    • The Qualified Donee Applicant must have registered status with the Canada Revenue Agency at the time of application submission and maintain this status.
    • The Qualified Donee Applicant is accountable for the planning and implementation of the proposal with one or more Co-Applicants, (if applicable), and also for receiving and managing the funds should the proposal receive a grant.
  • Co-Applicants versus Partners
    • A Co-Applicant is an organization, not necessarily a qualified donee, committed to working with the Qualified Donee Applicant in the planning and implementation of the proposal should it receive a Community Vitality Grant.
    • In other words, a Co-Applicant takes a leadership and accountability role for the entire initiative. A partner makes a meaningful contribution to the initiative.
    • The Application Stage requires a listing of the specific contributions partners are prepared to make (monetary and in-kind). If there are any Co-Applicants, the Application Stage requires a copy of the agreement outlining roles and responsibilities between the Qualified Donee Applicant and Co-Applicant(s). refer to “Better Together – A Guide for Charity/Non-Charity Partnerships”

For more information, visit https://www.lcf.on.ca/community-vitality-grant