Grantmaking

Durham Community Foundation offers a broad grantmaking program to create a healthy and vibrant place for all to live. To date, Durham Community Foundation has granted over $6.5 Million to 400+ local charities.

Durham Community Foundation Community Fund(s) Grantstream

Funding is made possible by the permanent endowment funds established by many families and businesses throughout our region who love our community.

Our Grant Priorities

Durham Community Foundation recognizes that a vibrant and healthy community can only be built through collaborative efforts, innovative partnerships, and a firm commitment to create opportunities for all citizens to enhance the quality of their lives and/or those of their family, friends and neighbours. Granting builds upon the strengths and responds to the needs of our community. It is the most visible aspect of Durham Community Foundation’s work. To effectively fulfill its philanthropic responsibilities within the limits of its resources, Durham Community Foundation’s community grants program prioritizes the needs identified, based on data, in our Vital Signs Report.

Submission deadline is Friday, July 5th, 2024. 

Key Questions

Are you a registered charity?

As per our policy, grants are to support projects and programs of registered charities that qualify as charitable organizations under Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) guidelines and directly benefit the citizens of the Community Foundation’s geographic area of interest, primarily within the Region of Durham and the surrounding area.

Are you a nonprofit organization?

If you are a nonprofit organization, you may partner with a registered charity to apply for funding. The application must be submitted by the registered charity.

Have You Submitted Your Final Report?

If you have received a grant from Durham Community Foundation you must have completed and submitted a Final Report before this, and any future funding applications will be considered.

Financial Statements

As part of our due diligence, we require a copy of your most recent financial statements, no exceptions.

Please Note:

• Only complete applications submitted via our online application portal will be reviewed.
• Priority is given to small and mid-sized organizations, with operating budgets of less than $1 million.
• You must include your most recent financial statements with your application to be considered.
• There are several stages to the application review process, notification of results takes place in November.
• All submitted materials become the property of Durham Community Foundation.
• Final decision on all grants rest with the Board of Directors.  Access to its decisions is restricted.
• If a grant is awarded there is an expectation that you will publicly acknowledge our grant through your annual report, newsletter, and social media channels on #ThankYouThursday (Thursday December 5, 2024)
• If a grant is awarded, you will be required to complete a Final Report within six weeks of the completion date of the project.

Application Notes

• The application is multiple sections, please allow adequate time to complete the application.
• We recommend reading through the fields in each part before starting to ensure you have all the required information before beginning the application.
• Application will autosave to your device (local storage required for this feature if local storage is cleared or disabled on your device the form progress will not autosave).

Join Us!

We appreciate all you do for our community and encourage you to join our e-blast list for all notifications related to our Foundation.