The Catherine Donnelly Foundation Grant Program

The Catherine Donnelly Foundation Grant Program is sponsored by The Catherine Donnelly Foundation. The Catherine Donnelly Foundation funds projects that focus on housing, civic engagement, and social change, including housing initiatives, outreach programs, and community-led projects.

Catherine Donnelly Foundation Catherine Donnelly Foundation Welcome to the Catherine Donnelly Foundation. The next deadline to apply to our Civic Engagement for Social Change or Environment stream will be June 2, 2026. We will open the grant portal for Civic Engagement for Social Change and Environment applications on March 16, 2026.

The Housing stream will be closed to unsolicited proposals for our Fall 2026 grant round. The next opportunity to apply for the Housing stream will open in December 2026. The Catherine Donnelly has two grant rounds per year: a Spring Round and a Fall Round, with deadlines for Letter of Intent (LOI) applications in February and June, respectively.

Typically, each grant stream has one grant round that is open to receiving letters of interest per year and the other grant round is by invitation only. Application deadlines are posted on our website along with information about which streams are accepting applications, so please check there for the most up-to-date information. Please review our Application Guide carefully to ensure you are applying to the appropriate grant stream.

Download our full Application Guide here . *Please note that the Foundation cannot offer extensions on the due dates under any circumstances.

Application and Review Process The Catherine Donnelly Foundation operates with a two-stage application review process: Letter of Intent (pre-proposal inquiry) Invited Applicant (full application) A Review Committee will evaluate LOI applications for their alignment with CDF objectives and criteria.

After the review process for the LOI applications is complete, organizations invited to submit a full application will receive a notification via phone call and/or email approximately 12 weeks after submitting their Letter of Intent. All other organizations will receive an automated email notification approximately 12 weeks after submitting their LOI application.

Based on the invited full applications, a Review Committee will make funding recommendations to the Catherine Donnelly Board to determine successful applications. The Foundation Board meets twice annually (in May for Spring Round and November for Fall Round) to make decisions.

The Catherine Donnelly Foundation does not fund the following across all three grant streams: Fundraising campaigns and initiatives Projects outside of Canada Purely commercial recordings or film projects Potential applicants are strongly advised to contact the Foundation prior to submitting an LOI application. You can contact Hamshaa Sivaruban, Grants & Logistics Coordinator at hsivaruban@catherinedonnellyfoundation. org .