General Funding Guidelines
The Stollery Charitable Foundation funds a wide range of requests, including proposals for operational funding, capital campaigns, staff positions, renovations, equipment purchases, one-time initiatives, and special projects.
Grants can range in size from a few thousand dollars up to $100,000 or greater. As a general rule, grants to first-time applicants rarely exceed $25,000 to $30,000.
Applications for grants designed to provide creative solutions to social issues are welcome. Collaboration with other charitable agencies and/or co-funding opportunities with other granting sources is usually viewed favourably, particularly for projects exceeding $50,000.
In limited circumstances, the Foundation may consider providing funding to a national or international organization, particularly if the project in question involves direct benefit to either the Edmonton or Kamloops communities. However, it is unusual for such requests to emerge as community priorities over locally developed requests, as the Foundation’s mandate includes building the capacity of local charities and their initiatives.
The Foundation prefers to be considered as a granter and not as an ongoing funder. The distinction between these two areas of focus is that a grant usually involves a one-time donation while funding implies year after year support. The Foundation’s directors have determined that it is important to spread benefits widely in the community and the Foundation strives to address new and timely priorities and provide different groups with a chance to access funds. However, organizations may request a grant for a capital project with funding to be spread over a number of years or may request operational or project funding for up to three years.
As with many funding sources, the Stollery Charitable Foundation seeks to learn about a charity’s sustainability plans for projects that are intended to continue beyond the time frame of the grant requested. The Foundation is unlikely to support projects or initiatives that do not include plans for self-reliance — or other sources of funding — once the granting period concludes.
The Stollery Charitable Foundation seeks to collaborate with other granters and funders on larger scale requests. Many of the larger health projects it has funded in the past were developed in conjunction with other supporters such as Capital Health and the Province of Alberta. Most of the inner-city affordable housing projects supported by the Foundation were co-funded by the City of Edmonton and agencies like E4C and the Edmonton Inner City Housing Society.
Conversely, the Stollery Charitable Foundation has an important and unique role in the communities it serves because small, fledgling organizations can approach the Foundation for funds that may be more difficult to obtain from other funders.
The Foundation seeks to complement other initiatives and works to collaborate, not duplicate; it also seeks and shares information about philanthropic activity in Edmonton and Kamloops in order to encourage effective, timely, relevant, and meaningful grants.
Information about grants issued is shared publicly in the community.
The Foundation does not usually fund: