INTERESTED IN APPLYING FOR FUNDING?

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DECISION MAKING CRITERIA

When making decisions about what to fund, we look for projects that are geared to the Foundation's two major areas of focus, Early Childhood Education and Development and Economic Justice.  In addition, we look for partnerships that share the following features:

1. Directly improve the economic and social opportunities of Ontario's disadvantaged people.

2. Are radical and innovative; we are interested in ideas and projects that challenge current attitudes, policies and approaches, and that not only identify but attempt to address the systemic reasons for economic and social injustice.

3. Enable disadvantaged or marginalized communities to have more power over their lives. We favour projects that offer disadvantaged people the tools to take more control over their lives, and to help shape the policies that affect them.

4. Promote individuals' and/or communities' understanding of and action on the issues that affect Ontario's disadvantaged people.  We like projects that encourage citizens within the broader community to respond or get involved in the issues affecting the disadvantaged.

5. Are likely to yield policy implications. We prefer projects that generate ideas and/or results that could be useful to public policy makers.

6. Effectively develop and use partnerships. We favour projects that promote cooperation among community groups, government and non-government agencies, religious organizations, media, business and industry, and other foundations.

7. Make use of existing resources.  We are partial to projects that find innovative ways to use and maximize existing resources (e.g., people, equipment, facilities, and partnerships).

8. Contain plans for evaluation/continuous learning during the life of the project.

9. Contain plans for dissemination of results. We favour projects that consider how people will be made aware of the project's results in a way that enables other groups, individuals and policy makers to learn from and build upon the knowledge gained.

10. Continue to have an impact after the grant is expended. We are interested in projects that will have lasting impact or can be sustained in some form beyond the life of the grant.

11. Are initiated by organizations actively committed to issues of equity.

FUNDING LIMITATIONS

The Atkinson Charitable Foundation can provide grants only to Ontario-based organizations that are registered charities.  We do not provide support for capital expenses (furniture, equipment, computers, automobiles, building construction or renovations etc.), core funding or operating costs for ongoing activities of an organization; deficits; or annual campaigns or project expansions. In the event that capital funding is critical to the success of a project, we may assist by brokering a partnership with another funding partner whose mandate allows them to support capital expenses.

HOW TO APPLY

Before you decide to apply for a grant, we ask that you take the time to consider whether it is the type of project we fund.  Please review our funding criteria and ensure that your project idea or proposal fits all 11 criteria identified above.

We welcome project ideas any time. 

The Board of Trustees of The Atkinson Charitable Foundation meets throughout the year to review proposals.

NEXT STEPS

1. If as a result of your preliminary research about us, you feel there is a possible fit, PLEASE CALL US AND TELL US YOUR PROJECT IDEA.

2. If as a result of our discussion, we think there is a possible match, we will ask you to outline your project in a two-page letter of intent describing the project, intended outcomes/impact, information about your organization and budget estimates.

3. Once we receive your brief project description, we will let you know if we would like you to submit a full proposal. If it is a go at this point, we will send you a proposal kit and work closely with you to develop a proposal. We try to be approachable and informal in the early stages to save time if there isn't a match or to proceed quickly if there is a potential partnership.

On occasion, when a proposed project is of a sufficiently large scale and/or involves a number of activities before the project starts, the applicant may request planning/development funds. These funds would be dedicated to helping the project undertake the research, planning, partnerships, etc. required to get the idea under way.