Charity Application for The COVID-19 Charity Adaptation and Innovation Fund

We have received an extremely high volume of applications. We are unable to respond to emails requesting confirmation of receipt of your application. We will notify all organizations that have applied by July 14th.

We know that charities have been particularly hard hit financially as a result of COVID-19 and surrounding operating restrictions. To support charities during these challenging times, CanadaHelps, in partnership with Imagine Canada, is launching a new Cause Fund, tentatively called the “COVID-19 Charity Adaptation and Innovation Fund”.

If your charity is adapting operations or developing innovative solutions to serve your mission, we invite you to learn more and apply to be included!

Why did we create this fund?

Our goal in creating this Fund is to:

1. Help charities access funds to help them find innovative solutions for adapting or transforming their operations in the COVID context; and
2. Advocate for the importance of this type of operational funding to the general public, using CanadaHelps’ platform and reach with the Canadian public.

This donor-direct Cause Fund will be promoted on www.canadahelps.org and to the general public.

Who should apply to be a part of this fund?

Charities that need support to adapt to the changed COVID world, and to transform the way they work in order to thrive in our new reality, including:

• Investing in technology for productivity, adapting existing programming and service delivery, or launching new programming/service delivery in a COVID context;
  
• Training and education for employees, volunteers, or clients on technology or COVID safety procedures; 
• Adapting or transforming a service or business model, including development of entirely new programs or business models better suited to respond to needs in the COVID-19 context;
• Investing in new strategies for operating in the post-COVID world once the immediate crisis abates;
• Investing in safety and hygiene, including purchasing PPE, adapting sanitation practices, or acquiring other materials and equipment for working at a distance, or safely when in close proximity;
• Exploring or executing on ways to collaborate with other charities to increase impact or make operations more efficient;
• Mental health supports for employees;
• Supports for research, measure & evaluation, and data analytics.

For your charity to be considered for this Fund, it must meet one of the criteria above, and meet all of the following criteria:

• Your organization is not included in either of CanadaHelps’ two existing COVID-19 Funds (Healthcare & Hospitals or Community Care); 
• Your organization is signed up for Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) from CanadaHelps (or will sign up within a week of submitting this application). Signing up for EFT with CanadaHelps has no cost to your organization but is needed for CanadaHelps to efficiently disburse donations made to this Fund;
• You will be using any donations received through this Fund to adapt/transform your own organization, and are not granting the donations out to another organization;
• Religious organizations must also provide identifiable social service programming.

Applications will be evaluated on a first-come, first-served basis, to the maximum of 300 charities.

We will not be including Private Foundations, Private Schools, or pro-life/pro-choice advocacy organizations. Final selection is at the discretion of CanadaHelps and Imagine Canada.

Unfortunately we do not have the staff resources to follow up with charities that have provided incomplete information. Please submit only one application for your charity. In the case of duplicate submissions we will only consider the first submission.

Applications will be accepted until July 10, 2020, or until 300 charities have been added to the Fund. 

To see our existing Cause Funds, click here.

To learn more about Cause Funds, click here.