Welcome to the Catherine Donnelly Foundation. We are now accepting applications for the Civic Engagement for Social Change and Environment streams with a deadline of June 3, 2025. The Housing stream is currently closed for unsolicited applications. The next deadline for this stream will be February 2026. We will open the grant portal for Housing applications in late 2025. For further inquiries, please contact staff.
Application Guidelines
The Catherine Donnelly Foundation accepts letters of inquiry twice yearly (Spring and Fall). On occasion, certain streams may be closed to unsolicited applications. Application deadlines are posted on our website along with information about which streams are accepting applications. Please review our application guidelines carefully to ensure you are applying to the appropriate grant stream. Download our full application guidelines here.
Application and Review Process
The Catherine Donnelly Foundation operates with a two-stage application review process:
1) Letter of Inquiry (pre-proposal inquiry)
2) Invited Applicant (full application)
A Review Committee will evaluate Letters of Inquiry for their alignment with CDF objectives and criteria. After the review process for the Letter of Inquiry 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 Inquiry. All other organizations will receive an automated email notification approximately 12 weeks after submitting their Letter of Inquiry. Based on the invited full applications, a Review Committee will make funding recommendations to the Catherine Donnelly Board to determine successful applications.
The Catherine Donnelly Foundation does not fund the following:
- Retroactive funding
- Fundraising campaigns
- Operating deficits
- Projects outside of Canada
- Emergency appeals
- Purely commercial recordings or film projects
Potential applicants are strongly advised to contact the Foundation prior to submitting a letter of inquiry:
Hamshaa Sivaruban
Grants and Logistics Coordinator
hsivaruban@catherinedonnellyfoundation.org