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Granting Approach
Toronto is known for its diverse neighbourhoods. Through our granting, we aim to strengthen not only what happens within them, but also the connections between them.
At Toronto Foundation, we're working toward a city of neighbours accelerating meaningful change for all. Grounded in equity and community leadership, our granting supports the people, organizations and networks helping build a more connected Toronto.
As our vision evolves, so too does our granting. We will continue to support the small and neighbourhood-based organizations that are often closest to community and essential to local connection. At the same time, we're expanding our support to include grassroots leaders, collaborative networks and anchor organizations that can help strengthen social cohesion and participation across the city.
Building a City of Neighbours
Through strategic investments that strengthen social capital, we’re helping build a city of neighbours.
By 2030 we’ll aim to:
1
Fuel community-led transformation
From hyper-local action to broader city-wide impact, we want to support initiatives that bring people together in person and foster the building of relationships, trust and a sense of belonging.
2
Create conditions for belonging
where neighbours support neighbours, and organizations solve intractable issues together with community.Â
3
Strengthen civic infrastructure
through Toronto Foundation's convening, learning and knowledge-sharing, we'll strengthen collective action where people work together toward shared goals that improve community wellbeing.
4
Bridge social connections
by embedding social cohesion into not just what we fund but also how we fund, convene, and show up across the city.
Granting Principles
Equity is at the centre of what we do. Our work is guided by research on inequitable access and outcomes and is reflected in how we fund. From supporting equity-led and serving organizations to engaging community-based selection committees, we aim to shift power and direct resources to where they are most needed.
Small organizations make up the majority of the sector (77% in 2025), are often the closest to community and face the greatest demand, yet remain significantly underfunded. Supporting these organizations remains critical to community wellbeing. At the same time, building a more connected city requires investment in organizations and networks working at different scales.
Funding is more effective when unrestricted and driven by community.
When possible, multi-year support enables groups to think long term, plan ahead and focus on what matters most.
Place-based and neighbourhood-level support creates opportunities for connection and face-to-face engagement, both of which are important to social cohesion.
Shared learning and network building among grantees and community partners strengthens individual and collective capacity and social capital.
Our Commitment to the Sector
We know that how we show up as a funder matters.
We use our resources, position and privilege to make philanthropy more equitable. That means offering flexible, unrestricted support and, when possible, multi-year funding.
When it comes to process, we are creating applications that are less onerous and are increasingly exploring different formats (i.e., video, oral and ASL interpreted applications) to play to different communication preferences and strengths. Depending on whether we’re running our own grant stream or administering for a partner, we do aim to provide enough lead time in which to apply, and to offer easily accessible information sessions. Reporting expectations are minimal and usually exist so we can continue to educate and engage donors.
We also work to share community knowledge and relationships with fundholders so that more philanthropy can reach the organization and neighbourhoods that are often overlooked. We are still on this journey and continue to learn from community and partners.