Collective Impact
The potential for greater impact is what fuels us every day.
We run a donor education program to disrupt traditional philanthropic practices including flowing more money to smaller, local and equity-focused organizations; use an action-oriented and equity-focused research agenda; and strive to responsibly invest more of our assets every year.
Below we list our 2023 annual granting results and share some annual metrics that are keeping us accountable and motivated.
Grants are made in two key ways:
Fundholders grant from funds they've established with us
Toronto Foundation grants from our discretionary funds guided by community needs and opportunities, and Toronto's Vital Signs Report research
OUR IMPACT: WHAT THE NUMBERS TELL US
Grants by region
$0M
TORONTO
$0M
REST OF ONTARIO
$0M
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
$0M
REST OF CANADA
$0M
INTERNATIONAL
*This includes a $26M grant to set up a private foundation.
**This significant increase from 2022 is due to funds we flowed on behalf of the federal government.
*As of January 1, 2023, the Government of Canada increased the disbursement quota from 3.5% to 5%. We exceeded both the figures.
WE SUPPORT SMALLER CHARITABLE
ORGANIZATIONS—AND YOU SHOULD TOO
The reality is 78% of charities in Canada are small, but demand is at an all-time high
We enable fundholders to continue supporting personal causes while also encouraging them to diversify their philanthropy to support the high-impact work happening at local organizations.
By definition they operate with less than $500,000 in annual revenue.
Sources: CanadaHelps Giving Report 2023 & 2024
For years we’ve applied an equity lens to granting, but didn’t further refine our giving for historically and persistently underserved groups. That all changed in 2020 when we introduced the Black and Indigenous Futures Fund.
The Fund is one response to our shared acknowledgement of systemic inequality and in particular, racism that permeates all aspects of society — including philanthropy. Racial injustice has particularly affected Black and Indigenous communities and warrants actionable and meaningful responses. We’ve reflected on the Fund, our pilot granting to non-qualified donees and the collective impact we realized with our fundholders. We’ve also started a fund to enable more fundholders to give to organizations without official chariable status, in keeping with the direction from the Government of Canada. Read more about the 2023 pooled fund here and our Black and Indigenous Futures Fund here.
We want to be more transparent about our goal to consistently increase the flow of money to Indigenous and Black communities. Here we’re sharing the percentage of total and discretionary funding that went to these groups in 2023. While these numbers are above the norm in philanthropy, we know they are low and are actively working to increase them.
SOCIAL JUSTICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY