Partnerships
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Our Partners
We live in a time of increasing flux. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? We certainly don’t. But we strive to have an open door to changing needs, trends and fresh opportunities. We can’t do it all and we never act alone. Here is a list of some of our partnerships.
Hear about a partnership we've nurtured with the Toronto Aboriginal Support Services Council and read below to learn more about who else we're partnering with and how.
Canadian Association of Gift Planners (CAGP)
CAGP is the professional association that brings professional advisors and charities together to advance charitable gift planning. Together with other contributors, we will launch Will Power in 2021, a national campaign to encourage Canadians to leave charities in their will. Right now only 5% of Canadians actually do.
Centre for Connected Communities (C3)
As a leader in grassroots engagement and bottom up and collective decision-making, C3 provides inspiration and counsel to our work. Together with the City of Toronto we jointly contribute to C3’s Local Champions program, supporting the growth and impact of grassroots leaders in neighbourhood improvement areas across the city.
The Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada (The Circle)
Toronto Foundation is a proud supporter and partner of the Circle that creates positive change between philanthropy and Indigenous communities through co-learning and relationship building.
We work with leaders at the City of Toronto across departments and programs including the Mayor’s Office, the Toronto Office of Partnerships, Economic Development and Culture, Transportation Services and Social Development, Finance and Administration. This work ranges from co-granting initiatives such as the Toronto Resilience Strategy, to co-operating on shared research aims through Toronto’s Vital Signs, to crisis response work such as the Toronto Strong campaign that supported the victims of the Yonge Street van attack.
Community Foundations of Canada (CFC)
CFC is the national membership organization for the 191 community foundations in Canada. Through CFC we periodically administer federal funding programs and other central initiatives to support communities from coast to coast to coast. Recently this included: the Canada Healthy Community Initiative, Emergency Community Support Fund, Fund for Gender Equality and Investment Readiness Program.
Equality Fund Initiative (the “Initiative”) involves three partners that entered into a $300M contribution agreement with Global Affairs Canada in 2019: the Equality Fund (EF), which has overall leadership for the Initiative; World University Service of Canada; and Toronto Foundation. The Foundation is the fiduciary partner and responsible for investment of the government contribution using a gender-lens strategy. The Initiative’s objective is to create a sustainable source of funding to support women’s organizations and movements around the world. EF is building its capacity during the first five years, following which the partners’ goal is to transition responsibility for the Initiative to EF.
Great Lakes One Water Partnership (GLOW)
With support from the Great Lakes Protection Fund, Durham, Niagara and Toronto community foundations came together as the Lake Ontario team in this US/Canada collaboration on Great Lakes stewardship. The Lake Ontario group opted to focus on flood mitigation as the core of a strategy. Learn more about how you can get involved at Unflood Ontario.
GSC has partnered with us along with 11 other Canadian community foundations to support mental and oral health. Between 2021 and 2022 close to $1M has been granted to Toronto-based organizations supporting marginalized communities in Toronto. Together we also released a report on the status of oral health in the city.
Imagine Canada is the voice of the nonprofit sector and advocates for collective action to improve the conditions for nonprofits, charities and social entrepreneurs. Toronto Foundation recently joined foundation colleagues in supporting a new research project: Multicultural and Newcomer Charitable Giving Study. This first-of-its-kind report in Canada explored the role of ethnicity and country of origin in philanthropic support.
MaRS Centre for Impact Investing
MaRS helped the Foundation launch its first impact investing pilot in 2015 and continues to bring its expertise to our growing roster of impact investments now totaling close to $12M to 10 unique impact investments in the environment, housing, work, learning and income and wealth.
Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN)
ONN is the membership organization for nonprofits working in the province of Ontario. As there is no parallel municipal body we periodically partner with ONN on projects and issues of concern for the city and its nonprofit sector organizations. One such project is Reimagining Governance, a sector-wide initiative to explore and surface new, creative models for the running of nonprofits that take into account changing needs and contexts including the role of new technologies.
Philanthropic Foundations Canada (PFC)
PFC is a membership organization that builds the capacity of grantmakers through public policy and shared learning. While PFC is primarily a network of private foundations, many community foundations also take advantage of its professional development offerings and collaborate on shared learning events at respective conferences and workshops.
Beginning in January 2021 RockCreek is Toronto Foundation’s outsourced chief investment officer. Responsible for the Foundation’s main pool investments, RockCreek brings a wealth of experience as a leading global investment management firm with a solid track record in responsible and sustainable investing.
Toronto Aboriginal Support Services Council (TASCC)
Much of our work towards our commitment to the Declaration of Action on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada is built on our ongoing partnership with TASSC. As an umbrella organization TASSC brings together 18 Indigenous-led and serving organizations in Toronto for shared knowledge and purpose. Our relationship with TASSC is built on trust and an evolving and growing web of connections and actions designed to increase philanthropic support for Indigenous issues and peoples in the Toronto.
Vancity Community Investment Bank (VCIB)
VCIB co-launched the Better Toronto Coalition with Toronto Foundation at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bringing technical expertise and financial resources to bear VCIB’s early leadership support resulted in unprecedented levels of support for equity-led and serving organizations. This impactful work led to the release of the Toronto Fallout Report, a Toronto’s Vital Signs companion report that tracked the inequitable impacts of the pandemic on the city.
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