The Collective Fund for Social Equity
Background
The Collective Fund for Social Equity was created by the Foundation of Greater Montreal (FGM) in 2021 to address issues stemming from social inequalities and related to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Through this initiative, FGM’s priority is to support organizations working with historically marginalized populations, with an approach based on listening and trust, to help them achieve their transformative vision for their community. These populations include Black, Indigenous, and racialized people, LGBTQ2S+ people, women and girls, as well as people who are neurodivergent or living with physical or intellectual limitations.
The Fund’s approach, including the choice of organizations and projects it supports, is guided by the principles of trust-based philanthropy. Unlike a traditional call for proposals, this approach relies on knowledge of an entire community ecosystem and on a peer-informed decision-making mechanism. FGM developed this Fund following in-depth exchanges with the community and through active and continuous listening.
Fund objectives and funding priorities
In 2023, the Fund will provide support for organizations and initiatives working with asylum seekers, refugees, or migrants without status, or with temporary or precarious status, based on the needs identified by these communities during our consultations. Specifically, funding will be allocated in the following streams:
- Initiatives aimed at providing or improving administrative or legal services for the identified groups;
- Initiatives aimed at influencing public policy;
- Initiatives aimed at strengthening individual or collective empowerment of identified groups.
This year, the Collective Fund for Social Equity has a total budget of $1,300,000. For more information about the eligibility requirements or how to request funding, check out this explainer.
Justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion
In line with FGM’s principles of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, priority will be given to organizations and initiatives that:
- Intervene specifically to improve the quality of life of historically marginalized populations, as identified by the Foundation;
- Have been designed and implemented by people with lived experience of the realities and issues they aim to address.
We are committed to facilitating access to this process for organizations, initiatives, citizen groups, or other associations who face systemic barriers to obtaining funding, including organizations without mission-based funding, without a charitable number, those in the process of establishing themselves, or whose primary activities are advocacy, rights activism or community mobilization.
The 2023 call for projects is now closed
Eligible organizations and initiatives whose mission-related or project-specific activities correspond to the Fund’s funding streams had until September 29, 2023 at 5 p.m. EDT to indicate their interest.
The FGM team, in consultation with the Fund’s Participatory Advisory Committee, will then select priority organizations and initiatives based on the following criteria:
- Relevance of the organization’s initiative or mission to the Fund’s priorities and funding streams;
- Interventions with historically marginalized populations that promote intersectionality;
- Geographical area of activity;
- Demonstrated community representation and an effective participatory approach.
Between the end of September and the end of October, the FGM team will contact the prioritized organizations and draft the funding applications for their validation. Then, the Committee will convene in November to review the applications and prepare their funding recommendations. In December, following approval of the Participatory Advisory Committee’s recommendations by FGM’s Community Engagement Committee, the team will contact the organizations and inform them of the final decisions.
For more information, check out the Fund’s Terms of Reference or contact Vira Kovalova, FGM’s Community Partnerships Advisor, at vira.kovalova@fgmtl.org
Our partners
The Foundation of Greater Montreal would like to thank its partners for their support and confidence in the 2023 edition of the Collective Fund for Social Equity: the Trottier Family Foundation, the Pathy Family Foundation, the Tiphane Fund at EBCF, the WES Mariam Assefa Fund and the Mirella and Lino Saputo Foundation.
The Foundation of Greater Montreal’s Collective Fund for Social Equity is a philanthropic fund that is also open to contributions from the public. You can read more about our process on the history page.