2024 Community Grants Program Portal Guide
The Victoria Foundation is pleased to announce the 2024 Community Grants Program is now open for applications. Follow the instructions below to navigate the Victoria Foundation’s updated granting portal.
Before applying, there a few items to consider:
- If you’re not sure if your organization can apply for funding, you can find information on eligibility in our application guidelines. We are also available to speak to you by phone, email, or via Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
- Charity and Non-charity partner applications: If you are a charity applying with a non-charity (non-qualified donee) partner, or vice versa, please view our application guidelines for more details and/or contact us with any questions. More information about this type of partnership can also be found in this infographic. The charitable partner will need to be the one to register and login to the portal.
- Qualified Donees without a Charitable Registration Number: If you are a qualified donee without a charitable registration number, such as a First Nation, please contact grants staff and we can help you access the portal to apply.
How to start your application
1. Registration
To start your application, go to vfgrants.ca/2024 to access the Grants Application Portal.
Your first step is to register to use the Portal in 2024. This is required for new and returning organizations. Clicking on the “Register” button will take you to this page, allowing you to enter your organization’s address and contact information.
Once you have created your account and login credentials for 2024, you can enter your organization’s login credentials back on the main page.
2. Eligibility
* Please note, if your organization has received grants from the Victoria Foundation in previous years, visit our application guidelines for information on submitting final reports. If you have fully spent out your previous grant(s), we strongly encourage you to submit the final report(s) before applying for a new grant in 2024.
On this page, and all others in the Portal, there are orange “Question” boxes. Please send any questions you may have to our team as you proceed through the application portal. You can also email us if you prefer.
There are two pages in the eligibility section. Click on the “Go to next step” bar at the bottom to proceed through the pages. You can go back and forth between them by clicking the different tabs on the navigational legend on the left-hand side.
Please note, once the eligibility section is submitted, this section cannot be edited again.
3. Main Application
Once Eligibility is complete, you can proceed to the main application questions.
4. Budget
After completing the application questions, the application requires some budget information. The intentions behind asking for this information is to understand in general terms how you plan to use the funds, to ensure that all expenses are eligible for funding, and to understand if you have a plan to fund expenses beyond what the Victoria Foundation can fund.
Please share a general outline of budget information. We do not want to place an unnecessary burden on applicants in providing this information.
note that as of 2023, the Budget section of the application has been redesigned to better align with the principles of Trust Based Philanthropy and based on applicant feedback.
5. Budget Upload
At the bottom of the Budget page, you’ll see a place to upload an optional budget file. This is meant as an option for those who prefer to share a budget file in lieu of answering the first two budget questions, or as supplementary information.
6. Financial Statement for First-time Applicants
At the bottom of the Budget page, you’ll see a place to upload and attach a financial statement. The intention behind asking for this information is for due diligence as a funder and registered charity ourselves.
For 2024, this is only required for first-time applicants. Please submit a financial statement from the last 12 months, preferably audited, or a statement showing your organization’s most recently completed fiscal year.
7. Submission
Please be sure to download and save a PDF of your application for your records after you are done.
Once you have submitted your application, you will receive an automated email from the grants portal confirming your successful submission. This email includes a link to our applicant feedback survey. We would appreciate it if you could share five minutes of your time for feedback, as this helps us improve the granting program each year.
We hope you have found this portal guide helpful. If you have any questions, please contact us by phone or email.
EMAIL grants@victoriafoundation.bc.ca
250-381-5532
Thank you for the amazing work you do to make our Greater Victoria community the vibrant, healthy, and resilient place it is. We look forward to receiving your applications for 2024.