Grant Application FAQ

Once directed to the ECF grant application online portal, click on Register in the top right corner. You’ll be directed to set up a Username (simple and generic is better), enter an e-mail address, and password (twice to confirm).
After you’ve submitted this information, an automated e-mail will be sent to the e-mail address included in the registration. If you didn’t get an automated e-mail in your inbox see the next question.

If you didn’t receive an automated e-mail to activate your account in your inbox, it may have gone into your junk folder. Copy and paste the link included in the e-mail into a browser and your account will then be activated. If you cannot find the activation e-mail, please contact grants@ecfoundation.org to activate your account. Be sure to include the username you registered in your e-mail.

If you’ve forgotten your username or password to access the online application, please e-mail grants@ecfoundation.org. If you have forgotten your username, please include the email address used to activate the account. If you’ve forgotten your password, please include either the username or email address used to activate the account. We will issue a new temporary password; you are responsible for changing the password once you have regained access to the account.

ECF supports a wide range of sectors, community needs, organizational needs, and types of projects and programs. If you want to discuss a specific idea, please contact the Grants team at grants@ecfoundation.org or at 780-426-0015.

Each application will be evaluated holistically on its own merits, considering whether the applicant has demonstrated:

• Likelihood of a benefit to the greater Edmonton area
• An appropriate plan
• The capacity to implement the project
• A reasonable budget and timeframe
• Appropriate partners
• A plan for sustainability of the project (if applicable), impact, and organizational capacity

ECF grants are not designed to support:

• Deficit funding
• Contributions to endowments
• Annual funding drives and annual events
• Faith-based programs
• Private schools
• Major medical equipment and research, capital campaigns or purchase of land and/or buildings
• Grants primarily benefiting individuals (such as scholarships)
• Funding to replace recent government program cuts
• Requests from other funders to support operations, fundraising initiatives or granting programs
• National or provincial initiatives without specific benefit to Edmonton
• Any expenses incurred prior to the Foundation’s decision date, or
• Grants to agencies that have unrestricted reserve funds in excess of one’s year’s operating expenses.

We’ve included a few general questions that you might see on our Community Grants Preliminary Application:

• Summary of Request
• Amount Requested and Total Cost
• Who are you? Brief background on your organization
• What will you be doing? Describe the program/project/initiative.
• Why is this important? Priority for your organization.
• How will you know you’ve been successful?
• Who else will be involved with the initiative?
• What organizations are doing similar work?
• Timeline of the initiative
• Attach a PDF budget

We’ve included a few general questions that you might see on our Small Grants Application:

• Summary of Request
• Amount Requested and Total Cost
• What will you be doing? Describe the program/project/initiative.
• Why is this important? Priority for your organization.
• How will you know you’ve been successful?
• Who are you? Brief background on your organization
• Attach a PDF budget

For Young Edmonton Grants (YEG) Reporting Guidelines, click here.

If you received a Community Grant, Small Grant, or Vital Signs grant after January 1, 2018 you will receive an email notifying you when you have access to your online report. If you do not receive an email, contact reports@ecfoundation.org. The report is comprised of a series of short answer, drop-down menu, and multiple select questions. These questions address general information about your project, staff resources allocated to your project, project impact, financial information, and any project follow-up activities which your organization may be undertaking. You will also need to upload financials for the project the grant supported, which clearly indicate where the grant money was spent.

If you received a Community Grant, Small Grant, of Vital Signs grant before January 1, 2018 contact reports@ecfoundation.org for reporting guidelines.