North Shore

Funding Opportunities

There are many funding opportunities to help support your food-related activities. This page includes funding opportunities for non-profits, community groups, schools, residents, and more. Please note that many of the grants listed have specific application dates and eligibility criteria which you will need to confirm on the funder’s website.

Community Grants

Deadline: March
Eligibility: Non-profits
Amount: up to $10,000
BC Hydro offers two types of grants to support non-profit organizations and registered charities that are making a difference in their communities. The grant focus areas are: building the workforce of tomorrow, safety education, and developing smart energy ideas. Learn more here.

Deadline: January 29; September 15
Eligibility: Non-profits
Amount: up to $15,000
Municipal Community Grants support not-for-profit organizations serving North Vancouver residents. North Vancouver municipalities provide community grants to assist with the delivery of services for groups that work to reduce social, economic or physical disadvantage, and/or improve the quality of life for residents. Learn more here.

Deadline: April
Eligibility: Residents, community groups
Amount: up to $500
The North Vancouver City Library Small Grant program provides grants of up to $500 to North Vancouver residents who are excited about building connections and civic engagement in their community through the library. Project example: community seed library. Learn more here.

Deadline: April
Eligibility: Non-profits, community groups
Amount: $1,500-5,000
The City of North Vancouver‘s Living City Grant Program provides funding opportunities for small-scale, community-based parks and environmental initiatives, including urban agriculture. Learn more here.

Deadline: February
Eligibility: Non-profits
Amount:  $25,000- $150,000
The purpose of the Co-op Community Spaces Program is to improve community health and well-being by building places for Western Canadians to come together and build social connections. Three funding areas have been selected: urban agriculture, environmental conservation, and recreation. Learn more here.

Deadline: January 29; September 15
Eligibility: Non-profits
Amount: up to $15,000
Municipal Community Grants support not-for-profit organizations serving North Vancouver residents. North Vancouver municipalities provide community grants to assist with the delivery of services for groups that work to reduce social, economic or physical disadvantage, and/or improve the quality of life for residents. Learn more here.

Deadline: Ongoing
Eligibility: Residents, community groups
Amount: $50-500
Grants to support projects that will help residents, neighbourhood groups, and community groups strengthen their communities by bringing their neighbours together. Learn more here.

Deadline: January, September
Eligibility: Non-profits
The Community Grants program helps residents of West Vancouver by providing funding assistance to non-profit organizations offering programs and services residents need. Learn more here.

Deadline: Spring
Eligibility: Community groups, non-profits
Amount: $5,000
The Gardens for Good grant program supports community gardens across North America that are growing organic food and making a difference in their communities. Learn more here.

Deadline: Closed
Eligibility: Community groups, non-profits
Amount: $10,000-50,000
Funding to address the existing and anticipated food access needs in your community that have arisen as a result of COVID-19 restrictions and impacts. Learn more here.

Deadline: March
Eligibility: Non-profits
Amount: up to $6,000
Metro Vancouver supports agriculture awareness by providing funding grants to community organizations to educate the public about local food and agricultural production. Learn more here.

Deadline: Fall
Eligibility: Residents, community groups, non-profits
Amount: $5,000
The Margaret Mitchell Fund for Women exists to promote economic and social justice for women. Priority will be given to projects which help alleviate poverty, promote equality, and help women to gain confidence and power. Learn more here.

Deadline: Fall
Eligibility: Residents, community groups
Amount: $500
Neighbourhood Small Grants are for any project that will bring your community together, build community strength and resilience, or tackle social isolation. Previous projects have included everything from native plant walks to gardening workshops to food share stands. Learn more here.

Deadline: September 30
Eligibility: Non-profits
Provides funding for projects that provide a direct service or address a community need on the North Shore. Learn more here.

Deadline: January 15; July 15
Eligibility: Not-profits, educational institutions, municipalities, Indigenous groups/communities
Amount: average of $2,000-8,000
The Foundation supports a wide range of environmental initiatives, with a primary focus on environmental education and green space programs. Learn more here.

Deadline: Ongoing
Eligibility: Not profits, social enterprises, co-operatives, labour unions, Indigenous communities, and/or organization, or local small business
Amount: up to $10,000
The Vancity Community Partnership Program provides grants up to $10,000 to support initiatives that lead to financial empowerment and address climate justice by removing barriers to economic well-being and opportunity. Learn more here.

Deadline: Ongoing
Eligibility: Not-profits, social enterprises, co-operatives, labour unions, Indigenous communities, and/or organizations, or local small businesses
Amount: up to $10,000
Supports organizations that are redefining the ‘good life’ by focusing on wellbeing. Focus areas include upstream solutions to waste (including food waste), upcycling resources, and collective action. Learn more here.

Deadline: Ongoing
Eligibility: Not-profits, social enterprises, co-operatives, labour unions, Indigenous communities, and/or organizations, or local small businesses
Amount: up to $500
Each Vancity branch makes small partnership contributions of up to $500 to support local initiatives that are aligned with their funding priorities in the communities we serve. Learn more here.

Eligibility: Non-profits, school boards, First Nations, and local governments
Amount: $100-10,000
Funding for projects that lead to greater equity in wellness by building on a community’s social, environmental, cultural, and economic foundations. Learn more here.

Deadline: Ongoing
Eligibility: Not-profits
Amount: up to $5,000
The Van Tel/Safeway Credit Union Legacy Fund provides grants to charities supporting positive futures for vulnerable youth and enhanced wellbeing for vulnerable seniors. Learn more here.

The BC Food Security Gateway maintains a list of grants focused on food security initiatives both regionally and provincially.

Grants for Schools & Youth

Deadline: Ongoing
Eligibility: K-7 classes in BC
Amount: $50-150
Every year, BC Dairy awards teachers with Mini Food Grants of $50-$150 to purchase food for enhancing nutrition education efforts in the classroom. Learn more here.

Deadline: Fall
Eligibility: K-12 schools in BC
Amount: up to $2,000; $1,000
Farm to School BC offers two types of grants for BC school farm to school initiatives: Start-Up Grants of up to $3,000 and Scale-Up Grants of up to $1,000.Projects may include building garden beds, foraging local food, indoor growing spaces, cooking activities, farm field trips, and much more. Learn more here.

Deadline: February
Eligibility: K-12 schools in BC
Amount: up to $10,000
These grants, valued at up to $10,000, will support bringing the local harvest to schools—engaging students, staff, and the community in gardening, cooking, preserving, purchasing, and serving healthy local foods in a salad bar service at school. Learn more here.

Deadline: Spring
Eligibility: Youth, youth programs
Amount: $5,000
The David Suzuki Foundation’s Future Ground Prize contest celebrates youth-led initiatives throughout British Columbia that are making positive impacts on the environment in local communities. Learn more here.

Deadline: June
Eligibility: K-12 schools in BC
Amount: up to $3,500
HCTF offers education grants to support opportunities for BC youth to learn, experience, and connect to our natural world. They offer two grants. Learn more here.

Deadline: June
Eligibility: K-12 schools in Canada
Amount: up to $5,000
A school program that supports daily food programs and teaches students to grow and cook. Learn more here.

Deadline: Fall
Eligibility: Metro Vancouver youth (ages 18-24)
Amount: $500
The Youth Neighbourhood Small Grants program is a pilot for Metro Vancouver youth (ages 12-24) that provides grants for projects that connect people socially or involve sharing skills or talents with each other. Learn more here.

Foundations

The Honda Canada Foundation’s goal is to improve the lives of all Canadians and was founded to support non-profits in four key areas of family, environment, engineering, and education. Learn more here.

The McConnell Foundation is a private Canadian foundation that contributes to diverse and innovative approaches to address community resilience, reconciliation, and climate change. They do so through funding and investment partnerships, strengthening capabilities, convening, and collaborating with the public, private and non-profit sectors. Learn more here.

The North Shore Community Foundation is a registered public foundation charity established over thirty-three years ago by and for the people of the North Shore. They work to make giving easy by providing ways to connect donors with causes that matter in our community. Learn more here.

The Vancity Community Foundation is a non-profit community foundation with a progressive approach to working with donors and investing assets, making grants, and delivering programs that contribute to community well-being. Learn more here.

The Vancouver Foundation works with individuals, corporations and charitable agencies to create permanent endowment funds and then use the income to support thousands of charities. The original capital is endowed so that it generates income in perpetuity. This Foundation also offers a series of grants. Learn more here.

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