Frequently Asked Questions about the CFKA Grant Programs
1. What is the schedule of grant rounds, when will the grants be announced?
Generally, but subject to change, Community Grants letters of intent are due early February and end of August, while the Stark Family Fund of Prince Edward County letters of intent will be due early January. Community grants are then announced at the end of April and at the end of October, and Stark Family Fund grants at the end of March. Please contact the grants coordinator (grants@cfka.org) for the exact dates of the current grant round.
2. Can we apply for funding for an event that will happen before the grants are announced?
In general, the CFKA Grants Selection Committee will not make grants to projects after they have taken place, as this is considered deficit funding. However, sometimes the Grants Selection Committee will approve small grants (<$1,000) after only reviewing the letter of intent (instead of after the full application) if they do not have any questions for the applicants and strongly approve of the project. In that case, the grant making decision will happen much earlier and therefore such grants could support events that take place before the end of the two-stage regular grant round. Contact grants@cfka.org for details and specific dates.
3. Can you give us an example of a well written application?
We have received permission from Phil Perrin, formerly with the Limestone Learning Foundation, to use one of his recent applications as an example.
Example Letter of Intent Example Full Application
4. We are a provincial or national organization and would like to apply for funding for a project in the Kingston area. Are we eligible?
According to our grant criteria it is not enough that the project is located in our granting area, we also require that the organizations are local. Provincial or national organizations may apply if they have a local, well-defined accountable committee, a local office with strong community involvement, or a large and active group of local volunteers. The chair of the CFKA Grants Committee will decide on a case-by-case basis if a provincial or national organization has sufficient local ties. Inquiries may be sent to grants@cfka.org.
5. Can you make grants supporting individuals (e.g., medical devices, travel costs, etc. for a single recipient)?
No, we cannot, we can only make grants to charitable organizations. Even if the individual finds a charitable organization to apply to us on his/her behalf, we cannot specify that the individual will ultimately receive the funds when we give a grant to that organization. According to Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) rules, if we make a grant to a charitable organization, it cannot be made on the condition that it go to a specific individual, we can only request that it be applied to a particular program.
6. Our organization is a registered non-profit organization but not a registered charity. Can we apply for grants from CFKA?
No, not directly. According to CRA regulations, the CFKA can only make grants to charitable organizations. You can apply for grants from us for a project if you are able to find a charitable organization that is willing to support your application, see item 7 for an explanation.
7. What does it mean that a charitable organization is supporting an application?
It means that the supporting organization and the applying organization agree to the following:
• the supporting, charitable organization will receive the cheque from CFKA
• it will essentially sub-contract the implementation of the project to the applying organization.
• The supporting organization maintains direction over the project and control over how the money is spent
• Both organizations agree beforehand what exactly the applying organization will do to implement the project and how they will report back to the supporting organization on a regular basis so that the supporting organization can, in fact, maintain “direction and control”.
The full, legally valid explanation can be found on the CRA website: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/chrts/prtng/ctvts/chrtbl-eng.html
In the CRA website, the organization implementing the project (i.e., the one who wants to apply to CFKA for funding) is called an “intermediary”.
It is expected that the board of directors of the supporting organization have approved their role in the application in form of a motion at a board meeting before the full application is submitted. The full application form asks on which date the board of the supporting organization approved the application, and CFKA requires signatures of two directors of the supporting (charitable) organization. An applying organization should not put a supporting organization on its letter of intent without their consent.
Often, there will only be three weeks to prepare the full application, and since most boards only meet once a month, the agreement between the two organizations should be worked out as early as possible.
8. Is it possible to use municipalities as supporting organizations? Who should sign the full application form in that case to attest that this relationship has been approved?
Yes, it is possible, as donations to municipalities are considered charitable by the CRA if certain conditions are met. The municipality cannot simply be a conduit for the money, they must also have ultimate control over the funds. The following is an excerpt from a CRA technical interpretation with respect to directed donations to a municipality.
“It is our general view that donations can be receipted by a municipality in Canada on behalf of an organization which operates under the authority of the municipality (e.g., a committee established by a municipal bylaw) provided the municipality retains discretion as to how the donated funds are to be spent. If the Municipality is merely collecting funds from donors on behalf of the non-profit organization and the latter is legally or otherwise entitled to the property so transferred, the Municipality is not in receipt of a gift and cannot issue a donation receipt. In that case, the municipality is merely acting as a conduit for the other organization and it is our view that payments received by the municipality on behalf of the organization could not qualify as gifts to a municipality in Canada for purposes of subsections 118.1(1) and 110.1(1) of the Act.”
In order to act under the authority of the municipality, the committee/project/program would have to have the approval of Council. If the grant can operate under an existing municipal committee or program, the signing authority would be the person at the municipality given the authority for this committee/project.
9. Where can I download a certain form?
The following forms are all for the CFKA Community Grants program which operates in Kingston, Frontenac County and Loyalist Township. To download forms for the Stark Family Fund Grants Program that operates in Prince Edward County, please refer to the following webpage instead: http://www.cfka.org/the-stark-family-fund
Final report form for 2011 projects
Final report outline for older projects
Consent Form (consent to publication of project photos etc.)
CFKA Community Grants Criteria
Spring 2012 Community Grants Letter of Intent Form
Project Budget (section 5) in Excel format
10. Do you offer grant-writing workshops?
Grant-writing workshops are offered on a regular basis and will be announced on the website. You can also send an email to grants@cfka.org to be notified of the next workshop. If you require immediate assistance in completing your letter of intent or grant application, please feel free to contact our grant coordinator (613-546-9696 or grants@cfka.org).
11. Where can we see a list of past grants?
We always look for innovative, different projects. Past grants are listed in each issue of our newsletter Ripples which is online here:
http://www.cfka.org/publications#Ripples
12. What size of grants do you make?
Most of our grants are in the range of $2,000 to $6,000, with outliers both larger and smaller.
