Men’s Sheds Funding and Sustainability

Men’s Sheds Canada Grant support

Men’s Sheds Canada provides support to Men’s Sheds and emerging Men’s Sheds through three different grants:

  • Start-up Grants offer up to $1,000 to Men’s Sheds that have not yet started or have recently been launched in their community. Groups of two or more individuals wishing to form a Shed, or existing community-based organizations that can demonstrate an interest in starting a Shed from men in their community are eligible. Not-for-profit Society status is not required but Sheds are strongly encouraged to incorporate as a society as they mature.
  • Capacity Building Grants of up to $10,000 are aimed at helping a Shed get over a short-term financial hurdle, for example, acquire needed tools or health and safety equipment; register as association; pay rent or utilities; receive training; community outreach to increase membership. These grants require a Shed to be registered as an association/society, and a ‘purpose’ and plan for long term financial sustainability.
  • Community Connection Grants of up to $10,000 are aimed at helping a Shed forge a meaningful relationship with another community group, such as a non-profit, school, municipality, youth club. A collaborative project involving resources/members from your Shed and the community partner(s) benefits both the Shed members and the community for a charitable cause and elevates the Shed’s engagement/visibility as a valued partner and contributor in the community, worthy of further support.

Deadline: Applications are reviewed on an ongoing basis. A decision on the application will be made within one month of submission.


Other Funding Prospects for Men’s Sheds

  • Government
    • Local: Most municipalities provide grants-in-aid to community organizations, including for operating expenses/overhead. Guidelines, eligibility requirements, deadlines, and the application process are usually available on the government website.
    • Provincial: Many provinces make revenues from lotteries and other gaming available to non-profits. Other grant funding may be available from various ministries for specific initiatives, such as Age-friendly communities, health promotion, community safety, health, environment, or other types of projects. These may be ongoing grants programs, however many government ministries will also announce occasional calls for proposals on a one-time basis. Your local MLA constituency office will often help you identify potential funding programs.
    • Federal: Government of Canada grants may be offered through regular/annual funding calls, such as the New Horizons for Seniors Program (NHSP), or one-time calls-for-proposals. Details about these can be found directly on government department websites, or through online searches.Some departments have email lists you can subscribe to for grant announcements; your local MP’s constituency office will often help you identify potential funding programs.
  • Foundations
    • Community Foundations are local public philanthropies that provide grants to local charities or qualified donees for projects that benefit the community and its residents. They provide grants through a regular grant application process, as well as through Donor Advised Funds, and eligibility and application information is available on their website. To see if there is a community foundation serving your area, check the Community Foundations of Canada website:  https://communityfoundations.ca/find-a-community-foundation-map/
    • Family Foundations are private philanthropies that provide funding to charities or qualified donees in a range of interests and activities Their focus may be local regional, provincial, national, or international. These can often be found through online searches, free or paid databases, or through networks such as Philanthropic Foundations Canada or funder affinity groups such as Environment Funders Canada.
    • Corporate Foundations are charitable entities established and funded by corporations. Their focus is typically supporting activities aligned with the company’s values, mission, or industry. Although they operate independently from the corporation, their activities often reflect the broader business goals and social responsibility initiatives. Companies also provide funding through donations and sponsorships, as outlined below.
  • Business
    • Sponsorship is a collaboration between a nonprofit organization and a business or corporation, in which the business contributes cash and/or in-kind resources to a project or program of the nonprofit in exchange for recognition and/or marketing opportunities. The non-profit is not required to be a registered charity, and no tax receipts are issued.
    • Donations from business, such as cash gifts, volunteer programs, or contribution of goods and services, are often provided as part of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy.  Some businesses have formal donations programs with an application process, while others may be more ad hoc. Checking the business website usually provides information, although smaller businesses may require directly contacting the manager or owner. Financial institutions can be an important source of support, as well as larger companies serving the geographical area the organization is operating in.
  • Service ClubsMany service clubs provide donations to community organizations and projects, such as Legions, Rotary, Eagles, Kiwanis, Lions, Elks, and others. Newer “giving circles” exist in some communities, such as 100 Women Who Care or 100 Guys Who Give a Damn. Service clubs in your community can usually be found through online searches, your local government website, or Welcome Wagon. Applicants and/or recipients of funds are often asked to present to the club’s membership – an opportunity to raise awareness of your Shed’s impact.
  • Employee Groups, Unions, Professional Associations can be a source ofsupport in a wide range of forms, including scholarships; matching employee donations to non-profits; providing donations to non-profits where employees volunteer their time; or making grants to non-profits that employees have nominated.

Eligibility Considerations

Foundation Grants – In Canada, many non-profit organizations seeking funding from foundations have traditionally been challenged by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requirements limiting foundation grants to registered charities. Recently, eligibility requirements have changed for organizations that are not registered charities or qualified donees (as recognized under the Income Tax Act). These changes allow foundations to support a broader range of organizations, provided the necessary agreements and oversight are in place to ensure the funds are used for charitable purposes. Such Non-Qualified Donees (NQDs) can now be considered for grant funding if they meet these requirements:

  1. Partnership Agreement: The foundation and the NQD must enter into a formal partnership agreement that outlines how the grant will be used, how the foundation will monitor its use, and how the NQD will report on the use of the funds.
  1. Alignment with the Foundation’s Purpose: Activities funded by the grant must align with the foundation’s charitable purposes, that is, the work done by the NQD should further the foundation’s mission, such as advancing education, relieving poverty, or promoting health.
  1. Foundation’s Control and Oversight: The foundation must maintain control over the use of the grant funds. This includes having the right to direct how the funds are used and requiring the NQD to provide regular reports on the activities funded by the grant.
  1. Clear Documentation: All aspects of the partnership, including the grant’s purpose, the terms of the agreement, and the reporting requirements, must be clearly documented to ensure transparency and accountability.
  1. Compliance with CRA Guidelines: Both the foundation and the NQD must comply with the CRA guidelines. This includes ensuring the funds are used exclusively for charitable purposes and the foundation can demonstrate this compliance if audited.

Government Grants – Grants fromlocal, provincial, and federal governmentsin Canada generally do not require organizations to be registered charities. It is usually sufficient for organizations to be incorporated as societies or non-profit organizations.

Business Sponsorships – To access sponsorship support from businesses, an organization must be legally structured as a non-profit, i.e. incorporated as a society or association. A sponsorship is an exchange between two parties with a binding contract, where one or both parties receive a benefit. Sponsorships typically are part of a business’s marketing budget and do not involve tax receipts, so there is no requirement for charitable registration.

Business Donations – To access donations from businesses, an organization must be legally structured as a non-profit, i.e. incorporated as a society or association. While not always required, being a registered charity can make donating to a non-profit more attractive to businesses, as it allows the business to receive tax receipts for their donations, which can be beneficial for their financial reporting.


Researching Funding Sources On-line

Researching funding sources can be confusing if you are inexperienced or don’t have a system to help you sort through all the sources of information available.  Where you start will depend on whether you have access to a paid subscription database, which can be very helpful, but also very expensive.

Many larger organizations with sizeable fundraising budgets subscribe to several, while others limit themselves to one. Some will subscribe for only one year and in that time, mine it extensively for the funder information relevant to their needs, which will keep them going on submitting grant applications for some time to come. Smaller organizations are sometimes able to access subscriptions of partner organizations, however database companies usually discourage or prohibit this. Fortunately, for those on limited budgets, there are ways to access a fair amount of information about potential funders without having to invest more than your time. 

Here are some tips:

  • Prepare a chart to record the information you collect, and regularly update it.  Note the funder name, contact information, funding priorities, deadlines, etc., and reserve space for action taken, response, etc. Make sure to include dates and people responsible. Keep it up to date and use it as a working document for all those in the organization who are involved in grantseeking.
  • Start with the free sites, such as those listed below and others you may come across and get as much information as you can from them. In many cases, if the foundation has its own website there will be a link to it, and that is where you will usually get details such as application guidelines, deadlines, grants awarded etc.
  • You can also get details about a foundation from the Canada Revenue Agency website. Information such as assets, grants awarded and contact information can be obtained. Several other websites now also display registered charities information, including foundations, in more accessible formats. (See below.)
  • Googling can result in a surprising amount of information; just start with key words, such as “food security funding” or “youth grants” and you’ll be led to many sources of information – some may be useful listings of funders, some of no value, and others will lead to less obvious sites or documents that, if you look carefully, may identify relevant information to follow up. For example, you may come across a press release about a project that mentions who provided financial support. Googling the funders mentioned may result in a website for a foundation that is a good fit for your funding requirements. These kinds of searches can be time consuming, but often result in some good leads that are worth looking into.
  • Most subscription databases provide a limited amount of information before you have to pay or offer free trials. The free information provided is different on the various sites, so you can get as much as you can from one, then move to another to add to what you already have. From a couple of sites, you can usually get contact details and information about funding priorities; from there you can look for the funder’s website that may have all the information you need. If the funder doesn’t have a website, and often they don’t, at the very least you will have an address and an indication of the kind of things they fund, so that you can send a Letter of Inquiry.
  • Subscription based databases, and some free ones, allow searches by key words that help narrow down options. Make sure to try all words or categories applicable to your project.  But also eliminate search results that are clearly not applicable to your needs. Occasional errors or ambiguities in database entries are inevitable, and searches will thus sometimes return a few inappropriate results. These will usually be self-evident and should be eliminated at the outset. Your aim should be to prioritize your results according to the fit in your needs and funders’ interests, followed by application deadline dates and available grant amounts.


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