The Recovery and Resiliency Fund is a ground-breaking new fund made possible through a partnership between Government of BC, Vancouver Foundation, United Way BC, and New Relationship Trust that will distribute $34 million to charitable and non-profit organizations, of which Vancouver Foundation has contributed $4 million.

Purpose of the Fund

Although organizations of all sizes in the charitable and non-profit sector have been negatively affected during the COVID-19 pandemic, some organizations have been disproportionately impacted because they have limited resources to sustain their operations. Meanwhile, they’ve also faced an increased demand for their programs, activities, and services, and have experienced a decreased operational ability to meet the demand due to funding and staffing challenges.

This Fund supports organizations that have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with recovery efforts and long-term planning. It seeks to distribute the funding amongst those in need in our community as follows:

• funding Indigenous-led organizations with annual expenses of any size
• funding non-Indigenous organizations with annual expenses of less than $1 million
• funding proportionately more organizations located in and/or operating in rural areas
• funding proportionately more organizations in full partnership with, or led by, equity-denied communities that center the communities they represent

Available Grants & Eligibility

1. For Indigenous-led organizations with annual revenues over $1m

Indigenous-led organizations with annual revenues of more than $1 million can apply for an Indigenous Resiliency and Recovery Grant (IPP) through New Relationship Trust (NRT).

NRT will process applications and grant directly to those organizations that are selected for an award. More information can be found here.

Indigenous-led organizations with annual budgets of less than $1 million can apply for funding through Vancouver Foundation (see below).

2. For all other charities and non-profit societies in BC

a) Base Amount: $50,000 flexible grant per year for 3 years

To be eligible, an organization must meet all the following eligibility criteria:

• Have been operating in BC since January 1, 2020 (before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic) and have (or will have) society incorporation or charitable registration by September 30, 2022.
  • Organizations that had to close temporarily or cyclically during the pandemic are also eligible to apply.
  • Non-profits that incorporated as ‘Member-funded’ Societies are not eligible to receive funding. This designation is recorded in the incorporation record that you can look up at here .
    For more information on not-for-profit organizations, please click here .
  • Extra-provincial non-share corporations must be in good standing with B.C. Registries and Online Services .
• Provides charitable benefit in one or more of BC’s eight economic development regions
  • Regardless of whether the organization is a charity or a non-profit society, its purpose must benefit the community-at-large.
  • To see a list of charitable purposes and their descriptions, please see here .
• Has an identifiable need to recover from the pandemic, a vision of its longer-term resiliency, and needs additional financial resources to realize its vision.
• Had actual annual expenses in 2020 and 2021 of less than $1 million as per the organization’s Statement of Financial Operations (i.e. Income Statement)

b) Top-Up Amount: $72,000 flexible grant per year for 3 years ($50,000 base + $22,000 top-up)

To be eligible, an organization must meet all the following eligibility criteria:

• All criteria under the Base Amount Eligibility; and
• Be either ‘Equity Partnership’ or ‘Equity Led’ in the Equity Matrix in at least 3 of the 4 attributes sections: Leadership, Values & Practices, Program & Team, Accountability to Community

How to Apply

1. Review the Guidelines.
2. Confirm your organization is either a registered charity  or a registered non-profit society . The date of incorporation or charitable registration must be on or before September 30, 2022.
3. Review the Equity Matrix so that you can answer the questions about your organization’s leadership, values and practices, program and team, and accountability.
4. Set up an account or log into the Online Grant Management System  to start your application.
5. If your organization is selected to receive a grant, you will be contacted by staff to validate your eligibility and need.

How Applications Will Be Processed

Vancouver Foundation and United Way BC will be testing a randomized selection process to award grants to minimize the biases that many organizations face in applying for funding, including having to compete with other organizations based on qualitative and subjective indicators that assess merit. The randomized selection process is intended to assess eligibility and then validate it through a more relational approach before awarding the grant.

1. All eligible applications will be pooled together based on economic development region and then further divided into Base Amount and Top-Up Amount pools.
2. Applications will be randomly selected until each of the funding pools is committed.
3. Selected applicants will be contacted to confirm their eligibility and need, including support with uploading documentation (e.g. Statement of Financial Operations (i.e. Income Statement)) to be reviewed by Vancouver Foundation or United Way BC. Applications from Indigenous-led organizations will be assessed, validated, and supported by Vancouver Foundation’s Indigenous Priorities team (which is Indigenous-led).
4. If the eligibility criteria are not met or cannot be validated, then a new organization will be selected using the same process.