The Flurry of Ontario Grant Calls

​Ontario grant calls have been in overdrive since June. There was a year or two of quiet slumber and now a new grant call lands in my inbox almost weekly.
 
The calls are short and specific.
 
Short in terms of the amount of time you have to respond to the call- maybe six weeks if you are lucky.
 
Specific in terms of the kind of program they are looking to support.
 
The short turn around time is not particularly new, albeit challenging.  The level of specificity is new. It is too early, for me, to determine if this is a trend for which we must prepare or a mirage caused by a pre-election flurry of activity.
 
Regardless, grant dollars are not expanding.  More is expected with less. And according to Imagine Canada’s chief economist, Brain Emmett, the charitable sector is growing. We can all do the math on that.   
 
Three suggestions to either weather the current flurry or be prepared should this be the new world of grants.
 

1. Embed an efficient and effective practice of grant seeking into your organization.
2. Build your tower of evidence. Identify and collect evidence of the problem you are addressing, evidence for your chosen intervention and evidence for the achievement of outcomes.
3. Be proactive and purposeful with partnerships.