Need to Know

This page is rather boring, but going through it carefully can save you and us time and effort.  If you are looking for support from Good Foundation Inc. (GFI) you should be aware of the following:

  • GFI can grant only to organizations who can issue charitable receipts acceptable to the Canada Revenue Agency, although these are not necessarily identical to tax receipts given to individual donors. (See CRA re Receipts From Other Charities).  Receipts from other government agencies may also be acceptable. Individuals must be sponsored by or work through such organizations or agencies so that proper receipts can be issued. (See CRA definition of qualified donees.) 
  • GFI does require receipts for bookkeeping reasons and in order to prove compliance with CRA regulations.  Organizations that have not provided proper and timely receipts for past grants will not be considered for future requests. We do expect a receipt within no more than 120 days because our activities are confined to the early part of our fiscal year, and we like to close our books on the current year before starting on the next.  While we do not require closing reports on individual grants, any new applications should contain, if applicable, an account of how previous funding was used.
  •  GFI’s focus is highly regional. Chances of interesting members in local projects outside of the London and Waterloo regions in Ontario are slim. There is a family connection to Victoria, but grants to BC are unlikely to be approved until it is clear whether or not the new “Speculation Tax” will allow us a continued presence in that province.. Provincial, national, and international grants are possible, but have been done mainly through organizations which have a regional presence, or in cases where members have a direct connection to the organization or project.
  •  Support for one-time events or projects is more likely than requests for on-going operating funding leading to annual requests. We recognize that some worthwhile endeavours require only annual operating funds and we will sometimes consider multiyear requests with either upfront or multiple payments.  “Special Grants” can also occur, usually based on directed donations to the Foundation (flow-through grants) or financial windfalls–i.e. higher than expected returns in a given year.
  •  GFI does not support disease or condition specific medical organizations, worthy as they may be.
  •  Conventions, conferences, seminars and deficits are not normally supported.
  •  GFI does not normally contribute to endowment funds unless the fund has been initiated by the Foundation or its members or it is in support of a project we have funded.
  •  Although the charter of the Foundation speaks of grants for “charitable, religious, and educations purposes,” in practice, the Foundation records its grants under the following categories: Arts; Education; Health; Heritage; and Social Services. For various reasons, our focus is now more on Arts, Culture, and Heritage.  Grants outside these parameters are best accounted for by particular director interest, and often special flow-through funding. NB: The Foundation has never granted funds for specifically religious purposes, although in some instances religious organizations have proved effective vehicles for furthering social, heritage, or artistic projects.
  • We regularly receive requests from art therapy programs given our focus on the arts. While we applaud the work these programs do and the health and social organizations that sponsor them, our preference, given our limited funds, is to support directly primary arts and cultural organizations.
  • GFI has made grants from $200 to $500,000 but requests at either end of that spectrum are neither practical (low end) nor realistic (high end).  Particularly at the upper end, the  grants were dictated by very special circumstances.  Check carefully the “Grants Made”  recent sections for a sense of what the Foundation is currently doing.
  •  E-Mail is the best, and really only,  means of contact since regular mail sometimes accumulates at the London address when nobody is home.  All items circulated are through digital means, so it is easiest when they arrive that way.  The Foundation’s London answering machine goes unchecked when the family is not in residence in London.
  •  GFI’s fiscal year is April 1 to March 31; it is significant because funds become available on April 1. We start looking at projects the beginning of the calendar year and most funds are assigned by April 1st.
  • GFI would be defined as a “small” (just over $12,000,000) private foundation. It currently distributes  a little over $450,000 a year, far less that the opportunities it recognizes and the requests it receives.