Our Granting Guidelines

To apply for funding from Acts of Grace, charities and the projects they present for consideration must align with the Foundation's eligibility criteria, granting priorities and exclusions.

Our 2025 Granting Process will open in early July 2025. 

Until then, we are working to refine some of our granting priority areas as well as our process. Please continue to check the website for updates as they are available. 

NOTE: Once forms are available, they will be visible in our grant management system and will not require an access code. 

Eligibility Criteria

To be considered for an Acts of Grace grant, an organization must:

  • Be a registered Canadian charity with a Christian faith basis
  • Be an outwardly-focused charity, serving the broader community beyond its own constituents
  • Have an independent Board of Directors or similar committee
  • Demonstrate sustained organizational health
  • Provide 3rd party prepared and reviewed financial statements for the two prior years
  • Demonstrate a proven record of successfully delivering impactful, culturally and geographically relevant initiatives
  • Demonstrate thoughtful consideration of long-term sustainability for the organization and its work

The Acts of Grace Foundation accepts one application per granting cycle per charity. Charities are not eligible to apply for new grants until all requirements for active grants have been met, including follow-up and final reports. We only grant to organizations with a Christian faith basis. In addition to these minimum criteria, other factors will also be considered such as the Foundation's Granting Priorities and Exclusions, as outlined below.

Granting Priorities

Acts of Grace will consider applications in the following areas:


1) PROGRAM DELIVERY GRANTS

that increase individuals' capability to affect their own long-term self sufficiency, well-being, and/or spiritual growth through programs in one of the following areas:

We prioritize projects that enable development or foster system-wide transformation. Acts of Grace does not provide funds for aid (relief).


2) CAPACITY BUILDING GRANTS

that increase charities' long-term capacity to effectively serve marginalized people through investments in capital, infrastructure, systems & processes, staffing & people.

Exclusions

Given the breadth of applications presented to the Foundation, Acts of Grace has made the necessary decision to direct its funding to specific areas. To that end, the Acts of Grace Foundation does not fund any of the following:

  • Individuals
  • Government departments or agencies
  • Start-up organizations
  • Membership-based organizations (including political parties, lobbyist organizations, service clubs or special interest groups)
  • Places of worship, churches, denominations, dioceses or agencies thereof (particularly where the purpose of the organization is inwardly-focused at serving its own members/constituents; we believe - in most cases - the local community has the capacity to fund its own initiatives, especially in Canada)
  • Aid or relief efforts
  • Delivery of medical care, agriculture, livelihood/ economic security and WASH initiatives (we will consider capacity-building grants to charities working in these focus areas)
  • Culture and the arts
  • Environmental and resource protection or conservation
  • Climate action and clean energy
  • Industry and infrastructure development
  • Legislation and policy reform
  • Schools in North America (especially below the post-secondary level and particularly where the purposes of the organization is inwardly-focused at serving its own members/constituents)
  • Scholarships and bursaries, tuition support
  • Community recreation (camps, clubs, community halls and recreation facilities, libraries, zoos, parks and public spaces, etc.)
  • Contributions to a charity's unrestricted/general funds, annual fundraising campaigns or general contributions to large-scale capital campaigns
  • Fundraising or promotional events
  • Lobbying efforts
  • Advertising and publicity costs (with some exceptions for awareness building related to a key priority area)
  • Inwardly-focused projects aimed at serving an organization’s own constituents
  • Initiatives taking place in the United States (we prioritize granting in Canada as our home and native land, believing that the local US community has the capacity to fund its own initiatives)
  • Projects with significant portions of the work taking place and/or the project completed prior to the granting decision deadline (the Foundation does not make grants to retroactively fund a project)