The following is for the benefit of any organization approaching the Foundation for support or collaboration in 2017. For more information about granting, please visit our Granting web pages.
In 2017, the Foundation will focus new granting on the following:
- Cities for People (increasing equality of opportunity; strengthening the civic commons; supporting urban innovation labs and networks)
- Indigenous-focused philanthropy (reconciliation as social and economic innovation)
- WellAhead (school-based child and youth wellbeing)
- Re-Code (supporting social innovation in post-secondary education)
- Energy and the Economy (shifting the economy to a sustainable state through changes to energy production, distribution and use)
- Public Sector Social Innovation (catalyzing social innovation in government through partnerships with civil society organizations. McConnell funding can support convening, policy briefs and similar activities with grants of up to $25K).
The foundation’s Sustainable Food granting initiative is now focused on the Nourish initiative — which seeks to improve the future of food in health care — and on food security in Northern Indigenous communities, and is not considering new unsolicited proposals.
Two additional funds remain open to general application:
- Innoweave (sharing social innovation tools with change leaders)
- Social Innovation Fund (supporting the scale up and growth of social innovations).
There are several other priorities that we will continue to support in partnership with other foundations, investors, and governments:
- Integration of our impact investing and granting goals, including by developing program-related investments (PRI’s)
- Amplifier Montréal — a multi-sector initiative to transform Montreal into a more inclusive and innovative city
- National and global social innovation networks and exchanges.
Finally, at the end of the year, the Foundation will conclude its current funding relationship with Social Innovation Generation (SiG), while taking steps to ensure that the knowledge and networks SiG has developed are sustained.