Grant money can pay for automation.Here's where nonprofits find it.
A guide to grant funding for Canadian nonprofits and charities, by province and territory, built around one question: how to get a grant to cover the systems and automation work your organization can't pay for out of its operating budget.
Most Canadian nonprofits can't pay for systems work out of their operating budget. More than half have no paid staff at all, and another one in five run with fewer than five employees. The admin still has to happen: donor records, volunteer tracking, receipts, reports. It just lands on people who already have too much to do.
Grant funding is how nonprofits pay for a project like this. Funders across Canada give money to defined projects with clear budgets, and putting proper systems in place - connecting the tools you already use and automating the repetitive admin between them - is exactly that kind of project.
This page is the map. It names real funders, government portals, and sector bodies in every province and territory, and links to each one so you can check the current details at the source. It doesn't list dollar amounts, deadlines, or which grants are open right now, because those change constantly and each funder's own page is always the current source.
It also covers the part most grant guides skip: how automation work fits what funders say they'll pay for, and what happens to the admin after the money lands.
Can a grant pay for automation and AI work?
Yes, some grants can. Funders rarely use the word "automation," but many fund exactly this work under their own vocabulary: technology, digital tools, capacity building, organizational effectiveness.
Two programs in this guide say it directly on their own sites. The Ontario Trillium Foundation's Seed Grant lists developing or adapting digital technology to deliver programs and services among its project objectives. Alberta's Community Initiatives Program names technology, including application development and licensing, as an eligible cost under its Project Grant.
Most other funders don't publish an eligible-cost list that specific. What nearly all of them share is this: they fund defined projects with clear budgets, not general shortfalls. An automation build is a defined project. It has a goal (staff and volunteers stop losing their hours to manual admin), a plan for carrying it out, and a firm budget.
So as you go through the directory below, read each funder's page with three things in mind: eligible costs, capacity building, and technology. If a program funds projects that make your organization run better, systems work can be that project.
How to find grants for nonprofits in Canada
Every province and territory is covered below. Each section names the government portal, the main foundations, and the umbrella bodies, with a link to each. Check the funder's own page for who's eligible, what it funds, and the current deadlines - and watch for the three things above.
These programs and organizations fund or support nonprofits across the whole country, whatever province you're in.
- Grants and funding, Government of Canada - the federal government's main starting point for finding Government of Canada grant and funding programs.
- Grants and Contributions search - a searchable database of grants and contributions the Government of Canada has awarded.
- Charities and giving, Canada Revenue Agency - the CRA's hub for registering as a charity and understanding the rules that come with charitable status.
- Community Foundations of Canada - the national network that connects local community foundations across the country.
- United Way Centraide Canada - the national office for Canada's network of local United Way Centraide chapters.
- Imagine Canada - the national umbrella organization for Canada's charities and nonprofits, focused on research, standards, and sector support.
- New Horizons for Seniors Program - an ongoing federal program that funds community projects designed by and for seniors.
- Enabling Accessibility Fund - an ongoing federal program that funds accessibility improvements to community and workplace spaces. Nonprofits are among those who can apply.
These last two fund specific kinds of projects, not general operating costs. Many other federal programs are tied to a particular cause, sector, or group, and the two search tools at the top of this section are the place to find them.
British Columbia
British Columbia has a provincial hub for nonprofit funding, some of Canada's largest community foundations, and a province-wide United Way.
- Grants, funding and supports for non-profits (Province of BC) - the province's official hub, linking to provincial and federal funding programs for non-profits.
- Vancouver Foundation - Canada's largest community foundation, funding charities across BC.
- Victoria Foundation - the community foundation for Greater Victoria and the Capital Region.
- Central Okanagan Foundation - the community foundation for Kelowna, West Kelowna, Lake Country, and Peachland.
- United Way British Columbia - a province-wide United Way formed from nine former regional chapters.
Alberta
Alberta runs a central funding hub for nonprofits, has strong community foundations in its major cities, and has a province-wide sector association.
- Grants, funding and supports for non-profits (Government of Alberta) - the province's official hub, with a grants search tool.
- Community Initiatives Program (CIP) Project Grant - a province-wide grant open to general Alberta nonprofits, covering new and enhanced programs, events, and technology.
- Calgary Foundation - the community foundation for Calgary and area, including the Treaty 7 Nations.
- Edmonton Community Foundation - the largest non-government funder of Edmonton's charitable sector.
- Community Foundation of Central Alberta - the community foundation for Red Deer and central Alberta.
- the Nonprofit Chamber - a province-wide association that supports Alberta nonprofits with capacity-building and advocacy. It's a sector body, not a direct funder.
- United Way of Calgary and Area - Alberta has no single province-wide United Way. Cities run their own, with separate chapters in Edmonton and central Alberta.
Alberta's Community Initiatives Program Project Grant names technology, including application development and licensing, as an eligible cost. It's one of the clearest examples in this guide of a program that would fund systems or automation work directly.
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan doesn't have a single government grants portal for nonprofits. Funding runs through individual ministry programs and arm's-length bodies instead, so the funds and foundations below are the most useful starting points.
None. There's no unified provincial grants-search site for nonprofits; funding sits inside separate ministry programs.
- Community Initiatives Fund of Saskatchewan - an arm's-length granting body created by the province and funded through provincial gaming revenue.
- Saskatchewan Community Foundation - a province-wide community foundation based in Regina.
- Saskatoon Community Foundation - the community foundation for Saskatoon and area.
- United Way Regina - a separate city-level chapter.
- United Way Saskatoon & Area - a separate city-level chapter.
- SaskNonprofit Partnership - a province-wide sector network for research and advocacy, not a direct funder.
Manitoba
Manitoba has a central provincial grants portal and two major community foundations.
- Manitoba Grants Online - a one-stop portal linking nonprofits to grant programs across provincial departments.
- The Winnipeg Foundation - Canada's oldest community foundation, granting across Winnipeg and Manitoba.
- Brandon Area Community Foundation - the community foundation for Brandon and southwestern Manitoba.
- Endow Manitoba - a network that connects roughly 40 local community foundations across smaller Manitoba communities. It's a way to find a local foundation, not a direct funder itself.
- United Way Winnipeg - the Winnipeg chapter.
- United Way West Central Manitoba - a separate chapter serving Brandon and Portage la Prairie.
Ontario
Ontario has a central government funding page, the province's largest granting foundation, community foundations in its major cities, and a province-wide nonprofit network.
- Available funding opportunities, Ontario government - the province's page for browsing current funding opportunities across ministries (part of Transfer Payment Ontario).
- Ontario Trillium Foundation - an agency of the Government of Ontario and the province's largest province-wide granting foundation.
- Toronto Foundation - the community foundation for Toronto.
- Ottawa Community Foundation - the community foundation for Ottawa.
- Hamilton Community Foundation - the community foundation for Hamilton.
- London Community Foundation - the community foundation for London and area.
- Ontario Nonprofit Network - a province-wide network that supports and advocates for Ontario's nonprofits. It's a sector body, not a direct funder.
- United Way Greater Toronto - Ontario has no single province-wide United Way; cities run their own.
The Ontario Trillium Foundation's Seed Grant lists developing or adapting digital technology to deliver programs and services, along with organizational strategy to build resilience and capacity, among its stated project objectives. Systems and automation work fits within both.
Quebec
Quebec's official funding portals are in French. The organizations below are listed under their real French names, with a short English description for context. Quebec's nonprofit funding is also split across several ministries, so no single portal covers everything.
- Rechercher des aides financières aux entreprises (Gouvernement du Québec) - Quebec's official financial-aid search tool. It covers nonprofits (organismes à but non lucratif) alongside businesses, so it's general-purpose rather than nonprofit-only.
- Fondation du Grand Montréal - Greater Montreal's community foundation.
- Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon - a large private family foundation focused on poverty prevention and youth development.
- Fondation Marcelle et Jean Coutu - a private family foundation supporting health, education, research, and food security.
- Centraide du Grand Montréal - Greater Montreal's United Way (Centraide), supporting a large network of local community organizations.
One more thing worth knowing: community organizations in health and social services often apply through a separate provincial program run by region, not through the general portal above. If that's your area, it's worth asking which stream fits before you start.
New Brunswick
New Brunswick has a provincial page for non-profit grant funding, two community foundations, and a regional United Way.
- Grant funding for non-profits (Government of New Brunswick) - the province's page on grant funding for non-profits.
- Fundy Community Foundation - based in Saint Andrews, serving southwestern New Brunswick. It was Canada's first rural community foundation.
- Greater Saint John Community Foundation - the community foundation for the Greater Saint John area.
- United Way Maritimes - a 2024 merger covering central and southwestern New Brunswick, along with PEI and mainland Nova Scotia.
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia has a shared funding portal for communities and nonprofits, a province-wide community foundation, and United Way chapters covering the mainland and Cape Breton.
- Nova Scotia Funding Portal - a joint provincial and municipal portal that searches funding for municipalities, non-profits, and community groups.
- Community Foundation of Nova Scotia - the province-wide community foundation.
- The Halifax Foundation - the community foundation for the Halifax Regional Municipality.
- United Way Maritimes - covers mainland Nova Scotia.
- United Way Cape Breton - a separate chapter for Cape Breton.
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is small, and so is its funding landscape. It has a provincial directory for non-profit programs and one major province-wide foundation.
- Non-Profit Groups (Government of PEI) - the province's directory of funding and grant programs for non-profits.
- Community Foundation of PEI - the Island's main province-wide community foundation.
- United Way Maritimes - United Way of PEI merged into this body in 2024.
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador doesn't have a single government grants portal for non-profits. Funding runs through separate departments, so the anchors below are the most useful starting points.
- Government of Newfoundland and Labrador A-Z Index - the province's A-Z index. It's a starting point rather than a full grants portal, and it says so itself; funding sits within individual departments.
- Community Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador - the province's main community foundation.
- United Way Newfoundland and Labrador - the provincial United Way chapter.
- Community Sector Council NL - a separate sector-capacity organization.
Yukon
Yukon doesn't have a single "search all grants" portal. Its main community-project fund is the closest equivalent for nonprofits.
- Community Development Fund (CDF) - the Yukon government's main community-project funding program, open to nonprofit societies, not-for-profit corporations, and charities.
- Yukon Foundation - the territory's community foundation, part of the Community Foundations of Canada network.
- Yukon NGO Hub Society - a shared-services hub supporting Yukon's NGOs and societies.
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories has a filterable directory of territorial funding programs and one community foundation.
- Funding Programs (Government of the Northwest Territories) - a filterable directory of funding programs across departments, including ones open to nonprofits and NGOs.
- Yellowknife Community Foundation - grants in Yellowknife and, through its Northern Legacy Fund, more broadly across the NWT.
I didn't find a confirmed territory-wide sector body for the NWT. That doesn't mean none exists, so it's worth checking directly if you're based there.
Nunavut
Nunavut has a territorial funding directory, its first community foundation, and a territory-wide nonprofit association.
- Funding (Government of Nunavut) - a directory of territorial funding programs, including ones open to non-profits.
- Annauma Community Foundation - Nunavut's first community foundation, Inuit-led.
- Nunavut Association of Non-Profit Organizations (NANPO) - a territory-wide association for Nunavut's non-profits.
How grant funding generally works
Grant programs change all the time, but the way funders think about applications is fairly steady. A few patterns hold across most of them. This is a plain overview, not grant-writing advice.
Your legal status decides which grants you can apply for. A registered charity is registered with the Canada Revenue Agency and can issue official donation receipts. A nonprofit is set up to operate without distributing profit to its members, but it isn't automatically a registered charity and usually can't issue those receipts. Many grants are open to one and not the other, so it's worth knowing which you are before you start.
Funders usually want to fund something specific, not a general shortfall. That means a project with a clear goal, a plan for carrying it out, and a budget that shows how the money would be spent. The clearer the project and the numbers, the easier the funder's decision.
Most grants come with reporting. Once the money is awarded, the funder generally wants to know what you did with it and what it achieved, sometimes partway through and again at the end. Good records kept during the project make that reporting far less painful later.
I'm not a grant writer, and I don't fill out applications. Your team or a grant writer does that. Where I fit is on either side of the application: scoping the systems project and firm budget the application asks for, and handling the admin that reporting demands once the money arrives. The next section covers both.
Where I come in
I run Hazel Works AI. I connect the tools nonprofits already use - your CRM, spreadsheets, forms, and email - so information moves between them on its own and the repetitive admin runs without a person pushing it along. For a grant-funded organization, that work matters at two points.
A funder wants a defined project and a real budget, not an estimate someone hopes is close. When I scope an automation build, I map what your organization actually does, work out what to automate first, and put a firm price on each piece. That scope and that number are what go into your application. You're not guessing at a figure and hoping the build fits it later.
A grant is money with conditions attached. Signing the funding agreement commits you to reporting deadlines written into the contract. Donor and program numbers have to be pulled together into the outcome report your funder requires, in the format they want and by the date they set. Some grants also count volunteer and in-kind hours as a matching contribution, so those hours have to be tracked and documented too. In Ontario, a nonprofit funded by more than one ministry often reports the same numbers to each of them.
That reporting usually lands on people who are already stretched. I have done this kind of admin work myself. On my kids' school Parent Advisory Council, I ran the volunteer coordination and the fundraising admin behind it. A PAC is not a registered charity, so the reporting rules are not the same. What carries over is the day-to-day: tracking who committed to what, following up, and reconciling money spent against what was promised.
The systems I build gather those numbers as you go, so each report is pulled from records that already exist instead of rebuilt from scratch every cycle. I don't set it up and walk away. I stay on to keep it running as your reporting cycle repeats.
Can a grant pay for software, automation, or systems work?
Yes, some can. The Ontario Trillium Foundation's Seed Grant lists developing or adapting digital technology among its project objectives, and Alberta's Community Initiatives Program names technology, including application development and licensing, as an eligible cost under its Project Grant. Rules vary by funder, so check what your specific grant lists as an eligible cost or project objective. A clearly defined systems project with a budget helps your case either way.
What does a grant application need from the systems side?
A defined project and a firm budget. Funders fund specific projects, not general shortfalls, so the application needs to say what will be built, why, and exactly what it costs. When I scope an automation build for an organization, the result is a written scope and a fixed price for each piece of the work. That's the shape a funding application asks for, and your team or grant writer takes it from there.
Why doesn't this page list current grant amounts or deadlines?
Because they change constantly, and a page that lists them goes out of date fast. Grant amounts move, deadlines pass, and programs open, close, or disappear from one year to the next. If this page printed those details, it would send you toward grants that are already closed or gone. Instead, it names the real funders and links to each one, so you can check the current amount, deadline, and status on the funder's own page, which is always the most up-to-date source.
Who can apply for grants for nonprofits in Canada?
It depends on the funder. Some grants are only open to registered charities, some fund incorporated nonprofits that aren't charities, and some support community groups without formal status. Your organization's legal status and the specific project you're funding decide which grants are a fit. The funder's own page will list who's eligible.
What's the difference between a registered charity and a nonprofit?
A registered charity is registered with the Canada Revenue Agency and can issue official donation receipts for tax purposes. A nonprofit is set up to operate without distributing profit to its members, but it isn't automatically a registered charity and usually can't issue those receipts. Both do real work in their communities. The difference matters for grants because many funders specify which one they'll fund.
Is there a difference between a nonprofit and a not-for-profit?
Not really, in everyday use. In Canada, "nonprofit" and "not-for-profit" generally mean the same kind of organization, one set up to operate without distributing profit to its members. "Not-for-profit" shows up more in formal or legal writing, "nonprofit" more in everyday conversation. The distinction that actually matters for grants is registered charity status, covered in the question above, not this wording choice.
Do you write grant applications?
No. I don't write or submit applications, and this page isn't grant-writing advice. That work belongs to your team or a grant writer. What I do is the systems side: connecting the tools you already use and automating the admin around funding, like reporting and donor tracking, so your people spend less time on it.
Do you work with nonprofits and charities?
Yes. The work is the same as for any small organization: I connect the apps you already pay for and automate the repetitive admin between them, so staff and volunteers spend less time on data entry and more on the mission. If that sounds like your situation, the best first step is a free 15-minute call to see if it's a fit.
Applying for a grant to fund systems work?I'll scope the project and give you the number.
A funding application needs a defined project and a firm budget. I map your organization's admin, scope the automation build, and put a fixed price on it that goes straight into your application. Once the money lands, I build it and stay on as the reporting cycles come around.