Grants and Contributions

This 19-month project will build Refugee Women's Network's capacity to advance gender equality by addressing the barriers to equality refugee women face during their settlement in the country and by increasing the organization’s financial sustainability. To do this, refugee women will be engaged in the organization’s research to identify and understand their needs, experiences and challenges. Findings will be used to adapt the organization’s programming to their needs and cultural diversity, therefore facilitating their integration into Canadian society and improving their quality of life. The hiring of a grant writer will also contribute to increasing the organization’s fundraising ability in order to sustain its services to refugee women..

Through this 19-month project, Women in Music Canada will build its capacity to advance gender equality and support women and gender-diverse creators and innovators in the music industry.

This project will address lack of capacity within the organization and their regional chapters to grow opportunities and communication in line with the growing needs of the industry. This will allow WIMC to engage on a national level, and support partner organizations trying to tackle gender barriers and increase opportunities for underserved women and gender-diverse individuals in the industry.

The project will include increased staff support for membership, networking development opportunities, communications, administration, and organization leadership. This will allow WIMC to be more actively engaging with members, financially support regional chapters, discover more opportunities, elevate support and benefits for women and non-binary artists, and break down barriers to success in the music industry in Canada. Additionally, new administration and sponsor fulfillment support will allow the organization to increase private support beyond this project to sustain and continue growth. This funding will also support WIMC ability to translate communication materials and meet the needs of the Francophone communities in the Canadian music industry.

Through this 19-month project, Dress for Success Orillia and Barrie will build its capacity to advance gender equality. It will address challenges in governance, financial management, and human resources that hinder the organization’s capacity to support women in achieving economic security. The project will include, 1) updating Bylaws to ensure compliance with the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act; 2) developing a new strategic plan and fund development plan; 3) developing human resource policies and procedures; 4) developing a communication plan and training for staff; and 5) developing policies, and corresponding training, to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Through this 19-month systemic change project, Information and Communication Technology Council of Canada (ICTC) will scale the ''Advancing Women's Leadership in Canada's Digital Economy'' project to advance women’s representation in leadership and decision-making roles in Canada’s emerging technology sectors, focusing on cleantech, health, biotech, agri-foods and manufacturing. This project will be scaled to new locations in British-Columbia, Alberta, MB, Ontario and QC in order to address the systemic barriers faced by women and marginalized groups in accessing managerial, executive and board positions within small and medium-sized private and not-for-profit organizations. To achieve this, ICTC will undertake research on targeted populations to adjust its approach, training and tools. It will engage organizations supporting women and gender diverse people in the project, organize focus groups, workshops and webinars, and provide resources and mentoring opportunities for women through its Online Gender Equity Centre. The project will culminate in a roundtable discussion aimed at developing effective and sustainable strategies for accessing senior management positions.

Through this 19-month project, Rowan House Society will build its capacity to advance gender equality. It will address the organization’s needs with regards to its operational development and community engagement. The project will include the development of a strategic funding and donor stewardship plan, the development of a communications strategy and community engagement strategy, the development of strategic policies and procedures, and staff training.

Through this 19-month systemic change project, the YWCA Montréal will scale the Action on Equality in Colleges project to advance women’s and girls’ economic security and prosperity. The organization will scale the project by expanding its scope to other post-secondary institutions, including vocational schools. The project will address all forms of gender-based violence, such as harassment, gender stereotypes, and gender discrimination in post-secondary institutions. To achieve this, the project will deepen understandings of the challenges faced by women in the target communities, develop specialized tools and practices to promote gender-based violence prevention, and support communities in changing their policies and practices to create sustainable change.

Through this 32-month project, the Groupe Femmes, Politique et Démocratie will help advance women’s access to leadership and decision-making roles through systemic change. In particular, the project will help identify systemic barriers that women face in politics by developing a toolkit to support women. This project will also develop recommendations for decision-makers to remove the systemic barrier of violence in all its forms and at all stages of political life. This will also make organizations accountable for ensuring women can access elected offices while preserving their physical, psychological, and moral integrity. An external evaluation team will assess the project’s impact on systemic change.

Through this 19-month project, Women Speak up will build its capacity to empower women and to advance gender equality. It will address both strategy and delivery to be an effective contributor to the network of women's organizations in Ottawa and Toronto, and to the women's movement in Canada. The project will: 1) improve organizational governance; 2) develop tools and practices to increase financial sustainability; 3) advance organizational HR through recruitment, recognition, building team culture, and training; 4) develop a strategic plan and the organizational capacity to deliver it (project management, performance measurement, IT, DEI, GBA+); and 5) engage with their community to better understand its needs and to better position Women Speak Up to help meet those needs.

Through this 20-month systemic change project, Women Entrepreneurs of SK Inc (WESK) will scale their SK Women Entrepreneurship Charter Project to advance women’s economic security. It will scale to grow charter signatories across the province with a focus on crown corporations, municipalities and post-secondary institutions and large private corporations. It will address women’s economic security and prosperity by working to create equitable procurement by eliminating barriers, shifting perceptions, and establishing diversity targets. To do so, the project will develop resources and supports for charter signatories to utilize to champion systemic change, facilitate an environment that brings together suppliers and buyers to build connections and relationships and work to promote the project on a larger scale and across industries. WESK will evaluate the success of the project through yearly bench marking surveys to participants and compile data yearly to determine progress is being made.

Through this 24-month systemic change project, the Saint John Learning Exchange will help advance women’s economic security and prosperity through systemic change. Specifically, the project will address systemic barriers within policies and practices that impact women and gender diverse individuals living in poverty by using Community-Based Participatory Action Research methods to create opportunities for women with lived experience to generate knowledge and take action to change unjust systems, policies, and practices that impact their lives. An external evaluator will measure and assess the impact of the systemic change project.