The CN Stronger Communities Fund provides responsible community investment by supporting registered, not-for-profit organizations.
No. For Canadian organizations seeking not-for-profit resources, we recommend that you visit either CharityVillage at www.charityvillage.ca or the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy.
For U.S.-based groups, we suggest you visit NonProfit Gateway at www.nonprofit.gov.
Yes. CN has five community investment focus areas
CN receives far more funding requests than we can support. For this reason, we are selective in the initiatives we choose to fund. If your request or organization appears on the following list, it is unlikely that CN will provide funding.
We do not consider the following types of funding requests :
We do not consider requests from the following types of oganizations:
Please see Question #2 above.
Please see previous question.
Application form – Non-profit organisations.
Before you apply for funding, please ask yourself these questions:
If you answered “yes” to both these questions, we encourage you to review the application instructions and then submit your request through our easy-to-use online application form.
You will require the following information:
When you submit your request, you will receive an immediate confirmation of your submission. We will provide you with a status update within two weeks; however, it may take several weeks for us to fully review and decide on your request. We appreciate your patience.
We strongly encourage you to submit your request through our on-line application form. It's fast. It's easy. And it ensures that you provide all the information we need to review your request promptly.
You can apply from any Internet-connected computer at a library or community centre, through a friend or board member or even at an Internet café. You can get a free email address through Hotmail, Yahoo or gmail. Visit our Guidelines to learn more.
Organizations can apply for requests that are outside of our focus areas. However, it is less likely that CN will provide support for your request. Please be aware that if your request falls under one of the categories we tend not to support, your request may be declined.
Please see question #1 above for our Focus Areas and question #2 for Exceptions.
No. Once you submit your online application, a confirmation message will appear on your screen. In addition, you will receive an email confirming receipt of your request within thirty (30) minutes of your submission. The confirmation email will be sent to the email address you provided in your application. Within thirty (30) days of your submission, you will receive another email updating you on the status of your request. Please be aware that we cannot respond to telephone or email inquiries about submitted applications.
Within thirty (30) days of your submission, you will receive an email updating you on the status of your request. At that time, you will learn if your request has been declined, approved or is pending upon further consideration.
CN cannot accept telephone calls regarding our community investment program due to the high volume of requests we receive. However, CN makes it easy for you to understand the goals of our community investment program, our eligibility criteria and how to apply online through this FAQ page.
CN has adopted an online application process for many reasons: