BOF & BCFC Grant and B3 Capacity Building Program

Black Opportunity Fund (BOF) aims to help dismantle the impacts of systemic anti-Black racism by allocating resources to community organizations which undertake initiatives that impact the quality of life in Canada's Black communities.

Black Opportunity Fund (BOF) is pleased to be launching a grant and capacity building program for Canadian Black-led, Black-serving, and Black-focused nonprofits and charities, in partnership with the Black Canadian Fundraisers Collective (BCFC).

The program is made possible through generous funding support from the TD Ready Commitment and the RBC Foundation.

The BOF & BCFC Grant and B3 Capacity Building Program will be for Black-led, Black-serving and Black focused not-for-profits and charities (B3s) leading impactful initiatives BOF's key priority areas around education, youth, health, women and gender, criminal justice, entrepreneurship, arts and culture, housing and shelter, and food insecurity. 

About the BOF/BCFC B3 Capacity Development Program 

The BOF/BCFC B3 Capacity Building Program is an 8-month program funded by Black Opportunity Fund (BOF) and delivered by Black Canadian Fundraisers Collective (BCFC), designed to provide Black-focused, Black-led, Black-serving nonprofits and charities, with funding and capacity development support that positions them to collaborate, lead and deliver community-determined solutions that effectively address identified community priorities and needs. 

This BOF/BCFC grant, and B3 Capacity Building Program is national in scope, involving the selection of B3 organizations from across Canada, delivering initiatives in one or more of BOF priority areas, organizations to participate in the pilot will be prioritized specifically from three communities (Halifax Regional Municipality and East Hants; the Greater Toronto Area; and Windsor-Essex County) in the pilot. 

We require a commitment from applying organizations, that individual leaders selected from the organization to participate in the program, will be allowed the required time to invest and participate in all aspects of the program fully and will include at least one key leader/ decision-maker.

The B3 Organizations must commit to approximately 4.5 hours weekly and a total of 35 hours monthly to complete the mandatory elements of the capacity-building program. The overall program consists of 75 hours of content.

Eligibility criteria

• Must be a *Black-led, Black-focused and **Black-serving organization***;
• Must be a registered Canadian not-for-profit organization or charity;
• Must have an existing project in the areas of arts and culture, or criminal justice, which meets the granting program criteria, or a proposed project for which funding has already been secured;
• Must have an online web presence (i.e. website, social media, etc);
• Must be able to show up-to-date financial statements;
• Must be able to provide a project budget for the initiative for which funding is being sought;
• Cannot have any outstanding tax debt – or should have an up-to-date payment plan (demonstrating at least two (2) months of on time payment of outstanding tax debt); 
• Organization cannot have declared bankruptcy;
• The pilot is for organizations with budgets under $2.5M and have 50% of annual operational income is generated from Grant-based funding sources (less than 25% from unrestricted sources);
• Organizations operating anywhere across Canada, with the prioritization of organizations operating in the Greater Toronto Area, and historic Black Communities located within the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) and East Hants, and Windsor-Essex County for the pilot.

*Black-led:

At least two thirds of the leadership (e.g. board of directors, executive, management team) must self-identify as Black

**Black-serving:

Significant portion of program activities prioritize serving Black communities of Canada

***Black-focused:

Establishes as its primary goal to meaningfully support and engage with Black communities by taking an Afro-centric lens to the programming and services delivered

Black Opportunity Fund recognizes and is committed to reduce the power imbalances inherent to funder/fundee relationships and to use an anti-oppression and intersectional lens. We use trust-based participatory decision-making processes so the communities who are most impacted by our work have a say in how we carry out our mandate.

Please direct program related questions to: 

bofgrants@blackopportunityfund.org

About Black Opportunity Fund 

Black Opportunity Fund (BOF)is a community-led registered Canadian Charitable organization, that supports a prosperous, healthy and thriving Black Canada by challenging anti-Black racism in two ways. First, we respond to long standing underinvestment in Black communities.  We do this by delivering sustainable and needs-informed capital streams, managed by Black people for the benefit of Black communities, which disrupt ineffective and disempowering contemporary funding practices. Second, we work nationally to strengthen collective actions by Black organizations and leaders, helping them to create new and more impactful ways to support and advocate for our community.

BOF prioritizes initiatives around education and youth, health, women and gender, criminal justice, entrepreneurship, arts, culture and recreation, and food insecurity, that impact the quality of life in Black communities across Canada.

Black Opportunity Fund fulfills its mandate by:

• Facilitating access to capital for Black-led businesses to drive economic empowerment through the disbursement of loans, equity investments and other funding support.
• Providing grants to Black-led not for profits and charities, who are leading initiatives that impact the quality of life in Canada’s Black communities.

Black Opportunity Fund recognizes and is committed to reduce the power imbalances inherent to funder/fundee relationships and to use an anti-oppression and intersectional lens. We use trust based participatory decision-making processes so the communities who are most impacted by our work have a say in how we carry out our mandate.

Before proceeding with your application, please review this applicant guide to using the SurveyMonkey Apply Platform. 

Black Opportunity Fund’s Registered charity # 727678070 RR 0001

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