Donor Stories

Each year, The Guelph Community Foundation invites requests for funding from charitable organizations within Guelph and Wellington County. Charitable organizations deliver the services and champion the causes that make our community thrive. Whether it is recreation opportunities for children, meals for the hungry, end of life care, or culture for the soul, our not-for-profit sector makes it all happen. The…

Today in our #GCFGrantStories series, we feature Community Grant recipient Hopewell Children’s Homes (HCH), which received funding for its Hopewell/YMCA Community Partnership Program for Inclusion, Well-being & Improved Health Outcomes. HCH works with individuals with a range of physical and developmental abilities and help their residents in reaching their maximum level of achievement and independence.…

Thanks to support from a Community Grant, Hopewell Children’s Home was able to create a Snoezelen room for their clients. Snoezelen Multi-Sensory Environments are relaxing spaces that help reduce agitation and anxiety, but they can also engage and delight the user, stimulate reactions, and encourage communication. These environments can be used to calm and reduce…

The Guelph Community Foundation and our fundholders are proud to announce our 2023 scholarship and bursary recipients. Sixteen outstanding Guelph and Wellington County graduating students have been recently awarded scholarships and bursaries set up by generous community fundholders to help these local students achieve their academic goals. Many of these scholarships and bursaries support students…

(2005 Guelph Mercury Kids-to-Camp Fund): This past Thanksgiving, the Guelph Mercury successfully revived the historic Thanksgiving Day Races. Over 300 runners and walkers participated and over 1000 people took in the festivities of the Family Fun Day on a perfect fall day. At the end of the day, $2500 was raised for the Guelph Mercury Kids to Camp…

Today in our #GCFGrantStories series, we feature Community Grant recipients Church of the Apostles’ Helper Bees and the Jobs. Opportunities. Enterprise. (J.O.E.) Program. They received funding for their ongoing emergency food program and are a shining example of fantastic charitable collaboration! The Helper Bees program began in spring of 2020 in response to the COVID-19…

(2009 Building Vital Communities Grant)  ‘What does a healthy plant look like and if a plant is going to do well, what does it need to have to stay healthy?’. This is a question that is asked to participants at the Julien Project going into its 4th growing season. The Julien Project, which recently received a…

Today in our #GCFGrantStories series, we spotlight Rainbow Day Camp, which received funding through The Guelph Community Foundation’s Kids to Camp grant program. This program funds registered charities (or organizations partnered with a registered charity) operating camps that allow them to offer free or subsidized camp registration to children and youth from financially disadvantaged families.…

Living Lakes Canada (LLC) received a their second grant from the Sleeman Better Water Fund to support its work protecting freshwater in Canada. Their approach brings together community science, Indigenous knowledge, and research to help keep Canadian lakes and watersheds healthy, especially as climate change has increased pressure on these fragile ecosystems. As climate-related events…

(2009 Building Vital Communities) – Given that Guelph has been named as one of the best cities in Canada to live, you may be surprised to learn that 15 percent of Guelph and Wellington’s families with children live in poverty. Living on Less workshops began as a pilot outreach project at St. James Apostle Church to help people…

The GCF board and staff are pleased to share the 2023 Musagetes Fund recipients. The funding decision was made by the fundholders the week of May 8, 2023 to distribute $49,180 to eleven charitable organizations in Guelph and Wellington County. Since 2004, this donor advised granting stream has been providing grants to registered charities (or…