To be eligible for a SUN Grant your organization must: 

• Be a Registered Canadian Charity or other qualified donee. 

• Serve the Greater Edmonton Area, including the four surrounding counties. Additionally, Indigenous qualified donees located within Treaty 6 Territory.  

• Each organization can have one current SUN Grant for their own work AND one to support a partnership or collaborative led by and/or focused on equity-deserving communities. 

• When applying to support their own work, must have completed, and reported on any previous Small Grant. 

• When applying in partnership with a non-profit society or grassroots group, must have completed and reported on any previous Small Grant for a partnership or collaborative. 
  

   

SUN Grant review considerations:  

• Does the request support a sudden unforeseen need that is reasonably unexpected or unanticipated? 

• Does the request demonstrate a time-sensitive, stand-alone need? 

• Is there a clear need on how this grant will help the organization and/or community? 

• The number of Small Grants received over the last number of years. 

Grant sizes will range, from $2,000 up to $20,000. However, we encourage applicants to request amounts specific to their unforeseen need, rather than the maximum grant amount.

The application is available from March 1 to September 30, or until the budget is fully allocated. 

Applications are reviewed monthly. For example, applications submitted in March will be reviewed mid-April and should be for funding after May 1, 2025 (ECF cannot support retroactive costs).  

If your request exceeds the maximum amount of a SUN Grant or doesn’t fit with the guidelines, the Community Grant Program may be a better fit.

Review the 2025 SUN Grant Guidelines for more information.

Application Portal

Grant reports ensure there is accountability between your organization, Edmonton Community Foundation (ECF), and our donors. ECF staff review these reports to assess the progress and outcomes of your initiative. Additionally, these reports help us refine our granting process and identify community needs that we might address. We understand that grants take place in changing community contexts which are sometimes outside the control of the grantee.  

When to Contact ECF

Contact ECF as soon as possible if any of the following arise: 

• You need a grant reporting extension. 

• Your organization can’t carry out the funded initiative. 

• You have completed your initiative but have some funds left over. 

• You need to make changes to the budget approved in your application which amount to 10% or more of the total grant. Please note ECF needs to approve proposed reallocations of this size before the funds are expended.  

 In all situations ECF wants to meet your organization where you’re at, and to find the best path forward.  

For reporting questions, please contact grants@ecf.ca.  

 Grant Report Format 

The report is an online forms which has a number of short answer, dropdown menu, and multiple select questions. The report questions ask about the goals of your initiative, challenges you may have experienced carrying out this initiative, how people benefitted from the initiative, and how the financial contribution of ECF was recognized. There is also a space for you to upload a pdf copy of your grant budget and actuals. 

Accessing Your Grant Report 

Reports are accessed through the online Grants Portal. By default, reports are added to the account of the user who applied for the grant approximately three months after the grant is awarded.  Once your report has been added to your account, you can find it by logging into the Grants Portal, scrolling down to the Grant Reports section, and clicking on “Unsubmitted Grant Reports”. If you need the report moved to a different user account, you can email grants@ecf.ca. 

Report Deadlines 

The default report deadline is thirteen months after the grant was approved, on the last day of that month, unless the grant application indicates a later date. If you need an extension on your deadline, please contact grants@ecf.ca. We are happy to grant extensions but prefer to know if one is needed sooner rather than later.