Eligibility Criteria
Applicants must meet the following mandatory eligibility criteria:
- Organizations must be based in the Comox Valley Regional District or provide a service which primarily benefits residents of the Comox Valley.
- Comply with all relevant Comox Valley Regional District grant bylaws.
- Ensure registered non-profit organizations are in good standing.
- Organizations must provide a society registry number.
- Organizations have an active Board of Directors, and voting members of the Board must not benefit personally from the grant.
Only applications that meet the mandatory eligibility criteria will be advanced to the evaluation process.
Applications
Grants must be applied for each calendar year. Community groups should not anticipate continuing support each year. Completed applications must be received by October 15th by 4:30 pm or the next business day if this falls on a weekend or statutory holiday.
When completing the application, pick which grant category your organization is applying for:
- Rural Community Grant – supports rural community events, programs, and/or infrastructure or supports rural residents of the Comox Valley
- Recreation Grant – supports recreational programs, events or infrastructure within the Comox Valley
- Arts & Culture Grant – supports arts and cultural programs and events within the Comox Valley
Applicants will require the following documents when completing the application:
Mandatory Requirements:
- Budget for the year in which the grant is being requested
- Year to date and the immediately preceding years’ financial statements
- BC Societies Act Registry report
- Final/Interim Reports
- Organizations that received funds in the previous 18 months must complete the online final/interim report form and upload:
- the budget to actual cost reconciliation related to the grant-funded project/event (receipts not required)
- pictures of the project/event
- Organizations that received funds in the previous 18 months must complete the online final/interim report form and upload:
Upon submission of the online grant application, applicants will be routed to the online final/interim report form for completion and submission.
Optional Documents (recommended):
- Organization Chart
- Most recent annual report
File upload types: gif, jpg, png, bmp, eps, tif, pict, psd, txt, rtf, html, odf, pdf, doc, docx, ppt, pptx, xls, xlsx, xml, avi, mov, mp3, ogg, wav, bz2, dmg, gz, jar, rar, sit, svg, tar, zip.
Maximum file size: 32 MB per file limit.
Process & Timelines
- Prior to October 15th - Complete the online application.
- Organizations that received grant funds in the previous year will be required to ALSO provide a report on how those funds were utilized.
- Organizations will be sent a confirmation email acknowledging the receipt of their application submission.
- January of each year - Once applications are approved by the relevant internal reviews, the Electoral Areas Services Committee or Recreation Commission will evaluate the applications in January and make the final funding determination. Additional information may be requested from applicants.
- April of each year - all applicants will be informed of whether they were successful or not in their applications. Those who are successful will be required to sign a contract outlining the terms and conditions of their grant.
- May of each year - successful applicants, who have signed their contract, will be transferred their grant funds.
Conditions of Grant Award
- Organizations that receive a grant for a specific project or event must utilize that grant for that project/event.
- All promotional materials related to project funding will acknowledge the Comox Valley Regional District with a statement such as “Proudly supported by the Comox Valley Regional District.”
- A final or interim report about the project/event is to be submitted with a new application, if applying again, by October 15th.
- The CVRD reserves the right to request a report from any successful applicant, even if the organization is not applying for another grant.
- Grants must be used within 18 months of receipt.
- Any unused funds shall be returned to the CVRD 18 months after receipt of funds.
Freedom of Information, Protection of Privacy
Your personal information will be collected for the purpose of evaluating grant applications and distributing funds to successful applicants. Submitted grant applications may be published on CVRD public agendas or the website. Personal phone numbers and addresses will be redacted to maintain privacy, however, the names of administrators or society directors may be published. If you have any questions about the collection of this personal information, please contact the CVRD's privacy office at privacy@comoxvalleyrd.ca or 250-334-6070. This information is being collected and used by the Comox Valley Regional District under section 26 (c) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Completing the Grant Application
Prior to completing the online grant application form, applicants are encouraged to download a copy of the questions to review and prepare answers in advance of submitting them into the online form. Once the application is started, it cannot be partially completed, saved and returned to later.
Applications MUST be submitted through the online form and WILL NOT be accepted by email.
Download application questions
Questions?
Questions related to the grant should be sent to grants@comoxvalleyrd.ca.