fbpx

Community Impact

Impact Stories

New Initiative: Faces of Leadership

Are you a woman or a member of gender-diverse communities who is trying to push for change locally?  Are you wanting to strengthen and broaden your skills to become a strong community advocate? If so, we would like to invite you to join us for Faces of Leadership. ...

Foundation grants $120,000 to local women, girls, Two-Spirit and Gender-Diverse led and serving organizations

The Community Foundation is pleased to announce funding totalling $120,000 to advance gender equality in Peterborough. The grants to Elizabeth Fry Society, GreenUp, Kawartha Sexual Assault Centre, Kawartha World Issues Centre (KWIC), New Canadians Centre, and Trent...

New Funding: Community Services Recovery Fund

The Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Karina Gould, recently announced that Community Foundations of Canada alongside Canadian Red Cross, and United Way Centraide Canada have been selected to distribute the Community Services Recovery Fund, a...

Catch up on the latest Foundation News

The latest edition of Foundation Focus is available now! Read about a new funding opportunity, a new fund benefiting the Kawartha Youth Orchestra, and more. Read it here.

Announcing $110,000 in Vital Community Grants to 17 Local Charities

The Community Foundation is excited to announce that 17 organizations will share $110,000 in Vital Community Grants. These grants are at the heart of the Foundation’s vision of building a vital community for everyone. Each year the Community Foundation offers Vital...

Our Fall 2022 Giving Guide is Now Available!

The Foundation's Fall 2022 Giving Guide is intended to provide granting inspiration for Community Foundation fund advisors. According to Imagine Canada, 66% of all charitable revenue goes to only 1% of charitable organizations across the country. This guide offers a...

The Foundation Launches new partnership with Trent University Researchers

The Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough is pleased to announce a new partnership with Building Back Differently (BBD), a collaborative project that pulls together the expertise of Trent University researchers and local community members. Today marks the first...

New Fund Launched with Kawartha-Haliburton Children’s Foundation

The Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough is pleased to announce the creation of the Kawartha-Haliburton Children’s Fund, a new partnership with the Kawartha-Haliburton Children’s Foundation. The fund will help provide enrichment opportunities for children,...

Vital Community Grants – Keep an eye out for updates

Every year, the Community Foundation runs a small grants program available to a wide range of charities. These Vital Community Grants address immediate community needs and help build a vital community for everyone. The area of focus for Vital Community Grants changes...

Peterborough’s Vital Signs Shines a Light on Gender (In)Equality in our Community

The Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough’s newly released Vital Signs report highlights the need to advance gender equality in our community. The Kawartha World Issues Centre received a grant from the Foundation last year to conduct research into how our...

Established Funds

The Community Foundation is here to help you create a meaningful and lasting change in your community. The Foundation has a variety of fund structures to offer you the levels of support, involvement and recognition you desire.

With a variety of ways to give, you can establish a fund today, plan to give in the future, or contribute to an existing fund. You can choose to support your favourite charities, specific areas of interest, or create unique opportunities for community investment.

Find your fund

Grants Awarded

Donor-Advised Funds generate most of the grants distributed by the Foundation each year in support of charities donors care about.

Agency Funds provide a sustainable source of revenue to charities by building up resources that can be granted to the organization every year.

The Foundation accepts applications to the Vital Community Grants program each year. Vital Community Grants support the people, ideas and activities that build community vitality in the Peterborough area, ensuring charities have the skills, tools, and resources to respond to our community’s top priorities. In 2019, Vital Community grants supported initiatives working to strengthen community connections in the Peterborough area.

When we celebrated the Community Foundation’s 10th anniversary at the annual Giving Gala in January 2019 we wanted to do something special. We asked ten local charities: If you had one wish and $1,000 to make it happen, what would you do? Then we asked guests at the Giving Gala to make a donation to support one of those wishes. In a wonderful example of the power of giving together, we were able to raise $8,500 to grant each of those charity’s wishes, and we surprised them with these Here for Good grants in March. We repeated the process in 2020 and raised close to $5,800 for seven local charities.

Within days of the declaration of the COVID-19 emergency, the Community Foundation, donors and front line charities sprang into action. Knowing that the pandemic would hit some harder than others and that orders to stay home and self-isolate would be more difficult for those who rely on shelters, food banks and meal programs, the Foundation established the Community Response Fund. Learn more about pandemic-related grants and activities.

See Who Received Grants from Us

Meet Local Donors

While there are many reasons that people in our community choose the Foundation as their partner in philanthropy, all of our donors have something in common: they care about our community. Our donors tell us:

“If you’re going to live in a community, you want it to be a good community.”

“This is the place where I live, this is home, and I want to do everything I can to make this place a great place.”

“Giving back to the community is about balancing the equation.”

“We just did what we could to make our community even better.”

Learn more about why our donors give See who our recent donors are

Join the Vital Community Movement

The Vital Community Fund is our community’s resource to support the people, ideas and activities that build community vitality in the Peterborough area. Grants from this fund will support charities in the City and County of Peterborough that are working on our community’s top priorities.

By giving together, we can meet today’s challenges and build for tomorrow. Whether you give $10.00 or 10% of your salary, every gift is combined and invested in the fund, building a permanent endowment that we can use to take action and make change, together.

Jennifer DeBues |

Executive Director

Have Questions? Get in Touch!