Applicant guide: Funding for Social Development Partnerships Program – Children and Families – Financial Empowerment

On this page

• Part 1: Organization
• Part 2: Project
• Part 3: Funding
• Part 4: Attestation
• Appendix A

Part 1 - Organization

A - Organization identification

Question 1: Legal name (mandatory)

What is your organization’s legal name? The legal name is usually:

• the name on your registration with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) or provincial/territorial equivalent
• the name used on funding cheques or bank accounts

Question 2: Common name (if different from legal name) (mandatory)

What is the common name of your organization (if it is different from the legal name)?

Question 3: Business or registration number (mandatory)

What is your 15-digit Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) business number? (For example, 123456789 RR 0001).

For registered charities and not-for-profit organizations, what is your registration number?

You can find your CRA business number on tax-related documents or written communications from the CRA.

Find more information about the Canada Revenue Agency.

If you do not have a CRA business number or a charity or not-for-profit registration number, provide one of the following documents:

• if incorporated:
  • a copy of letters of patents
  • articles of incorporation
  • certificate of incorporation
  • memorandum of association
  • your rules, by-laws, or constitution
• if not incorporated, provide:
  • a copy of your rules
  • bylaws
  • council resolutions, or
  • constitution

Question 4: Organization type (mandatory)

Choose one of the following:

• not-for-profit (including charities and other qualified recipients)
• Indigenous (including band councils, tribal councils and self-government entities)
• provincial/territorial entities, such as:
  • educational institutions: school boards, colleges and universities
  • health and social services: hospitals, community health centres, community centres
  • municipalities: towns, cities or municipal government departments and agencies

Question 5: Organization category (mandatory)

Tell us which category applies to you based on your answer to Question 4:

• not-for-profit sector:
  • Indigenous not-for-profit groups
  • local community, charitable, voluntary organizations
  • national non-governmental organizations
  • provincial non-governmental organizations
  • not-for-profit band Councils
• Indigenous:
  • band council
  • tribal council
  • self-government entity
• provincial/territorial entities:
  • educational institutions: school boards, colleges and universities
  • health and social services: hospitals, community health centres, community centres
  • municipalities: towns, cities or municipal government departments and agencies
  • other

Question 6: Year established (mandatory)

What year was your organization established?

Questions 7 to 11: Organization address (mandatory)

What is the address of your organization? Give a complete address in a format recognized by Canada Post.

Consult the Canada Post website for information.

Questions 12 to 14: Telephone, fax and email (mandatory)

What is your organization’s telephone number, fax number (if it has one) and email address?

Questions 15 to 19: Mailing address (if different from organization address) (mandatory)

What is the mailing address of your organization (if it is different from your organization’s physical address)?

Questions 20 and 21: Telephone and fax (if different from organization address) (mandatory)

What are your organization’s telephone and fax numbers (if the mailing address is different from your organization’s address)?

Question 22: Organization’s mandate (mandatory)

What are your organization’s main activities, including your mission and objectives?

B. Organization contact

Question 23: First name and last name (mandatory)

Who is the main contact person for the proposed project?

Question 24: Position title

What is the title of the contact person named in question 23?

For example:

• business owner
• president
• executive director

Question 25: Preferred language (mandatory)

What language would your contact person prefer to use in writing and speaking (English or French)?

Question 26: Contact address (mandatory)

Is the address of your contact different from the organization's address?

Questions 27 to 31: Contact address (mandatory)

If you answered yes in question 26, what is the address of your contact person?

Questions 32 and 33: Telephone and fax (mandatory)

What are the telephone and fax numbers of your contact person?

Question 34: Email address (mandatory)

What is the email address of your contact person? We will send all communications to this address.

Secondary contact

Questions 35 to 46: Secondary contact (mandatory)

If we cannot reach the main contact, who else can we contact? Provide the secondary contact person’s full name, telephone number where we can reach during business hours and email address.

C. Organizational capacity

Question 47: Number of employees

Indicate the total number of employees in your organization.

Question 48: Important transformations in the past 2 years (mandatory)

Let us know if there has been a:

• change in leadership in the board of directors
• change in leadership at the executive level
• large reduction, increase or turnover in staff
• merger or split, or
• change in mandate or main activities

Question 49: Describe how your organization has the experience and expertise to carry out the proposed project activities (mandatory)

You must demonstrate your recent, significant and relevant experience in delivering programs and services, which could include (not limited to):

• financial coaching
• tax clinics
• programs and services that help people increase their:
  • financial knowledge and skills
  • confidence in taking action to improve their financial situation

To demonstrate your recent, significant and relevant experience in delivering programs and services, if applicable, you may include:

• examples of past projects you have managed and their achievements
• your existing community network and partnerships that would help demonstrate your ability to carry out this project

Questions 50 and 51: Does your organization owe any amount to the Government of Canada? (mandatory)

If ‘yes’, how much? Use the spaces provided. Here is an example:

Part 2: Project

A. Project identification

Question 52: Project title (mandatory)

Give a short title that describes your project.

Questions 53 and 54: Planned project start and end dates? (mandatory)

We expect that the projects will start in winter 2021. The project must end by March 31, 2026.

You can only start your project activities after we approved your project and signed a funding agreement. We can only pay for activities that have started after we sign the agreement.

B. Project description

Question 55: Project Objectives (must clearly link to the program objectives) (mandatory)

You must:

• show how your project will develop and carry out financial empowerment services and supports to help increase the financial wellbeing of low-income adults. Projects must address more than one aspect of financial wellbeing, and must offer more than one type of service or support
• identify and describe the target group of low-income people for the project
• identify if your project specifically targets one or more of the following communities:
  • Indigenous
  • individuals experiencing homelessness
  • LGBTQ2+
  • living in remote and rural communities
  • members of Black and racialized communities
  • newcomers
  • official language minority communities
  • persons with disabilities
  • seniors
  • women
• describe how your project will offer chances for community members, targeted by the project, to actively contribute to its design and implementation. This will ensure that the project will reflect their needs
• show how the project meets a real need and how it will benefit the identified target group

Question 56: Project activities (give clear steps for each one) (mandatory)

Project activities are the steps that will be taken to meet the project objectives that you identified in your answer to question 55.

Provide a clear and realistic plan to achieve the project objectives, including timelines, within the prescribed timeframe outlined in question 53 and 54.

You must:

• describe how your project’s activities will align with the project objectives
• describe the steps that your organization will take to meet the objectives of the project, by providing:
  • clear and relevant description of the project activities
  • clear and realistic project timelines
• describe the activities to increase the capacity of your organizations in the areas of:
  • partnerships and collaboration, such as staff training to learn about collaborative approaches such as Collective Impact
  • sustainability, such as:
    • staff training
    • volunteer engagement activities, and
    • activities to improve grant writing skills and diversify funding sources

Eligible activities include, but are not limited to, the following:

• exploring and testing innovative solutions and models to help increase the financial wellbeing of adults
• adapting, replicating or scaling up proven or promising practices related to financial empowerment programs and services to help increase the financial wellbeing of adults
• designing, developing and delivering new programs and services for adults to help them increase their financial wellbeing and access to related supports, such as:
  • one-on-one financial coaching
  • group workshops
  • tax clinics to file taxes
  • apply for benefits
• designing and developing tools and resources to support adults to increase their financial wellbeing, such as:
  • toolkits
  • workshop content
  • training materials for staff and volunteers
  • newsletters
  • public education materials
  • lessons learned
  • promising practices
• fostering community participation and engagement in financial empowerment programming and services, such as:
  • creating spaces for community members to gather
  • give input
  • connect
  • collaborate in person or virtually
• organizing online or in-person consultations with:
  • community members
  • people with diverse lived experiences facing barriers to financial wellbeing
  • experts
  • other stakeholders, such as:
    • consultation sessions
    • advisory tables
• develop and deliver formal and informal services and gatherings for project participants, such as:
  • financial literacy workshops
  • peer support circles
  • drop-in programs to build financial wellbeing and skills
  • financial coaching
• delivering and sharing financial empowerment information and knowledge, such as:
  • sharing best practices
  • tools
  • resources
• organizing and delivering online or in-person gatherings to increase the financial empowerment of low-income adults, such as:
  • meetings
  • conferences
  • workshops
  • websites
• establishing, strengthening and maintaining partnerships and networks, such as:
  • through workshops
  • joint initiatives
  • communities of practice
• supporting the development, use and delivery of tools for learning and skills development of employees or volunteers of the applicant organization, to increase success of the project

Ineligible activities include, but are not limited to, the following:

• core operations and existing programming of an organization
• lobbying or politically partisan activities
• capital projects, such as:
  • projects to renovate
  • maintain
  • purchase
  • build real property
• projects with a sole focus on research, awareness-building or communications activities (such as a conference) are not eligible. However, these activities may be included as part of a larger project.

Question 57: What do you expect the project to deliver and produce (project outcomes and outputs)? (mandatory)

Describe the expected results of your project. The expected results of the project must clearly link to your project objectives. The expected results must also be specific, concrete and measurable (qualitative or quantitative), and must be defined as outputs and outcomes.

Outcomes

Outcomes are the short-term changes that you expect the project to deliver. You can link more than one outcome to an objective. Outcomes answer the questions “How will we know the project is a success?” and “How will the project benefit participants?”

Examples of outcomes include:

• beneficiaries report that their financial wellbeing has improved, and financial stress has fallen, as a result of participating in the project
• community members have increased chances to share their experiences and input to support the development of tools, resources and services
• beneficiaries have increased levels of financial literacy knowledge and skills
• beneficiaries have increased confidence in their abilities to manage their finances

Examples of outcomes related to capacity building include:

• community organizations have more resources to deliver more financial empowerment services to community members
• community organizations form larger and stronger networks of partners
• staff and personnel of community organizations have increased access to training and development to improve results and impact

Outputs

Outputs are direct products or services that you will expect to produce to get the outcomes you want. See examples below.

Examples of outputs include:

• number of beneficiaries expected to achieve an outcome as a proportion of those enrolled in an initiative
• number of individuals who will be reached by, and benefit from, the project
• number of materials produced
• an evaluation plan
• a sustainability plan

Question 58: Does the project include indicators to measure results? (mandatory)

Your answer to this question must be “yes”.

Describe how you will meet and track the expected results of your project. Proposals must include a list of indicators, including at least one indicator for each of your projects’ expected results (outcomes) identified in question 57.

Provide a description of how you plan to gather, measure, monitor and report on results achieved by your project. Common data collection approaches include surveys, key informant interviews, focus groups, attendance tracking and verbal feedback.

In developing performance indicators, you must ensure that:

• indicators chosen will allow you to show impact on the target population(s)
• indicators are measurable, and
• data will be available and collectible for each indicator

Examples of key performance indicators include, but are not limited to:

• number of individuals participating in the funded project
• number of individuals who filed taxes as a result of the project
• number of individuals who accessed government benefits as a result of the project
• number of individuals who received financial coaching to help improve their financial situation
• number and type(s) of partners, such as:
  • non-profits
  • private sector
• percentage of beneficiaries reporting that their financial wellbeing has improved as a result of participating in the project
• percentage of beneficiaries reporting that their skills, knowledge and confidence related to their finances have improved as a result of participating in the project

Question 59: Does this proposed project fit with your organization’s other activities? (is mandatory)

If “yes”, describe how your project relates to the work your organization is doing now.

Question 60: Will any of the project activities take place somewhere other than where your organization is located? (mandatory)

Include the list of provinces in which you plan to hold activities.

Question 61: Will your project benefit or involve people in English or French language minority communities? (mandatory)

If your project involves official language minority communities, you should answer “yes” to this question. Next, follow the instructions in the application form.

Answering “no” to this question will not reject your application.

Question 62: Will any other organizations, networks or partners be involved in carrying out the project? (mandatory)

Your answer to this question must be “yes”.

Your project needs to involve at least one formal partnership. You do not need to confirm specific partners at the time you apply.

Describe your strategy for engaging and collaborating with partners.

Provide the following information:

• information about the partner(s):
  • name (if known)
  • type of organization, such as:
    • union
    • not for profit
    • public
• describe the roles and responsibilities of each partner in the project
• describe how the partner or partners will participate in the project (time, resources)
• describe how the partner will contribute to the success of the project
• how the partner or partners will benefit from the project results

Eligible partners include:

• organizations in the private
• public and not-for-profit sectors, including grassroots community groups
• partnerships formed with a number of sectors are encouraged

Question 63: Does the project address the program’s national, regional or local priorities

Not applicable for this process.

Question 64: Does your project include activities that are listed in Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) Regulations Designating Physical Activities established under the Canadian Impact Assessment Act 2019

Not applicable for this process. Answer “no” to this question.

• Find more details about the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC)
• Find more details about the Canadian Impact Assessment Act 2019

Part 3: Funding

A. Anticipated sources of funding

We encourage other sources of funding. However, this is not mandatory.

If we select your project, you must submit a letter confirming any cash contribution from sources other than us. The letter must confirm that the cash contribution will be available when you will begin the project.

If we select your project, we may ask you to submit progress reports that list all cash or in-kind contributions. This includes all contributions.

Question 65: Source name (mandatory)

List ESDC as the first source name and include amount requested.

Tell us if you are receiving contributions from other sources. Include the names of all organizations that will contribute funds, and, or in-kind contributions.

Question 66: Source type (mandatory)

Tell us what type of organization is providing the cash contribution from the following options:

• not-for-profit organizations
• municipal government
• provincial and territorial governments, institutions and Crown Corporations
• Indigenous organizations:
  • band councils
  • tribal councils
  • self-government
• international organizations
• coalitions, networks or committees
• research organizations or institutes
• educational institutions
• public health and social services institutions
• for-profit organizations

Question 67: Cash contributions (mandatory)

Tell us how much in cash contributions you will receive.

Question 68: In-kind contributions (mandatory)

If you are getting an in-kind contribution, tell us how much it is worth.

In-kind contributions are goods or services that people or organizations donate. This includes equipment, services or labour that you receive free, but would have otherwise purchased. Your own organization, other organizations or partners can contribute. You will not request for reimbursement.

To be eligible as an in-kind contribution:

• you must need it for the project to succeed
• the organization who gives it to you also gives you a document showing its commitment

In-kind contributions must reflect fair value and a reasonable estimate.

Question 69: Confirmed cash and in-kind (mandatory)

Tell us if you have any confirmed contributions.

B. Budget

List each activity and its associated cost in your application for funding (EMP5523) and budget detail template (EMP5570). The amounts must be the same in both documents. Your costs must be reasonable and support your project activities.

Question 70: Cost category (mandatory)

Use the budget detail template (EMP5570).

We can only pay you back for eligible costs. Eligible costs must be reasonable and directly relate to your project activities.

Here are some examples of eligible expenditures:

• wages and mandatory employment costs
• overhead costs include expenditures related to the recipient’s central administrative functions used to support project activities, for example:
  • rent
  • postage
  • telephones
  • information technology (IT)
• fees for professional services including:
  • consultants
  • research
  • translation
• materials and supplies
• staff training and professional development
• printing and communications
• computer and library services
• research, evaluation, data collection and analysis
• travel in accordance with the National Joint Council’s Travel Directive
• other costs necessary to support the purpose of funding as approved by ESDC

Examples of ineligible costs:

• the purchase of real property
• consultant fees for individuals who are also receiving a salary from your organization or its partner
• costs incurred to prepare the proposal
• entertainment costs
• expenditures outside the start and end dates of the contribution agreement
• fines or penalties

Questions 71 to 73: Planned spending (in Canadian dollars) (ESDC, Cash, Other, In-kind) (mandatory)

If applicable, give the total planned spending from all sources, including us. The amounts should align with those that you put in section A. Anticipated sources of funding of your Application for funding.

“Other” means a cash or in-kind contribution from other sources other than us.

C. Budget details

Question 74: Associated businesses or individuals

Check all statements that apply to your planned spending of the funding from ESDC.

Question 75: Capital assets: Will capital assets be among your planned expenditures with ESDC funding? (mandatory)

Indicate yes or no.

If “yes”, explain how your project will benefit from the purchase of capital assets.

A capital asset is any single or composite asset that costs more than $1,000 (before taxes). It is not part of another product and you can still use it at the end of the project.

A composite asset is a group of assets that form one unit, where you need everything for the asset to work. A group of assets is a single capital asset if the total cost is more than $1,000 (before taxes).

For example, a composite capital asset is:

• a personal computer with a hard drive
• a monitor
• a keyboard
• a mouse
• cables

Four chairs that each cost $300 are not capital assets because each chair works on its own. The chairs cost less than $1,000 (before taxes).

Question 76: Further budget details

Not applicable for this process.

Part 4: Attestation (mandatory)

To be considered eligible, an official representative who has the authority to submit proposals on behalf of your organization must attest that:

• they have the authority to submit the proposal
• certify that the information provided is true, and
• they have read and understood the program’s requirements

To do this, the official representative must:

• check the 3 boxes of the attestation, and
• provide their name, title and the date

As this is an attestation, no signature is required.

Appendix A

Use this section to add information to previous sections of the application, and specify the question number.