Grants are awarded in the following broad categories: historical and educational; social need and health; and culture, recreation and environmental. Applications are welcome from across Southern Alberta. Grants are distributed twice a year, in April and November. The Foundation Distribution Committee apportions the available funds in a manner considered most beneficial to the community as a whole. Grants are reviewed twice each year: November (deadline is June 1) and April (deadline is December 1).

The Distribution Committee makes recommendations to the Board of Directors, who approve all funding. The following guidelines have been established as criteria for revenue grant approval:

• Grants are restricted to organizations and projects that benefit the residents of Lethbridge and Southern Alberta. Applicants must demonstrate how their project benefits the community.
• Grants are approved for needs not met by other funding sources.
• Funding requests for one-time capital cost items (such as equipment, a specific project or program, supplies) are preferred over requests to cover administrative or operating expenses. Grants for the latter are considered only in cases of emergency.
• Requests serving the greatest and most pressing community needs receive priority.

Qualified Recipients:

The Foundation operates under the Income Tax Act and therefore, qualified recipients are those entities defined in subsection 149.1(1):

1. registered Canadian charity;
2. registered as a Canadian amateur athletic association;
3. housing corporations resident in Canada and exempt from tax under Part 1 of the Act by paragraph 149 (1)(i);
4. Canadian municipalities;
5. the United Nations or agencies thereof;
6. universities outside Canada prescribed to be universities, the student body of which ordinarily includes students from Canada;
7. charitable organizations outside Canada to which Her Majesty in right of Canada has made a gift during the taxpayer’s taxation year, or the 12 months immediately preceding that taxation year;
8. Her Majesty in right of Canada and the provinces and agents thereof (that is, the federal government, a provincial government or their agents); and
9. registered Canadian national arts service organizations.

Application For Funding

You can submit your application for funding in various ways. Print this form, complete it and mail it with your most recent financial statements and, if applicable, a list of your Board of Directors. Or complete this form electronically on the Internet and click on the Submit button at the bottom. Then hand deliver or forward by mail your most recent financial statements and, if applicable, a list of your Board of Directors to:
Lethbridge Community Foundation
#407, 740 – 4 Avenue South
Lethbridge, Alberta T1J 0N9

If you are submitting this by e-mail, you must also send us your most recent financial statements and, if applicable, a listing of your Board of Directors. You can email the reports to us as an attachment or print this form and mail it with your financial statements to:
Lethbridge Community Foundation
#407, 740 – 4 Avenue South
Lethbridge, Alberta T1J 0N9

Upon review of the Application submitted, the Distribution Committee may request additional information.

Should your request for funds be approved, you will be required to sign a letter of commitment wherein you will undertake the following:

• That your financial need continues to exist, and that alternative funding has not been pledged or received;
• That funds received will be used only for the purpose(s) indicated on your application, and for which the funds were approved;
• That funds received will be expended for the stated purpose(s) by the date indicated in the application;
• That within one (1) month of fund expenditure, such expenditure will be reported to the Lethbridge Community Foundation, submitting appropriate evidence thereof (Invoice photocopy, etc.)
• That any monies not so expended shall be returned to the Foundation immediately.

Submission of this application indicates your willingness to agree to the above requirements.