Kimberley and District Community Foundation now accepting applications

The application window for the Kimberley and District Community Foundation grants opens this year on September 29 and closes on October 31. This year, the Foundation has introduced two new improvements to the application process based on feedback from the community. 

“Recently, through our strategic planning process, we had the opportunity to hear from a wide range of people that have been impacted by the Kimberley and District Community Foundation. Feedback from past applicants emphasized that simple grant application processes and long application windows provided them with more time to do the impactful work that is their organization’s focus,” said Wendy Jarvis, President of the Foundation’s Board of Directors.  

In past years, groups have been required to include financial statements with their grant application, and the window to submit applications was just two weeks at the end of September. During the strategic planning program, the Foundation heard that applicants without dedicated administrative support or with limited volunteer availability found that this timeline was not long enough to collect the required information, write the application, and receive feedback from the Foundation on how to strengthen it. The new month-long timeline and simplified application process was developed in response to this feedback. 

In 2025, with support from the Columbia Basin Trust, the Kimberley and District Community Foundation Board of Directors completed a new strategic plan, which will inform a wide range of improvements over the next three years. The new plan focuses on improvements in four key areas: Governance, Operations and Granting, Community Profile and Engagement, and Growing Donors and Funds. These focus areas reflect feedback from dozens of respondents including donors, grant recipients, former volunteers, and other community members.  

“The Foundation Board of Directors has grown over the last year, which creates some capacity to focus on strengthening the Foundation. All members of the Board, both new and tenured, are immensely proud of the impact that the Foundation has had in our community since 2001, through the community organizations that have accessed the grant program. Our new strategic plan provides us with a framework to be able to share these stories and invite community members to be a part of this legacy, whether as grant recipients, Board and sub-committee members, or donors” said Jarvis. 

As in previous years, the grant application form and information about the granting process is available on the Foundation’s website at kimberleyfoundation.ca/grants.