The Mackenzie Financial Charitable Foundation accepts applications from charities on an annual basis. The next deadline for applications is June 30, 2012.

In order to qualify as a potential recipient of funding, charities must complete our application form and submit it along with copies of their most recent audited financial statements.

We also request that you include your organization’s audited financial statements for the previous two fiscal years.

Please feel free to submit your application to us via e-mail or hardcopy, whichever is most convenient for you. You can send your submission directly to our Donations Committee by e-mail to donations@mackenziefinancial.com, or by regular mail to:

Mackenzie Financial Charitable Foundation
180 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON
M5V 3K1

Application Checklist:

1. Complete ALL sections of Mackenzie’s Charitable Donations Request Form
2. Include previous two years Financial Statements
3. Include your registered Charity Number

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Our Donations Committee will use your financial statements to acquire a better understanding of your organization. Having two years of data or more helps us to put the numbers into better perspective, and to avoid making decisions based on one-time anomalies.

Financial statements help us to identify your sources of funding, assess your overall financial position, and assess the size of your annual budget.

In examining your funding sources, we are aiming to ensure that our potential donation would not be duplicated by other donations that we may have already made (eg. United Way). In addition, our Foundation's giving guidelines are aimed in support of charities at a grassroots level. We therefore tend to provide support to charities that do not have substantial funding from governments or other large agencies.

We aim to assess the overall financial condition of your charity, because our objective is to support charities that are financially well managed. In examining the size of your annual budget, we are aiming to determine the overall impact of our donation.

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Social well-being and welfare in Canada, particularly for the benefit of underprivileged, challenged, and sick children, youth and young adults, with a special focus on children and youth at high risk.

The Foundation carefully reviews the following factors when making its granting decisions.

1. The objective of the charity. The Foundation focuses its grants primarily on social service organizations with a focus on children and youth, especially those at risk.
2. The size of the charity. The Foundation focuses primarily on small-to-medium sized charities.
3. The funding sources of the charity. The Foundation tends to support charities which receive the majority of their funding from private sources (i.e. individual donors, foundations, corporations).
4. The geographical focus of the charity. The Foundation supports organizations which focus their charitable activities primarily in Canada.
5. The individuals or entities that receive support from the charity. The Foundation supports only those organizations that are inclusive in nature and does not support organizations that exclude on the basis of race, gender, religion, nationality, or sexual orientation.
6. The ability of the charity to provide volunteer opportunities for Mackenzie employees.

Donations will only be granted to registered Canadian Charities.

• individual applicants or individual pursuits;
• political parties or candidates;
• service clubs, fraternal organizations, commercial solicitors or third parties raising funds for a charity;
• religious organizations (except for secular activities open to all faiths, sex, cultures, and sexual orientation and where the doctrine of the religion is not preached);
• purchase of tickets for fund-raising events;
• purchase of items in support of fund-raising events;
• conferences or congresses (except if the purpose of such is to raise awareness for that cause);
• advocacy groups of a particular religious, social, political, or economic point of view;
• international groups or organizations where the donated monies will not be used in Canada for Canadians;
• charities that have already applied during the current budget (fiscal year) or within the last 6 months;
• duplication of direct and indirect donations to the same organization by Mackenzie Financial Corporation;
• groups not approved by Canada Revenue Agency as registered charitable organizations, or having equivalent tax status as "eligible donees"; and
• non-targeted general mail-outs.

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