The McConnell Foundation is a national private philanthropic foundation that funds initiatives tackling “issues of generational importance” that affect communities across Canada and where it believes it can help create significant, lasting change.

Funding is organized around three main focus areas, Communities, Reconciliation, and Climate, which are interconnected and grounded in equity, Indigenous leadership, and systemic change. Applicants must submit under one primary focus area but can explain linkages to the others in their proposal.

Funding Streams & Focus Areas

1. Communities

The Communities focus area supports equity-denied groups to address systemic barriers to social and economic inclusion. McConnell funds initiatives that:

• Use collaborative action to bring multiple organizations together to tackle barriers to social and/or economic inclusion
• Advance policy change that favours social justice, builds economic resilience and addresses structural barriers
• Support regeneration – community-led solutions that enable recovery from historical harm and help rebuild more equitable futures

These projects typically work at a systems level (e.g., policy, governance, networks) rather than direct, short-term service delivery.

2. Reconciliation

The Reconciliation focus area funds projects that advance a reconciliation economy, where wealth and resources are equitably shared and sustainably stewarded with and for Indigenous peoples.

Key characteristics:

• Funding prioritizes Indigenous-led organizations and Indigenous communities, with an emphasis on Indigenous solutions and innovation
• Strategies include Indigenous-led solutions that activate the National Indigenous Economic Strategy’s Calls to Economic Prosperity and Indigenous-led collaborative funding projects
• Work is grounded in wise practices, ceremony, and Elders’ and Knowledge Keepers’ teachings, and aims to address and redress the socio-economic gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples

3. Climate

The Climate focus area supports work that accelerates Canada’s transition to a net-zero carbon economy, focusing on mitigation and equity outcomes.

McConnell’s climate funding concentrates on systemic solutions in Canada’s highest-emitting sectors (oil and gas, transportation, electricity, buildings, agriculture) and on ensuring capital markets align with climate science. It supports projects that:

• Remove systemic barriers to emissions reductions (“climate mitigation”)
• Empower Indigenous, racialized and other marginalized communities to build climate resilience and engage in solutions
• Advance climate finance work, including:
  • Strengthening regulatory oversight of climate-related financial risk
  • Strategic litigation and legal strategies to align financial institutions’ lending/investments with climate science
  • Advancing Canada’s green and transition taxonomy and related sustainable finance policies