LIFT Philanthropy Partners selects not-for-profit organizations with proven success in delivering measurable social impact in the areas of literacy, skills development, sport and physical activity. These organizations demonstrate a strong desire for growth, an eagerness for creating scalable social impact, and an openness to evolving their method of business.
During our selection process, we evaluate not-for-profit organizations to determine their alignment with our selection criteria. As we only invest in a limited number of not-for-profit organizations each year, we conduct thorough due diligence on potential investments to ensure we select the organizations most suitable for our venture philanthropy approach.
Selection Criteria
We are not a funding agency. We do not fund projects or offer funding alone.
We only support not-for-profit organizations through our venture philanthropy approach where we provide a valuable combination of skills, expertise and resources over three years to support the not-for-profit organizations to increase their social impact.
The not-for-profit organizations we select are established and poised for growth, but can benefit from support beyond funding to scale their impact, and become more effective and sustainable. Ideally, these organizations have been in operation for a minimum of three years; have annual expenditures of at least $350,000; and have audited financial statements available for review.
For LIFT to consider working with an organization, it must be able to answer “yes” to the following questions:
- Is the organization an independent not-for-profit organization based in Canada with programs delivered in Canadian communities?
- Does the not-for-profit organization offer measurable social impact in one or both of LIFT’s areas of focus: literacy and skills development; or sport and physical activity?
- Does the not-for-profit organization have reports and statistics that demonstrate its social impact in Canadian communities (e.g. outreach, participation, results, etc.)?
- Does the not-for-profit organization have a strong desire and a plan to improve effectiveness and scale its impact?
- Is the not-for-profit organization interested in benefiting from LIFT’s venture philanthropy approach, which includes hands-on management support, engagement of a partner network of experts, performance metrics, and accountability practices?
LIFT will not invest in the following:
- Start-ups, pilot projects or development of social enterprises
- Municipalities, universities, schools, hospitals
- One-time projects
- Capital infrastructure projects
- Program or operational costs
Submission of Interest
Not-for-profit organizations that meet the above selection criteria may complete a submission of interest form. We review these submissions quarterly and select a limited number of organizations to proceed through our selection process.
