Operational Grant

Deadline: Fall 2024 (TBA)

Operational Grants provide limited operating assistance—up to 25 percent of an applicant’s eligible expenses—to museums, archives, and other heritage organizations to increase their capacity to research, preserve, interpret, and advocate for Edmonton’s heritage.

Who Is Eligible?

  1. Applicants must be registered as a non-profit society in Alberta for at least one year
  2. Be located in the city of Edmonton.
  3. The organization must encourage public engagement in Edmonton’s heritage by:
    1. operating a heritage facility that is open to the public for a minimum of 200 hours per year, and / or
    2. providing regular heritage programming to Edmontonians for a minimum of three years
  4. The organization must demonstrate sound board and governance practices
    1. Examples of unsound governance practices could include:
      1. having a board member also in a paid staff role in the organization
      2. a lack of financial controls or review
    2. The organization must have year-end financial statements that follow generally accepted accounting principles for not-for-profit organizations
    3. The applicant must be up to date with final reports for other HCIP-funded work, including returning any unused grant funds

This program excludes educational institutions, recreation centres, community leagues, health facilities, religious institutions, and government-owned and/or operated facilities. Organizations that receive operational funding through other City of Edmonton grant programs are also not eligible to apply.

What Expenses Are Eligible?

The Operational Grant will invest up to a maximum of 25% of expenses directly incurred by an organization’s internal operations, including:

  • Rent, lease, or mortgage
  • Utilities
  • Financial management costs
  • Staff salary and wages
  • Liability and property insurance
  • Property maintenance, security, and cleaning
  • Office supplies
  • Ongoing public programming costs
  • Digital systems maintenance costs including websites, databases, and other core digital assets

Ineligible expenses include:

  • Fundraising costs
  • Costs related to general marketing and promotion initiatives
  • Capital costs, including, but not limited to:
    • the purchase of property, equipment, artifacts, or digital assets
    • major construction, renovation, or restoration work

How to Apply

The EHC strongly encourages all potential applicants to contact staff prior to submission to confirm eligibility and completeness of applications. Draft applications can be submitted for feedback no later than two weeks before the grant deadline.

A worksheet with the application questions and a list of required documents is now available. It is recommended that you use this worksheet to prepare your application to be submitted through the grant portal along with the documentation outlined in the worksheet.

A completed Operational Grant Budget Form and Signature Page must be uploaded to the portal with your application. Please save the documents to your device before filling in the fields. Links to these forms are also included in the worksheet.

Applications are now closed. Fall 2024 deadline to be announced.

If you have not used our grants portal before you can learn how with this guide. Returning users may log in here. If you are experiencing issues with the portal please contact grants@edmontonheritage.ca.

How Will My Application Be Evaluated?

EHC Staff review all applications for completeness and eligibility. A community peer jury, appointed by the EHC, then evaluates all eligible applications. The jury makes funding recommendations to the EHC Board of Directors who accept or decline the recommendations. All applicants will be notified of the final decision on their application. The application process may take up to sixteen (16) weeks from close of submissions to notification.

Jury members base their recommendations on the proven and potential merit of each application and each project’s alignment with Connections & Exchanges: A 10-Year Plan to Transform Arts and Heritage in Edmonton. The following Aims and Actions will be prioritized in making funding decisions for the Operational Grant:

  1. Aim: Edmonton’s neighbourhoods come alive with meaningful and relevant opportunities for participation and engagement.
    1. Action: Nurture cultural curiosity through planned and spontaneous heritage encounters that are personal and experiential.
    2. Action: Develop new heritage interpretive experiences (digital and analog) to increase visibility, improve access, and broaden engagement.
  2. Aim: Edmontonians feel a sense of belonging and connectedness to people, places, and stories.
    1. Action: Create and support opportunities for cultural connection and documentation that increases understanding between people, communities, and places.
    2. Action: Adopt inclusive practices in museums, archives, and historical research and programming.
    3. Action: Contribute actively to placemaking that includes cultural landscape, natural history, built history, object, language, and story.
  3. Aim: Dynamic exchanges of ideas and expertise occur between Edmonton’s heritage sector and the world
    1. Action: Partner with public agencies, private citizens, and private sector organizations to celebrate and raise the profile of Edmonton’s historic urban landscapes and sites of conscience.

Grant Reduction Policy

Operational Grant applicants, new and returning, acknowledge they are aware of and agree to the terms in the Operational Grant Reduction Policy.

Final Reports

Final Reports are not required for the Operational Grant stream if the applicant is applying for funding the following calendar year. The new application will serve as a Final Report. If you received Operational Grant funding, but will not be applying again, please contact us at grants@edmontonheritage.ca.