About

About the McConnell Foundation

We are a private Canadian foundation that contributes to diverse and innovative approaches to address community resilience, reconciliation, and climate change. We do so through funding and investment partnerships, and by collaborating with the public, private and non-profit sectors.

Foundation highlights

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+ $30M in funding annually

We aim to allocate 5% of our endowment towards our charitable activities annually. In 2022, we disbursed $32.6 million or 4.8% of our assets.

3 focus areas

We fund organizations working to address community resilience, reconciliation, and climate change. We also support Capacity Strengthening projects for the sector, and, in honour of our history, Montreal-based organizations.

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100% impact investing

We aim to deploy all of our assets towards advancing our mission. By 2028, we hope to allocate 100% of our endowment towards investing for impact.

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183 active partners

In 2022, we partnered with 183 organizations located across the country, as well as an additional 162 organizations through our Innoweave initiative.

Learn how we support change and the values and principles that underpin our work.

Find out more about the Foundation’s governance structure and Board Committees.

Get to know our compassionate and collaborative team.

JW McConnell as an older gentleman. Wearing a dark suit and tie, his white hair has thinned and he looks seriously at the camera.

History

Founded 1937 by J.W. McConnell, the McConnell Foundation is one of the earliest family foundations established in Canada. For more than 85 years, our focus has expanded from funding Montreal-based institutions to supporting organizations nation-wide using diverse approaches to addressing some of today’s most pressing challenges. Learn more in our history section.

Read our latest Year in Review

Last year we forged new ways of working to become better partners and collaborated with organizations across the country to enhance our impact.