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Ending poverty

 

We help to lift young individuals out of poverty by supporting programs that set vulnerable youth up for success along their educational journey and pave the way to stable, successful employment.

Our support model

With our charitable partnership program, we go beyond just cutting a cheque. We look for multi-year partnerships (up to three years) in the range of $30,000 to $50,000 per year and look for opportunities to mobilize our employees, facilities, and other resources unique to EPCOR. Our goal is to create a true partnership that has more impact on young lives and to bring profile to the work we are doing together.

Our 3 focus areas

We focus our support on three critical educational milestones that can mean the difference between poverty and prosperity.

1. Ready

Learning readiness and achieving early literacy milestones

2. Set

Staying in school and moving towards high school completion

3. Go

High school completion and pursuit of post-secondary education or other career-related pursuits

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Criteria

 

​ Eligible requests 

The organization requesting funding should: The initiative should: Use of funds:
  • Be a federally-registered charitable organization (for at least 1 year).
  • Request support for a specific initiative.
  • Demonstrate the ability to successfully execute the initiative.

  • Demonstrate the ability to provide measurable outcomes of the initiative's success that align with our education focus.

  • Demonstrate the ability to work with us to cultivate a partnership and bring profile to the work we are doing together.

  • Directly support at least one of our three education focus areas.
  • Take a root cause, sustainable approach.
  • Support a socially-vulnerable demographic.
  • Provide ongoing support to a consistent group of youth. For example: a program that reaches the same group every day or every week.

  • Be delivered within an EPCOR operating community.

  • Provide opportunities to engage EPCOR like employee volunteering or showcasing types of careers, etc.
  • Funds must be applied only toward the approved initiative.
  • Funds must be applied within one year of being granted.
  • A report must be received prior to re-applying for a previously-funded program.
  • If re-applying for a previously-funded program, the application must be submitted no earlier than one year from the time the original funding was received.

Ineligible requests

The following organizations and/or activities aren't eligible to receive funding as charitable partners.

Organizations Activities
  • Organizations that are not federally-registered or have not been registered for at least 1 year
  • For-profit businesses
  • Advocacy or lobbying organizations
  • Fraternal organizations or commercial third-party fundraising organizations
  • Community/Family Foundations, Trusts or Funds
  • Programs that only briefly interact with a group of youth. For example: a one-time half day program
  • Capital campaigns to build infrastructure or cover general operating costs
  • Events, including charity dinners, conferences and tournaments
  • Utility rebates
  • Advertising or promotional initiatives
  • Individual/team applicants or individual/team pursuits
  • Contingency or deficit funds
  • Research
  • Sports programs or tournaments
  • Health-related causes or conditions
  • Political or religious causes
  • Endowments or matching grants

  • Programs delivered outside EPCOR's operating communities

  • Retroactive funding for program expenses incurred prior to EPCOR's funding decision
  • In-kind donations
  • Scholarships or bursaries

Apply for Support

 

Application process and timelines

  • You can submit your application anytime throughout the year. EPCOR reviews applications twice per year following our intake cut-off dates:
    • March 15 
    • October 15 

  • Applications for support of initiatives in our operating communities outside of Edmonton will be reviewed once per year following our October 15th intake deadline.

  • There are two parts to our application form: Stage 1 and Stage 2.

  • After you complete the Stage 1 form, we will conduct a preliminary review of your request. We may reach out to you to ask that you complete the Stage 2 section to provide greater detail and insight into your program.
  • We will reach out to you regarding the success of your application 2-4 weeks after our intake deadline date.
  • Due to the volume of requests we receive, we're unable to respond to telephone or email inquiries regarding the status of your request.

We have a new online application system

  • User accounts haven't been carried over from our old system so you'll have to create a new user account.
  • Your new user account will keep a record of all applications you submit going forward, and you'll be able to use the "copy" feature to auto-populate future applications and edit as needed.
  • Our online system accepts requests for Canadian initiatives only.

  • US inquiries can be sent to: uscommunityinvestment@epcor.com.

All requests for support must be received through our online application system. We're unable to consider telephone, hard copy or email requests.

Apply for sponsorhip now


Contact:

Canadian inquiries

community@epcor.com
Due to the large volume of requests we receive, we are unable to provide status updates or respond to email inquiries to discuss your initiative before you’ve applied. After you submit your online application, please reach out to us if you have additional information to provide.

U.S. inquiries

uscommunityinvestment@epcor.com

​Apply for support

Email to inquire

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