Financial Workbook Instructions - Capital

The costs listed in the Financial Workbook should clearly align with your project activities and be reasonable to carry out. 

• In the Financial Workbook, only include eligible project costs to be covered by OTF. 
• Ask only for what you need, because the Ontario Trillium Foundation funds full request amounts and we want to fund as many applications as possible. 
• Only project activities that take place in Ontario are eligible for OTF funding.

Refer to OTF’s Eligibility Policy for more information.  

How much can you apply for? 

• Applicants can apply for grants of $10,000 to $150,000.
• Grant term lengths can be 6 or 12 months. 

What can you apply for?

• Construction / renovation costs: This includes materials and/or contractors
• Equipment costs: This includes fixed and non-fixed equipment 
• Developmental costs: Up to 20% of the total grant request can be for developmental costs associated with construction, such as the development of engineering plans, legal fees, or survey costs.

What costs are ineligible? 

If you include ineligible costs, your grant application will be declined. For a description of ineligible costs, review OTF’s Eligibility Policy.

Additional ineligible costs include:  

• Taxes, such as GST and HST, for which the recipient is eligible for a tax rebate, and all other costs eligible for rebates. 
• Contingency costs.
• Costs incurred before the approval of the OTF grant.  
• General capital fundraising drives and/or capital campaigns are not eligible for OTF funding. OTF supports defined capital projects with clear and detailed expenses as provided within the application’s financial workbook.

OTF grant budget notes

• OTF Grant Budget notes are required in the Financial Workbook. 
• Use the notes section to breakdown the costs of your project activities. 
• Ensure that each note corresponds only to the related cost
• Notes are required up to a maximum of 100 words.

Sample OTF grant budget table with examples

Requirements for quotes or estimates

For each good and/or service valued above $10,000, OTF requires that a minimum of one quote or estimate be uploaded with the grant application. However, OTF prefers to receive two or more quotes or estimates to help your organization establish accurate budget amounts and demonstrate the best value for money. You will need to upload your quotes in your application. 

All documentation needs to be prepared by a third-party professional and must be obtained within 6 months prior to the application deadline.

Multiple sub-contracts with a supplier on the same project will be considered as a cumulative total. This means if the total of these goods and/or services exceeds $10,000, a minimum of one itemized quote or estimate (preferably two or more from different suppliers) needs to be uploaded. An itemized quote or estimate breaks down the cost of each good and service into line items.

Examples: