Report: Building Capacity, Granting for Impact

Research Report Completed
Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) undertook research on capacity building to increase the impact of its grants to individual organizations and thus strengthen the overall capacity of the voluntary sector in Ontario. This is in keeping with OTF funding principles, which include a commitment to support the work and enhance the long-term capacity of organizations in the voluntary sector. It also complements OTF’s mission – to build healthy and vibrant communities throughout the province by strengthening the capacity of the voluntary sector, through investments in community-based initiatives.

Definition of Capacity Building
As a result of this project’s findings, OTF plans to expand its definition of organizational capacity building for the purpose of grantmaking. This new and broader definition is that organizational capacity building is a process that strengthens four interrelated pillars - the relevance, responsiveness, effectiveness and resilience of not-for-profit organizations. At the heart of this new definition is the recognition that organizations strive to build their capacity by becoming more effective themselves and through their interaction with their communities.