Your OTF Registration
The Ontario Trillium Foundation-OTF- Seed Grant Registration deadline is coming up on January 31st. What this means is that if you and/or your organization is interested in applying for a seed grant, you need to have your organization registered by the end of January.
Registration, involves getting together some vital organizational info, that will provide a window into both the health and finances of your organization. Completing this registration involves filling in an organizational profile. The profile captures information such as your current Board of Directors, your contact address, who the designated signing officers are, and whom OTF should correspond with.
You also have to fill in more logistical information such as your banking, charitable/non-profit business numbers, website and whom your executive are.
Financial Statements
Next, you have to provide an overview of the programs you run, your mission, your community impact, and your total staff and volunteer contributions. Finally, for organizations that are under $50,000 in annual revenue, financial statements for the last year are required. For those over $50,000, financial statements prepared by an OUTSIDE accountant are required. This means you must have someone with a CPA designation complete a review of your organizational books.
This last component, is the one that I have found most of my small/start-up non profits have difficulty with. Small organizations do not often have the funds to pay an accountant, yet without the financial statements, they do not qualify for most types of provincial funding. This conundrum, is one, that with some creativity, can be navigated. You might approach a CPA, about offering you a non-profit discount. You could also, seek out a retired CPA, that retains their designation, that might be willing to do it for free. Most organizations, through their board, or other networks, have a CPA in their Rolodex that are able to offer this type of service.
It is highly recommended that you refer to OTF’s registration requirements checklist page (https://otf.ca/sites/default/files/org_reg_checklist.pdf) and ensure that you email them with any questions.
Next week, we will look at how to successfully answer a seed grant application.