Two years ago, a well-respected Canadian philanthropist responded to a frustrated email I’d sent. I was running a small charity and venting about the exhausting grant application process — the duplication, the inconsistency, the guessing games.
He asked me to imagine sitting with hundreds of applications, each with varying quality, clarity, and relevance, and having to make painstaking decisions on where to allocate funds, ensure compliance, and get buy-in from many stakeholders. It was eye-opening.
That conversation changed us both. Ultimately, I asked him and others to join with me to create WellFunded and Canada’s Common Grant, to unite DAFs, foundations, individuals, and charities around one shared standard for major giving.
The system is designed to get the results we have:
After connecting with over 100 Canadian philanthropists and charities, three things became clear:
- Confusion, demand, compliance burden, and lack of trust are accelerating.
- Almost no one is satisfied with the current model of institutional giving.
- The result is harm — not just to funders and charities, but to the people we all serve.
This is how it was designed. Seeing that harm up close is what led me to step away from my role as CEO of a clean water charity. I wanted to help rethink major giving, not as a one-off transaction problem, but as a system design issue.
We need to design a better system to get better results. Today, I’m asking you, charities and donors, to join us at CommonGrant.ca.
The scale of the problem
It’s wildly inefficient: Charities spend over $70 billion annually on major donor fundraising. One study found nonprofits lose 20-30% of staff time to repetitive, outdated applications alone.
It’s wildly ineffective: There are 20% fewer major donors in Canada today than a decade ago.
It’s wildly inequitable: Only 5% of grant dollars reach minority-led organizations.
It’s wildly untrustworthy: Only 8% of Canadians highly trust charity leaders. Even as compliance measures grow, trust falls.
This isn’t just an inconvenience. It’s unsustainable. The consequences are devastating.
This is why we’re so keen on standardizing, centralizing and optimizing the major donor experience through a common platform.
Why standardization matters
Other sectors have already done this:
- Bloomberg standardized financial reporting.
- Online job boards standardized resumes.
- Realtor.ca standardized how we list homes.
We need the same for philanthropy. Not to replace relationships, but to reduce noise. To remove the unnecessary hurdles. To bring clarity, trust, and equity into a space that desperately needs all three.
What Canada’s Common Grant includes:
- Organizational profiles: Core details (mission, leadership, CRA data, financials, accreditations, impact metrics) entered once and used everywhere.
- Project modules: Reusable templates for project-specific funding needs.
- Integrated due diligence: Complete it once and eliminate the most common governance, finance and risk.
- Smart discovery: Allow donors to search for what matters most to them and match with aligned organizations or projects.
This isn’t about another transaction platform. It’s about building infrastructure that makes the sector more effective, efficient, and equitable.
The momentum for change
In just six months, donors managing nearly $500 million in philanthropic capital have signed on to pilot programs. It’s still early days, but we’re encouraged.
But we need you.
The future isn’t inevitable, but it is possible
Donors are leaving the space. Trust in charities is low. But I still believe the best days of Canadian giving are ahead — if we build better infrastructure, together.
If you believe we can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results, I’d love for you to join us.
Sign up for free at CommonGrant.ca.
Let’s build the infrastructure philanthropy deserves.
Interested in learning more about common grant standards? Visit CommonGrant.ca to explore emerging approaches to standardized funding processes, or contact jeff@wellfunded.io with questions about how your organization can engage with these sector-wide changes.
Jeff Golby is the CEO and Co-Founder of WellFunded.io building matchmaking for major donors in Canada. His background includes being the CEO of a clean water charity and helping grow one of the largest DAFs in Canada.
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