Community Foundation Awards $215,000 to 56 Projects Across Grey-Bruce, From Tobermory to Dundalk
Grey-Bruce groups sought $320,000-plus this spring; the foundation funded 56 projects across both counties. Next application deadline: Sept. 15.
Community Foundation Grey Bruce awarded $215,275 to 56 community projects this spring, funding organizations from Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsula to Dundalk in south Grey — about two-thirds of the money local groups requested.
The foundation received 75 applications seeking a combined $320,194.46. It did not say how many applications it turned down, or whether the projects it funded received the full amounts they sought; the awarded total leaves roughly $105,000 in requests unmet.
Environmental projects drew some of the largest grants. The Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association in Tobermory received $5,000 for community-based water-quality monitoring, Bruce Wildlife Help in Southampton $5,000 to pilot a volunteer wildlife-transport network across rural Grey and Bruce, and Treetrust TBM in Thornbury $4,000 to collect native tree seed for reforestation.
Several grants targeted mental health and isolation. Canadian Mental Health Association Grey Bruce took two $5,000 grants — one for a peer advisory committee on community drug strategy, another for inclusive summer baseball — while the Wiarton Propeller Club in South Bruce Peninsula received $5,000 for a program built around healthy aging and connection.
Two grants supported Indigenous-led work: $5,000 to Participation Lodge Grey Bruce for an Indigenous medicine garden, and $5,000 to Home and Community Support Services of Grey Bruce for Indigenous-led relationship building and co-design.
Food security and housing also featured. The Lions Head and District Food Bank received $5,000 for a generator, storage and protein for hampers; the Sustainability Project took $5,000 to relocate the Meaford community garden; and St. Matthew Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hanover received $5,000 to convene organizations on community housing.
Arts and youth programming reached both counties — from a $5,000 rural speaker series at the Durham Art Gallery and $5,000 for community murals through the Paisley Artscape Society, to $5,000 for Big Brothers Big Sisters South Bruce North Huron in Kincardine.
The foundation described the round as 52 projects, but its recipient list shows 56. Three organizations each won more than one grant: United Way of Bruce Grey took three, and CMHA Grey Bruce and the Sustainability Project two apiece. Counted by organization, 52 recipients shared the money.
Seven Owen Sound organizations received a combined $26,644 — an undercount, since the foundation labelled several Owen Sound-based recipients regionally, among them the YMCA of Owen Sound and the United Way’s RentSafe Owen Sound project.
CFGB funds its grants from income its endowments earn rather than from the endowed capital, which caps each round, according to the foundation. It manages more than 200 endowed funds and assesses applications through volunteer review panels.
Individual grants ranged from $1,000 to $5,000. The full recipient list is posted on CFGB’s website, and the next application deadline is Sept. 15, 2026.
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