Applicant guide: Phase II of the Canada Learning Bond Grants and Contributions Pilot Project

Question 1: Legal name

What is your organization's legal name? The legal name is usually:

• the name on your registration with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) or provincial/territorial equivalent
• the name used on funding cheques

Question 2: Operating name (if different from legal name)

What is the operating (or common) name of your organization (if it differs from the legal name)?

Question 3: Business or registration number

What is your 15-digit CRA business number? For registered charities and not-for-profit organizations, what is your registration number? For example, 123456789 RR 0001.

You can find your CRA business number on tax-related documents or written communications from the CRA.

For more information, please visit the CRA website.

You must provide 1 of following documents if you do not have a:

• CRA business number
• charity registration number
• not-for-profit registration number

If incorporated:

• a copy of letters of patents
• articles of incorporation
• certificate of incorporation
• memorandum of association
• your rules, by-laws, or constitution

If not incorporated:

• a copy of your rules, bylaws, council resolutions, or constitution

Question 4: Organization type

Tell us which applies to you:

• not-for-profit organization or charity
• educational institutions (including post-secondary institutions), school boards, health and social services agencies and employment services
• municipal government
• Indigenous organizations (including band councils, tribal councils and self-government entities)

Note: Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) promoters (providers) are not eligible.

Question 5: Organization category

Your answer must be 1 of the following:

Not-for-profit sector:

• Indigenous educational institution
• Indigenous not-for-profit group
• Associations of workers and/or of employers
• Local community, charitable, voluntary organization
• National non-governmental organization
• Non-governmental organization with a focus to encourage employment
• Not-for-profit Band Council
• Provincial non-governmental organization
• Sector council
• Union

Private sector:

• Indigenous band corporation (profit basis)
• International sector
• Private band council
• Private university or college

Public sector:

• Crown Corporation
• Municipal government or agency
• Provincial government and agency
• Public community college and vocational school
• Public degree-granting college
• Public degree-granting university
• Public Health
• School Board/Other educational institution
• Territorial government

Question 6: Year established

When was your organization established?

Questions 7 to 11: Organization address

What is the address of your organization? Give a complete address in a format recognized by Canada Post. For more information, please visit the Canada Post website.

Questions 12 to 14: Telephone, fax and email

What is your organization's telephone number, fax number (if it has one) and email address?

Questions 15 to 19: Mailing address (if different from organization address)

What is the mailing address of your organization (if it differs from your organization's address)?

Questions 20 and 21: Telephone and fax (if different from organization address)

What are your organization's telephone and fax numbers (if the mailing address differs from your organization's address)?

Question 22: Organization's mandate

What are your organization's main activities, including your mission and objectives?

Primary contact

Secondary contact

Question 47: How many employees does your organization currently have?

Indicate the total number of employees in your organization.

Question 48: Has your organization undergone any important transformations in the past 2 years?

For this funding process, "important transformations" means:

• a change in leadership in the board of directors or at the executive level
• a large reduction, increase or turnover in staff
• a merger with or split from another organization
• a change in mandate or main activities, etc

If you answer "yes", tell us about the changes.

Question 49: Describe how your organization has the experience and expertise to carry out the proposed project activities?

Tell us about what you have done in the last 5 years that will help you carry out this project.

Question 50: Does your organization owe any amount to the Government of Canada?

If yes, how much? Use the spaces provided.

Question 51: If an amount is owing, is a payment plan in place?

Have you set up a plan to pay back the money?

If you answer "yes", your application can continue. But you have to tell us what you owe and how you are paying back the money.

Question 52: Project title

Give a short title that describes your project.

Questions 53 and 54: Planned project start and end dates?

When do you plan to start and end your project?

We expect that projects could start in August 2021. Projects must not exceed 24 months in duration.

You must start your project activities after we approve your project and a signed funding agreement is in place. We can only pay for activities that have started after we sign the agreement.

Question 55: Project Objectives (must clearly link to the program objectives)

Describe how your project will:

• test supported enrolment models for CLB eligible children in one or more of the following populations:
  • children from families with low incomes
  • children of single parents
  • children in care
  • children and families living in rural or remote regions of Canada
  • youth transitioning to post-secondary education (PSE)
• take into account the barriers that exist in a COVID-19 environment
• COVID-19 restrictions have resulted in reduced access to in-person services. There is a greater need for online tools and remote supports to increase take-up of the CLB and access to an RESP. For example, through telephone or video call

Indicate if your project will undertake one or more of the considerations below. If so, explain why and how your project aligns with these considerations. Your project does not need to include these, but we may give more consideration to projects that do.

• target other at-risk populations, such as Indigenous families and children, new immigrants and children and youth with disabilities
• develop and test innovative approaches, such as:
  • new ways of delivering CLB and RESP access supports
  • replicating an existing approach to reach a larger or new target population in order to increase take-up of the CLB
• test remote IT delivery models that can increase take-up of the CLB and access to an RESP in one or both of the following:
• the context of the COVID-19 pandemic
• for populations living in rural or isolated areas

Question 56: Project activities (give clear steps for each one)

Project activities are the steps used to meet the project objectives that you identified in your answer to Question 55. Activities should be specific, measureable, realistic and relevant to the project objectives and must demonstrate how to achieve the project outcome(s).

Provide a clear and feasible plan to achieve your project's objectives and expected results. This must include:

• clear description of your project activities that are relevant to the objective and expected results of your project (see question 55). List your activities in a logical or chronological sequence. You must include an activity to develop an evaluation plan
• clear and feasible timelines and milestones:
  • milestones are significant events or points of progress during the project
• clear links between the activities and the costs outlined in the budget (see Questions 70 to 73). Reflect costs associated with identified activities in the Budget Detail Template

Eligible activities may include, but are not limited to the following:

• supports to individuals and families that include one-on-one assistance in:
  • obtaining a social insurance number
  • the filing of taxes and applications for the CLB
  • working with RESP promoters (providers)
• virtual offerings, remote supports and virtual partnerships to increase take-up of the CLB and access to an RESP
• awareness and outreach to encourage CLB-eligible students to access unclaimed CLB when they go through the PSE university application process
• raising awareness of education savings and easing CLB access within career planning and education planning programs to help students transition to post-secondary education
• integration of information and supports to ease CLB access into existing program and service offerings. This could include:
  • for social insurance number acquisition
  • income tax filing
  • RESP and CLB enrollment

Note about the evaluation plan:

• organizations must submit a plan describing how they will evaluate their project within the first 3 months of the agreement
• ESDC will require organizations selected for funding to submit a final evaluation report for their project at the end of the funding period. This report will demonstrate if and how you met the project objectives (as per question 57) and highlight lessons learned. Organizations must provide qualitative and quantitative results
• to support the evaluation plan, ESDC will provide funded organizations with an evaluation tool. This tool will help organizations develop specific indicators that reflect their stated project objectives

Question 57: Expected results of the project (must be clearly linked to the project objectives and be specific, concrete and measurable)

Tell us what you expect your project to deliver (outcomes) and produce (outputs).

Explain why these are reasonable results for your projects. Consider the capacity of your organization to meet these targets, the population served, and the intervention used.

• outcomes are the short-term, medium-term and long-term changes that you expect the project to deliver. You can link more than one outcome to an objective. Outcomes answer the questions "How do we know the project is a success?"
• outputs are direct products or services that you will produce to get the outcomes you want. They answer the question "What will the project produce?"

Question 58: Does the project include indicators to measure results?

Your answer to this question must be "yes". Indicate the targets for the following required indicators:

• the number of eligible children anticipated to benefit from your project
• the number of open RESPs anticipated for CLB-eligible children as a result of your project

Further explain why these are reasonable targets for your project. In setting targets, consider:

• the capacity of your organization to meet them
• the size of the population served, and
• the intervention used

You must describe how you plan to collect data and report on these results in your evaluation plan, as mentioned in question 56. If your project receives funding, within the first 3 months of signing your agreement you will have to:

• provide the indicators that you will use to measure the progress towards your expected results
• describe how you plan to gather, measure, monitor and report on the results
• include data sources for indicators for the final evaluation report
• describe the baseline by which you will measure your results against, if applicable

Question 59: Does this proposed project fit with your organization's other activities?

If "yes", describe how your project relates to the work your organization is doing now.

Question 60: Will any of the project activities take place somewhere other than where your organization is located?

If "yes", give the main address first and then add other addresses.

If you have more than 5 locations, please continue your answer in Appendix A.

Question 61: Will your project benefit or involve people in English or French language minority communities?

Tell us what languages the people your project is targeting speak. Tell us about any special needs of the official language minority communities and if you will consult them.

Answer "yes" to this question if your project involves official language minority communities (English in Quebec, and French in other parts of Canada). Make sure the activities and costs are part of your answer to Question 56 - Project Activities and Question 70: Cost category.

If you answer yes to this question, we will ask you to:

• publicly announce the project in English and French
• actively offer project-related services to the public in English and French
• make project documents or other project information for the general public available in English and French
• encourage members of English and French language communities to take part in the project
• consider the needs of English and French language communities in providing the services when possible

Click on the link to learn more about official language minority communities.

If you answer "no" to this question, we will still consider your application.

Question 62: Will any other organizations, networks or partners be involved in carrying out the project?

Partnerships could include collaboration between organizations that span across different sectors in order to increase take-up of the CLB and access to an RESP.

Will your project involve partnerships? Your project does not need to involve partnership. However, we may give more consideration to the projects that do.

If your project will involve partnerships, provide the following:

• information about the partner(s):
• name
• type of organization, such as union, not for profit, public
• how the partner or partners will participate in the project (for example time, resources, or both)
• how the partner or partners will benefit from the project results

Question 63: Does the project address the program's national, regional or local priorities? 

Not applicable for this funding. Answer "no" to this question.

Question 64: Does your project include activities that are listed in Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) Regulations Designating Physical Activities established under the Canadian Impact Assessment Act 2019

Not applicable for this funding. Answer "no" to this question.

Question 65: Source name

If you are receiving contributions from other sources, tell us their names.

Other sources of funding are not mandatory, but are encouraged.

If we select your project, we will ask you to submit a letter confirming the cash contribution from a source other than us. That letter will need to confirm that the cash contribution will be available when you will begin the project.

Question 66: Source type

Tell us what type of organization is providing the cash contribution. Use this list:

• not-for-profit organizations
• municipal government
• provincial and territorial governments, institutions and Crown Corporations
• Indigenous organizations (including band councils, tribal councils and self-government entities)
• international organizations
• coalitions, networks or committees
• research organizations or institutes
• educational institutions
• public health and social services institutions
• for-profit organizations

Question 67: Cash contributions

Tell us how much in cash contributions you will receive.

Question 68: In-kind contributions

If you are getting an in-kind contribution, tell us how much it is worth.

In-kind contributions are goods or services that people or organizations give for free. Your organization, other organizations or partners can make in-kind contributions. In-kind contributions include equipment, services or labour that you receive for free.

We will recognize in-kind contributions only if we can estimate what a person would pay for the contribution.

Question 69: Confirmed cash and in-kind

Tell us if you have confirmed contributions.

Question 70: Cost category

Use the budget detail template.

We can only pay you back for eligible costs. Eligible costs must directly relate to your project activities.

Your budget for this project must not exceed $1,000,000.

You may use up to 15% of the amount of your project cost to support administrative overhead costs per fiscal year.

In developing your budget, please consider costs associated with the evaluation plan (such as, professional fees, if needed).

Eligible costs could include:

• staff wages, such as full-time and part-time staff
• project costs, such as administrative costs, rent, utilities, professional fees, (for example, an external evaluator), materials and supplies
• capital costs to support the delivery of the service, such as equipment, computers
• honorariums
• completion bonuses for registrations
• participant costs, including those necessary to support parents or guardians to be able to register their children or dependants for the CLB. For example, childcare, transportation, translation
• other costs necessary to support the purpose of the funding approved by ESDC

The ineligible costs are any other costs, such as:

• core existing or ongoing activities
• capital costs for the construction of a building or the purchase of land or buildings

As stated in question 56, include costs related to the reporting of the result of your project. If your project receives funding, we will review the amount required with you.

Questions 71 to 73: Planned spending ($) (ESDC /Other, Cash/Other, In-kind)

If applicable, give the total planned spending from all sources, including us. The amounts should align with those that you put in section A. Anticipated sources of funding of your application for funding.

"Other" means a cash or in-kind contribution from sources other than us.

Question 74: Associated businesses or individuals

Check all statements that apply to your planned spending of the funding from us.

Question 75: Capital assets: Will capital assets be among your planned expenditures with ESDC funding?

Not applicable for this funding process.

Question 76: Further budget details

Give us a breakdown of your total costs per fiscal year (April 1 to March 31), by project activity and cost category.