Vancouver, BC · Private foundation
First Light Foundation
It made donations to 'qualified donees'
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under C$10k2 grants · C$6k
- C$10k–50k7 grants · C$161k
- C$50k–250k1 grant · C$100k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Windmill Microlending | C$100,000 |
| Gairdner Foundation | C$26,250 |
| Glen Gould Foundation | C$25,000 |
| Learning Disability Society of Greater Vancouver | C$25,000 |
| Take a Hike Foundation | C$25,000 |
| Junior Achievement British Columbia | C$25,000 |
| Vancouver Police Foundation | C$25,000 |
| St Pauls Hospital Foundation | C$10,000 |
| Rare Trait Hope Society | C$5,000 |
| School District 39 John Oliver Secondary | C$1,000 |
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +42% since the first grant, against +34% for the ones you funded once.
35 repeat relationships — 10 still active in FY2024, 25 since wound down.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; C$0 went to new ones.
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.”
Backed again, and grew
- UUBC2× · 2017–2018 · C$1.4M · revenue +55%
- SPSt Pauls Hospital Foundation8× · 2017–2024 · C$391k · revenue +156%
- BCBC CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION2× · 2017–2018 · C$300k · revenue +38%
Funded once
- BCBC CANCER FOUNDATIONone grant, 2018 · C$100k
- SASalvation Army BC Divisionone grant, 2023 · C$30k · revenue -95%
- CAChildren's Art Umbrellagraduatedone grant, 2017 · C$30k · revenue +114%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent CRA filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matches that aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
Vancouver Foundation leverages the generosity of donors towards projects initiatives and organizations working to create meaningful and lasting impact on our communities. We continued delivering a number of grant programs and initiatives…
Distributes awards and grants to Langara College students and funds other student related projects initiatives and programs.
The lung foundation of bc provides funding to support research and studies of prevention and control of lung and related diseases.
The pacific public health foundation works in collaboration with the bc centre for disease control (bccdc) and more broadly the health sector to support public health in bc by funding and facilitating evidence-based work that has an…
To receive endowment funds directly and indirectly through the University of Victoria to maintain the endowment funds and invest these funds to provide income to support the University and its students.
The victoria foundation connects people who care with causes that matter. established in 1936 the victoria foundation is canada's second oldest community foundation and the sixth largest of nearly 200 nation-wide. the victoria foundation…
The Royal BC Museum Foundation supports the Royal BC Museum with project funding as approved by the Board of Directors as well as other monetary and non-monetary contributions.
The bcit foundation raises funds to further the goals and objectives of british columbia institute of technology ('bcit') for the development and expansion of the education programs services capital projects and other initiatives as…
Providing scholarships and bursaries to students at vancouver community college providing equipment for programs at vancouver community college and providing funds for program development and faculties expansion at vancouver community…
VCF delivers funding and develops charitable programs and projects that contribute to economic inclusion social justice and environmental sustainability. Key program areas include: 1) Providing grants to qualified donees in partnership…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is B.C. Social Venture Partners Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Down Syndrome Research Institute. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
52 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2024.
Each one resolved to its own CRA returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2024, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 52 of the 60 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds UBC ↗
- Who funds Vancouver Public Library Foundation ↗
- Who funds St Pauls Hospital Foundation ↗
- Who funds BC CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds JA British Columbia ↗
- Who funds Arts Umbrella ↗
- Who funds University of Victoria ↗
- Who funds Windmill Microlending ↗
- Who funds BIG SISTERS BC LOWER MAINLAND ↗
- Who funds TAKE A HIKE ↗
- Who funds Social Venture Partners ↗
- Who funds Vancouver Police Foundation ↗
- Who funds Forum for Women Entrepreneurs ↗
- Who funds Gairdner Foundation ↗
- Who funds Learning Disabilities of Greater Vancouver Society ↗
- Who funds CANUCK PLACE HOSPICE ↗
- Who funds March of Dimes ↗
- Who funds ASTC Science World ↗
- Who funds Glenn Gould Foundation ↗
- Who funds VANCOUVER OPERA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Power to Be Adventure Therapy Society ↗
- Who funds Big Brothers ↗
- Who funds Salvation Army BC Division ↗
- Who funds Children's Art Umbrella ↗
- Who funds Vancouver Symphony Foundation ↗
- Who funds TREEHOUSE ADVISORY CENTRE ↗
- Who funds Rideau Hall Foundation ↗
- Who funds BC CANCER FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds YWCA ↗
- Who funds Vancouver Chinatown Foundation ↗
- Who funds Audain Art Museum ↗
- Who funds COLLINGWOOD SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds VGH UBC FOUNDAITON ↗
- Who funds DALAI LAMA CENTRE FOR PEACE ↗
- Who funds Laurier Institute ↗
- Who funds ST JAMES MUSIC ACADEMY ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Zlc Foundation · Nicola Wealth Private Giving Foundation · The Giustra Foundation · Diamond Foundation · Peter & Joanne Brown Foundation · The Connor Clark & Lunn Foundation · Nicola Family Foundation · United Way British Columbia · Vancity Community Foundation · Beedie Foundation · Lohn Foundation · Png Enterprise Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.