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Canadian charitiesAlso receives grants — funding profile →

Cambridge, ON · Private foundation

The Cowan Foundation

Donations to health education social services arts and other charitable organizations.

C$2.5M
Granted FY2024still arriving
35
Grants FY2024still arriving
—
Regions reached
C$1.0M
Largest
01What you fundRead
02Your edgeRead
03Your fieldRead
01What you fund
01FY2024 · 35 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under C$10k21 grants · C$56k
  • C$10k–50k7 grants · C$137k
  • C$50k–250k3 grants · C$165k
  • C$250k+4 grants · C$2.1M
C$5,000
Median grant
—
Regions reached
C$67M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Conestoga CollegeC$1,000,000
Conestoga CollegeC$500,000
Conestoga CollegeC$400,000
The Working CentreC$250,000
Homewood Research InstituteC$65,000
Shelter Movers Southwestern OntarioC$50,000
Perimeter InstituteC$50,000
Lions of Canada Fund for LCIFC$47,500
Homewood Research InstituteC$29,000
Perimeter InstituteC$15,000
Strong StartC$15,000
Independent Living Waterloo RegionC$10,000
St. Paul's Anglican Church - MindenC$10,000
Brant Waterways FoundationC$10,000
Tree Canada (in kind)C$6,000
02Your edge
repeat funding

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.

91%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
C$16M · 118 repeat orgsC$1.6M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +37% since the first grant, against +24% for the ones you funded once.

118 repeat relationships — 20 still active in FY2024, 98 since wound down; 10 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

118
202

Total granted

C$16M
C$1.3M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+37%
+24%

Still filing today

83%
45%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 87% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; C$326k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

  • CC
    CONESTOGA COLLEGE
    8× · 2017–2024 · C$10M · revenue +331%
  • IC
    Indwell Community Homes
    3× · 2019–2021 · C$660k · revenue +154%
  • TB
    THE BAYCREST CENTRE FOUNDATION
    3× · 2020–2022 · C$600k · revenue +22%

Funded once

  • BF
    Bruyère Foundation
    one grant, 2023 · C$150k · revenue -15%
  • CO
    CITY OF WOODSTOCK
    one grant, 2018 · C$110k
  • TC
    The Corporation of the Town of Woodstock
    one grant, 2017 · C$75k

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent CRA filings.

03Your field

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.

1
Cancer Care Ontario

Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) is the provincial government agency responsible for driving health system performance improvement for Ontario's cancer and chronic kidney disease health systems. CCO also supports achievement of Ontario's Wait…

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2
Waterloo - Wellington Autism Services

Providing information on services and supports for individuals and families who have Autism Spectrum Disorder.

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3
Waterloo Wellington Community Care Access Centre Waterloo Wellington

Client centred visiting health and support services to eligible clients of all ages in Waterloo Region and Wellington County. Information and assistance to persons who require placement in a long term facility. Simplified access to…

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4
Social Development Centre Waterloo Region

Provide information and referral of social services Undertake social research Provide support and services for the charitable sector Our primary pillars are Housing & Homelessness Grassroots Infrastructure and Lived Expertise. Our service…

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5
Victim Services of Waterloo Region

Victim services of waterloo region believes every victim has the right to heal from a crime or tragic circumstance. our programs create opportunities foster hope and promote safer and healthier communities.

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6
Habitat for Humanity Waterloo Region Inc

Construction of homes sold to lower income families. provision of interest-free mortgages to the families who purchase the homes. homes are built in partnership with the families who must complete 500 volunteer hours. monthly volunteer…

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7
Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo Wellington Branch

Community based mental health services including: mental health promotion and intervention crisis intervention clinical therapeutic services children's (mental health and developmental) adults and seniors programs and community consultant…

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8
Parents for Community Living Kitchener-Waterloo Inc

Parents for Community Living (PCL) enhances the quality of life of individuals with developmental disabilities by providing services and family-like homes in our community as follows: 1) PCL provides permanent residential support for 45…

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9
Heartwood Place

Provide safe affordable and adequate housing to three sites in the region of waterloo

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10
The Ontario Caregiver Organization

The Ontario Caregiver Organization exists to support Ontario's 4 million unpaid caregivers who provide physical and/or emotional support to a family member partner friend or neighbour in need. We work to amplify and spread existing…

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11
Brant United Way

Brant united way is a grant-making charity that strategically invests donations to charitable organizations that provide direct services to address four priority social issues impacting brant and brantford residents. the four priority…

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12
United Way of Oakville

Plan & conduct an annual fundraising campaign in the town of Oakville. Distribute funds raised to participating registered charities in accordance with the financial needs of these organizations. Funds are invested in 33 agencies & 54…

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For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Family & Children's Services of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Habitat for Humanity Brant. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

02the grantee network

205 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. 205 of the 330 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.

3
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
48
Early backer (in before they grew)
197/205
Grantees still filing
150/205
Grew since you first funded

Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%C$100kC$1.0MC$10MC$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetCONESTOGA COLLEGE — C$10,013,835 over 8y, 0.5% of budgetIndwell Community Homes — C$660,000 over 3y, 2.0% of budgetTHE BAYCREST CENTRE FOUNDATION — C$600,000 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetSCHLEGEL-UW RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR AGING FOUNDATION: MI — C$490,000 over 5y, 5.8% of budgetDucks Unlimited Canada — C$325,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetENABLE HAITI — C$300,000 over 3y, 60% of budgetHomewood Research Institute — C$254,500 over 5y, 4.5% of budgetThe Working Centre — C$250,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetCHILDREN'S MENTAL HEALTH ONTARIO — C$237,327 over 3y, 5.9% of budgetPerimeter Institute — C$232,500 over 8y, 0.1% of budgetBruyère Foundation — C$150,000 over 1y, 3.2% of budgetHospice of Palliative Care Ontario — C$150,000 over 3y, 3.8% of budgetLutherwood — C$150,000 over 3y, 1.8% of budgetLIONS OF CANADA FUND FOR LCIF — C$147,500 over 3y, 18% of budgetHABITAT FOR HUMANITY CANADA — C$131,017 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetSt. Joseph's Health Care Foundation London — C$120,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetYMCA OF CANADA — C$100,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetARGUS RESIDENCE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE — C$97,500 over 3y, 2.2% of budgetFamily & Children's Services of the Waterloo Region Foundati — C$86,250 over 3y, 2.8% of budgetST.PAUL'S ANGLICAN CHURCH - MINDEN — C$80,000 over 8y, 9.3% of budgetCHILD AND NATURE ALLIANCE OF CANADA — C$76,000 over 2y, 4.0% of budgetCARIZON FAMILY & COMMUNITY SERVICES — C$62,168 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetOntario Horticultural Trades Foundation — C$60,000 over 1y, 5.1% of budgetMontreal Museum of Fine Arts Foundation — C$60,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetGUELPH NEIGHBOURHOOD SUPPORT COALITION — C$56,000 over 3y, 2.2% of budgetCommunity Living St. Catharines — C$50,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetUniversity of Waterloo: Accelerator Centre — C$50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetKinbridge community Association — C$50,000 over 1y, 7.2% of budgetL'Arche Canada Foundation — C$50,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetShelter Movers Southwestern Ontario — C$50,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetHOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP — C$50,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetThe Bateman Foundation — C$50,000 over 2y, 2.9% of budgetLangs — C$50,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetThe Able Network — C$45,000 over 2y, 5.5% of budgetNUTRITION FOR LEARNING — C$40,650 over 3y, 1.4% of budgetShaw Festival Theatre — C$40,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetST. JOSPEH'S LIFECARE FOUNDATION, BRANTFORD — C$39,000 over 3y, 0.9% of budgetDiocese of The Arctic — C$37,500 over 2y, 46% of budgetTHE AIDS COMMITTEE OF CAMBRIDGE KITCHENER WA — C$35,000 over 2y, 2.4% of budgetINDEPENDENT LIVING WATERLOO REGION — C$35,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetDiocese of Saskatchewan — C$35,000 over 3y, 1.2% of budgetStrong Start — C$34,750 over 5y, 1.1% of budgetWATERLOO EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC.:WATERLOO — C$34,500 over 1y, 5.9% of budgetHenry Budd College for Ministry — C$32,000 over 3y, 12% of budgetCOMMUNITY SUPPORT CONNECTIONS: MEALS ON WHEELS — C$31,500 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetST PAUL'S ANGLICAN CHURCH-PRINCETON — C$30,000 over 3y, 20% of budgetStratford Perth Community Foundation — C$30,000 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetPrinceton United Church — C$30,000 over 3y, 9.5% of budget
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.

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.

United Way Waterloo R…Waterloo Region Commu…Cambridge & North Dum…The Lyle Shantz Hallm…The Guelph Community …Astley Family Foundat…The Food Bank of Wate…Kitchener-Conestoga R…Social Venture Partne…United Way of OxfordGore Mutual Insurance…United Way of Kitchen…
United Way Waterloo Region CommunitiesON35.3× affinity50 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: United Way Waterloo Region Communities · Waterloo Region Community Foundation · Cambridge & North Dumfries Community Foundation · The Lyle Shantz Hallman Charitable Foundation · The Guelph Community Foundation · Astley Family Foundation · The Food Bank of Waterloo Region · Kitchener-Conestoga Rotary Club Community Aid Fund · Social Venture Partners Waterloo Region · United Way of Oxford · Gore Mutual Insurance Company Foundation · United Way of Kitchener-Waterloo and Area

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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from the Canada Revenue Agency’s published T3010 data — your own annual information return and the multi-year returns of the 330 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year) — each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program description on its T3010; we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without a BN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

Generated from your T3010 annual information return for the fiscal period ending 2024-12-31, as published by the Canada Revenue Agency in 2024. Amounts are Canadian dollars, as filed and never converted. Registered as a private foundation under foundations advancing education.

Source object 119233716:2024-12-31 · View the T3010 on the CRA register

Play a game based on Cowan’s filings →