Series - Editorial Fellowship: Transforming Funding Models

Investigation: Ontario Trillium Foundation ‘muzzled’ charities with changes to advocacy policy

Author Gabe Oatley
Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request strongly suggest that partisanship influenced the foundation’s shift in 2020 toward a more restrictive approach to grantee advocacy.

Why It Matters

The Ontario Trillium Foundation is one of the province’s — and the country’s — largest funders. Any indication the foundation disapproves of grantees engaging in advocacy, one expert says, could have a ripple effect, “chilling” advocacy among charitable organizations across the province.

John Good, a retired community foundation executive director and current board member of an environmental conservation charity at the Trent University Wildlife Sanctuary on May 1, 2023. (Photo: Will Pearson)

This journalism ​​is made possible by the Future of Good editorial fellowship covering the social impact world’s rapidly changing funding models, supported by Future of Good, Community Foundations of Canada, and United Way Centraide Canada. See our editorial ethics and standards here.

Last December, John Good and fellow board members of an Ontario-based environmental conservation charity decided not to sign a petition condemning the provincial government’s plan to open a portion of the Greenbelt to development. It was a decision he felt conflicted about. 

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