Council and the town had nearly $200,000 total to hand out through two grant streams this year, but it wasn’t enough to give everyone what they wanted.
At their meeting on April 14, councillors finalized the list of council community grants this year, choosing to take some money leftover from the town-run community recreation and culture grants to make sure everyone got a little something.
However, one of the challenges this year was that significantly more organizations asked for funding than the town can afford. Specifically, there were nearly $350,000 in requests this year for the council grants alone, but only $99,760 to go around through that stream.
This meant all the organizations that applied are getting less than they had hoped.
“What stands out to me, in 2024 our requests totalled about $150,000. This year, it’s close to $350,000. That’s a significant change,” said Deputy Mayor Tim Fryer during council discussion.
“I’m prepared to talk about the funding level in the 2026 budget, but that’s like a 120 per cent increase. I’m hoping we won’t see that again,” he said.
Michelle Kemper, chair of the Rainbow Club of South Georgian Bay, came before council to plead for more funding this year. The organization had requested $15,000 financial and $8,873 in-kind in grants for this year’s Collingwood Pride Festival, but will only receive $4,748.29 and $6,193.86 in-kind through the final approved amounts.
“We respected this process,” Kemper told councillors. “The impact is, the funding we’ve seen from this council over the past few years, there’s a significant decrease.”
While the annual event also receives funding through sponsorships and federal or provincial grants, Kemper said many sponsorships are drying up now, with rhetoric from across the U.S. border cited as one of the reasons.
“No matter what financial model we look at, we’re not going to be able to continue hosting this festival as a free, all-ages event without some financial commitment from the community,” she said.
Kemper asked for council to commit to the amount requested by the Rainbow Club, however no councillor put forward a motion to adjust this year’s grant amounts before approving them.
In 2024, council passed a new formalized policy to hand out community grants. There are two funding streams: community grants through council and the community recreation and culture grants, which are decided by town staff.
The objective of the council community grants are to provide assistance to organizations or individuals that demonstrate a social, economic or environmental benefit to the Town of Collingwood, its citizens or taxpayers. For this stream, the funds are partially raised through proceeds from the Mayor’s Golf Tournament, with 70 per cent of the proceeds going to the Collingwood Special Olympics and 30 per cent set aside for the grants. This year, there was $99,760 to dole out through these grants.
The purpose of the community recreation and culture grants is to assist Collingwood-based not-for-profit, charitable or volunteer-based organizations in supporting the community by providing opportunities for all persons to participate in arts, culture, recreation, sports, health and well-being activities. The funds for this stream are set aside through the annual town budget process. This year, there was $93,500 total to dole out.
Grant applicants under either stream can apply for a financial grant and in-kind (facility rental or permit fee forgiveness) grant or both, but cannot apply for both streams in the same year.
The recipients of the community recreation and culture grants this year were:
- Blue Mountain Watershed Trust Foundation - $1,500
- CollingWord 2025 - $1,500
- Mountain Movie Fest - $1,500
- Collingwood Paddle Club - $1,500
- Georgian Triangle Music Teacher’s Association - $1,500
- Collingwood Clippers Swim Team - $1,500 and $1,249.78 (in-kind)
- Collingwood Skating Club - $1,500
- Gaslight Community Theatre - $1,500 and $1,429.45 (in-kind)
- Theatre Georgian Bay - $1,500 and $5,000 (in-kind)
- Fifth Street Creative Initiatives - $1,500
- Viva Variety - $1,500 and $1,564.37 (in-kind)
- Breaking Down Barriers - $5,000
- Collingwood Collective - $5,000
- Collingwood Girls Hockey Association - $5,000 and $5,000 (in-kind)
- Collingwood BIA - $5,000
- Free Spirit Gardens - $5,000
- Simcoe Muskoka Family Connexions - $5,000
- Academy of Southern Georgian Bay - $5,000
- YMCA of Simcoe and Muskoka - $5,000
- Collingwood Sombarac Chess Festival - $2,000
- Altitude Volleyball - $5,000 in-kind
- Georgian Bay Cancer Support Centre - $1,900 in-kind
- Living Better with Parkinson’s - $5,000 in-kind
- Magic of Children in the Arts - $5,000 in-kind
- Hospice Georgian Triangle Foundation - $2356.40 in-kind
The recipients of the council community grants this year were:
- Optimist Club - $3,283 in-kind
- Collingwood Pride Festival - $4,748.29 and $6,193.86 in-kind
- The Institute of South Georgian Bay - $5,291.56
- Theatre Collingwood - $6,885.52 and $4,014.87 in-kind
- South Georgian Bay Music Foundation - $5,919.11 and $2,230.97 in-kind
- South Georgian Bay Jewish Community - $1,258.02
- Home Horizon - $7,225.12
- Oscar’s Place - $2,604.48
- Collingwood Climate Action Team - $7,894.14
- Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts - $3,419.34 and $2,574.56 in-kind
- Elephant Thoughts (Mobile Soup Kitchen) - $3,853.89
- Admiral Collingwood Elementary School - $1,193.60
- Collingwood Music Festival - $6,223.40
- Hope Chapel – $4,042.17
- My Friend’s Closet - $4,830.46
- Curling Club of Collingwood - $1,389.96
- Wrestling Night in Collingwood - $2,989.96 in-kind
- Shared Path Consultative Initiative - $2,066.66 and $172.22 in-kind
- Collingwood Off-Road Club - $2,037.26
- DOCS on Ice - $3,207.04 in-kind
- Habitat for Humanity - $436.53
- Shiladitya Ray/Indo-Canadian Festival - $1,785.42
- Mouse & Ru - $1,084.32
- Alzheimer Society of Simcoe County - $904.17
At their meeting on April 14, council took a second look at four organizations that hadn’t been successful on the council grants side, choosing to use $8,240 in leftover funds from the recreation grants to provide those organizations with some funds.
Each organization below received about 80 per cent of their requested funds:
- Collingwood Minor Hockey Association - $2,848
- Collingwood United Soccer Club - $4,069
- Collingwood Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps - $814
- Kiwanis Club of South Georgian Bay - $509
Also during the April 14 meeting, councillors were informed that the Mayor’s Golf Tournament is bringing in less and less money year over year, and staff suggested adjusting how the proceeds from the tournament are split to eventually eliminate a portion to be set aside for Special Olympics.
The organization could still apply for a grant through the council community grant stream.
This year, the tournament brought in $26,680. The town’s parks and recreation manager Karen Cubitt said some of the sponsors are pulling out due to the “economic climate.”
However, during the discussion, council was overwhelmingly against the idea and opted to continue with the 70/30 split on the proceeds by a unanimous vote.
“How these athletes represent us globally is well worth what we invest in them through the Mayor’s Golf Tournament,” said Coun. Kathy Jeffery. “I will always support this.”
