Our two main areas of focus are Healthy Ecosystems and Healthy Aging.  Within these, we specifically fund programs and research in Environmental stewardship, Canada’s North, Neuroscience and the Microbiome.  https://westonfoundation.ca/purpose/

We currently only grant to charitable Canadian institutions and organizations that are qualified donees. For more details, please see the Canada Revenue Agency definition of a qualified donee. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/charities-giving/charities/policies-guidance/qualified-donees.html

The Foundation regularly reviews it’s funding priorities.  However, at present there is no plan to change our two main areas of focus.

Please have a look at our current open calls  https://westonfoundation.ca/grant_calls/. Open grant calls are the only way to apply for funding, we do not accept unsolicited proposals.

Open grant calls are the only way to apply for funding, we do not accept unsolicited proposals.

Granting decisions undergo a rigorous process including review by our highly qualified internal team, an expert panel of international reviewers, followed by a final decision by our Board of Directors.

Grant calls are born from a gap in areas of funding and/or a means to address a timely, specific issue.  They are not set by a calendar or a specific time of year.  For current open calls, please see https://westonfoundation.ca/grant_calls/

We do not have a specific fund for marginalized groups in Canada. We are continuously evolving our approach to funding to ensure inclusivity, and that marginalized groups benefit.  

Please contact info@westonfoundation.ca for assistance. The more specific information you provide, the quicker we can help resolve the issues (i.e., what funding area are you apply to and what specific initiative or program).

Funding comes from business operations of the Weston Family operating companies.

Please check here for current openings.

At the Weston Family Foundation, we are invested in the well-being of all Canadians. We strive to take a mindful, deliberate approach, and to adopt policies and practices that advance and value diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging within the foundation, our operations, and our extended community.

In keeping with the 2015 TRC calls to action, specifically CTA #92, the Weston Family Foundation is making Indigenous awareness, cultural competency, and anti-racism training available to all staff. This work is ongoing and continuously evolving.

The Weston Family Foundation may distribute demographic surveys to our applicants and successful grantees as part of our commitment to DEI learning. These surveys are 100% voluntary and anonymous information collected is held in the strictest confidence and used to inform DEI strategies. Once received the data submitted is anonymous and cannot be connected to any individual.

We have many subject matter experts that we work as reviewers in support of our different programs and initiatives, both within Canada and internationally. Our team works to identify and assess potential reviewers to ensure we have experts that are both external and independent supporting our grant decision-making.  

The Foundation works with its partners to understand, protect, improve, and restore

the most important and threatened ecosystems across Canada. We fund Northern scientific research that seeks to understand the impacts of climate change on Northern ecosystems, which are being affected at a rate 2-4 times faster than the rest of the country. In addition, we also support projects, such as our Prairie Grasslands and Soil Health Initiatives, that help to store and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, thus directly helping to mitigate climate change. Our focus on protecting and restoring biodiversity promotes a more resilient ecological land- and seascape, which in turn helps mitigate the effects of climate change and help ecosystems and wildlife adapt.

This is the Weston Family Microbiome Initiative.  It is part of our healthy aging focus area.

The initials stand for the Weston Brain Institute.  The WBI encompasses all the work we support in neurodegenerative diseases of aging and is part of our healthy aging focus area. https://westonfoundation.ca/weston-brain-institute/

This is our Homegrown Innovation Challenge: a challenge-based special project of the Foundation with three timed phases.  Please see https://homegrownchallenge.ca/

Although there is a familial connection between the various grant-making organizations here and in the UK, they each work independently and separately, with a different mission, team and Board of Directors.