About the 2025 Community Grants Program

Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF) is focused on ensuring our communities are equitable, connected, and sustainable; and people are thriving. We are dedicated to assisting those most impacted by inequalities, and supporting organizations that work to remove barriers, build community, and increase opportunities for Waterloo Region residents across our three cities and four townships.

In 2025, approximately $700,000 will be distributed to organizations based in and serving Waterloo Region residents. The Trinity United Church Legacy Fund is partnering with WRCF again in 2025 and is providing additional funding.

Note: $617,000 of the funds available are from the WRCF Community Fund and are eligible to be distributed to organizations located anywhere in Waterloo Region. $83,000 of the funds available are from the Cambridge Community Fund and the North Dumfries Community Fund and are eligible to be distributed to organizations located in Cambridge or North Dumfries.

WRCF’s Community Grants will be focused on supporting applications that are developing, enhancing, or reinforcing activities that bring people together around shared interests in places that serve as Hubs of community life, whether they are formal civic spaces like libraries and community centres, or informal gathering places like parks and meeting spots. All who use this space should feel welcome, respected, safe, and accommodated, regardless of who they are, where they come from, or their abilities.

See the Community Grants Funding Guidelines for information about how the activity you are applying for must align with social infrastructure.

Social Infrastructure

There is growing evidence that social infrastructure is associated with more social cohesion, higher belonging, and higher wellbeing. As Waterloo Region grows to one million residents, we need to ensure we have the social infrastructure in place now – and for future members of our communities.

WRCF has researched social infrastructure over the past few years and found a framework we support that was created by Gehl Studio. As WRCF works to positively impact social infrastructure in Waterloo Region, we view places as the physical spaces—both formal and informal—where social interactions are made tangible. But what these places are is less important than what they do – which tends to fall into three categories linked to organizations, spaces, and experiences. The categories are:

• Hubs: Spaces that encourage interactions among diverse groups that may not otherwise interact, creating opportunities for people to connect from different backgrounds, and fostering broader community ties.

• Havens: Spaces that provide safe environments for people with shared identities or backgrounds to come together, fostering close ties and a sense of belonging. They shouldn’t be so exclusive that they prevent connections across differences.

• Hangouts: Informal spaces that support casual, everyday interactions, offering people the chance to connect organically and live life in public.

Thank you to Gehl Studio for permission to incorporate elements of their framework of social infrastructure, and reproduce this image from their report, Social Infrastructure: Connecting People & Places for Thriving Communities, p. 38,  https://issuu.com/gehlarchitects/docs/gehl_social_infrastructure_final_report.