Help build a financially resilient non-profit sector for Canada
Funders across Canada partner with Thriving Non-Profits to strengthen their grantees through a systems-level solution.
Canada's non-profits are facing unprecedented challenges
Traditional non-profit funding models are experiencing diminishing returns, while community demand for services and costs continue to rise. Without the ability to build financial resilience, the non-profit sector faces significant challenges that affect all Canadians.
To transform, Canada’s non-profits must find new ways
to deliver programs and services that support not only impact, but also financial resilience and growth. This resilience ensures non-profits can retain and develop valuable staff, respond to growing community needs, and increase community-owned assets.
Infrastructure that Builds the Pathway to Resilience
When these pillars work together, they create the infrastructure needed for a resilient non-profit sector: a steady stream of well-designed, revenue-generating and investment-ready opportunities backed by values-aligned capital, helping non-profits strengthen their financial future and continue delivering essential services within a changing socio-economic and geopolitical environment.
Planning and Learning
This first stage expands vision and confidence, shifts mindsets, and gives non-profit leaders a structured way to think about revenue diversification, assets, and long-term resilience. It is where organizations begin seeing themselves as capable of designing sustainable revenue opportunities, not just applying for grants.
Activation Through Expert Support
The second stage stress-tests and supports the integration of revenue diversification ideas. Organizations receive ongoing coaching, tailored consulting, and investment readiness support to translate concepts into concrete plans, ensuring that opportunities become feasible, lower risk, and positioned to succeed.
The Right Investment Capital
With the right knowledge, a clear plan, and a de-risked opportunity, the right capital can flow into projects that are investment-ready, aligned with impact goals, and backed by solid financial and operational thinking. This is where plans become real, paving the way for long-term revenue streams, community-owned assets, and new social enterprises.
Before the Program
Only 30% of participating organizations felt confident about their financial future.
30+ cohorts to-date
450 participating organizations
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After the program, 96% felt they had a better understanding of revenue streams they could attract or develop.
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After the program, 93% believed they would be able to generate more revenue.
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After the program, 89% felt more confident in their financial future.
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After the program, 89% believed they would be more resilient.
Built by non-profit leaders, for non-profit leaders
Thriving Non-Profits is developed and delivered by Scale Collaborative. Since 2014, we have worked at the intersection of capacity building, impact investment, and sector-strengthening research, helping Canada’s non-profits move from scarcity to long-term sustainability, so they can help solve today’s biggest challenges and create healthy, resilient communities.
Who we partner with
Funders across Canada partner with Thriving Non-Profits to support a systems-level solution for the non-profit sector.
By providing bursary support for learning, access to activation support, and investment-readiness, Thriving Non-Profits partnerships help stabilize the sector, reduce long-term reliance on grants, and build lasting financial resilience for Canada’s non-profits.
Here are just a few of the partners we work with across Canada, including foundations, governments, credit unions, and values-aligned corporations who want to support a Thriving and resilient non-profit sector.
"Our partnership has provided a way to support organizations 'beyond the cheque' and move them away from a reliance on restricted grants so they can have greater impact."
Carol Hall
Director of Strategic Initiatives, Victoria Foundation
GOT QUESTIONS?
Frequently asked questions
Have questions about partnering with us?
Our FAQ section covers a few of the key things you need to know.
Partners can support the full Journey or focus on a specific stage. Some funders provide bursaries for learning (Plan), others support activation through consulting and coaching (Activate), and some focus on investment readiness and capital alignment (Invest). The model is designed to work both as an integrated pathway and as standalone stages.
Learning partnerships typically include bursary support for cohort participation, 2-day bootcamp delivery, or access to self-paced learning options. These partnerships expand vision, shift mindsets, and give non-profit leaders a structured way to think about revenue diversification, assets, and long-term resilience.
Activation partnerships can support tailored consulting, coaching, and walk-beside support across several key areas, including revenue diversification, strategic planning, program design, business planning and financial modelling, governance, social enterprise development, social purpose real estate, impact measurement, and more.
Investment partnerships generally take two forms:
1. Investment readiness for your existing fund
We can support nonprofits to become investment-ready so they can access financing through a funder’s existing investment fund. This can include strengthening the project plan, financial thinking, and overall readiness required to receive capital.
2. Co-investment to increase access to financing
For projects that are ready to finance, funders can explore co-investment alongside the Thrive Impact Fund and/or other social finance intermediaries to help more impactful, mission-aligned projects secure the capital they need.
Existing grants can be structured to support different stages:
- Capacity-building grants can fund capacity-building activities in the form of learning, coaching, consulting, and investment readiness support.
- Project development grants can support activation and consulting.
- Capital or program-related investment strategies can align with investment-ready opportunities.
We work closely with partners to ensure walk-beside suport for organizations as they move through each stage of the Journey.
Organizations supported through Thriving Non-Profits typically report increased confidence in their financial future, a stronger understanding of revenue streams they can attract or develop, and greater belief in their ability to generate revenue and build resilience.
Partners also receive a custom impact report and recognition on promotional materials.
Regional partnerships typically involve supporting a cohort of organizations within a defined geography, providing access to learning, activation support, and where appropriate, pathways to investment readiness. This creates shared language, peer learning, and coordinated capacity building across a region.
Each partnership starts with a conversation to understand a funder's unique goals and context. Our partnerships approach is rooted in collaboration and finding the right solutions for the organizations and causes you support.
Reach out to Kristi Rivait, Thriving Non-Profits Co-Founder and Director of Partnerships at [email protected] to schedule a call to explore opportunities.
We respectfully acknowledge that our offices are located on the unceded, ancestral, and traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən-speaking peoples, also known as the Songhees and Xʷsepsəm Nations, who have historical relationships with the land that continue to this day.