WCPP Grant Program

The Women's Collective Philanthropy Program (WCPP) is designed to use the power of Collective Philanthropy to nurture and maintain a systemic difference in the status of women and children. Our goals are to ENGAGE, EDUCATE and EMPOWER women to become catalysts for social change. We do this through the growth of the Women's Collective Endowment Fund (WCEF), which supports initiatives that expand and improve opportunities and choices in the lives of Jewish women and children. The WCEF is a fund of the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation.

The WCPP Grant is made possible via revenue generated from our invested capital and will be given on an annual basis, with the grant amount to be determined annually.

The WCPP grant supports:

• Initiatives that strive to expand and improve opportunities and choices in the lives of women and children in Ottawa's Jewish community, and

• Funding of new grass-roots programs (first time projects), organizations or individuals working to help women and children in our community.

There will be two grant cycles in 2021:

* January 26 - April 16

* August 3 - October 1

The WCPP reserves the right to disperse the funds to one or multiple awards. However, if the proposals do not meet the quality criteria set by the WCPP, the remaining funds will be reserved for the next funding cycle.

Our next 2021 Grant application opens on January 26.

Grant Guidelines
Application Form

For information, please contact the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation at foundation@jewishottawa.com or 613-798-4696, ext. 252.

Past recipients of the WCPP grant

2014 - Jewish Education Through Torah

2015 - Tamir - Women's Health & Wellness: A User's Guide to Self-care and Awareness

2015 - Hillel Ottawa - Women's Safety on Campus

2015 - Na'aamat - School supplies for kids in shelters

2016 - Ausome Ottawa - Enriching lives of families living with autism

2017 - Ottawa Kosher Food Bank - Holiday basket program for women head of households

2017 - Miriam Friedman Tanger - Program for single and divorced women and children

2019 - Hillel Ottawa - Hillel Ottawa Presents: Follow My Lead

2019 - Ottawa Kosher Food Bank - Educational Series: How to keep kosher and prepare healthy means on a budget

From left to right, Lynne Oreck-Wener (WCPP founder and executive), Sarah Caspi (Executive Director, Jewish Family Services), Shlomit Jacobson (WCPP executive) took part yesterday in a chilly, but happy, cheque presentation.

In 2020, because of the sudden shut down brought on by the COVID-19 crisis, the Women’s Collective Philanthropy Award was not granted in the spring – put simply, it is impossible to fund programs that currently could not run. Instead, the WCPP distributed funds to Jewish Family Services’ Shalom Bayit and Tikvah programs for female clients in response to emergency needs caused by COVID-19. Later in the year, through its fall funding cycle, the WCPP made an additional grant award to JFS Shalom Bayit to provide supplemental support for these clients.