2025 GTA Community Grants Program: Investing in Community-Led Change 

The Peter Gilgan Foundation remains committed to walking alongside grassroots leaders, especially at a time when many communities across the Greater Toronto Area are facing intersecting challenges such as food insecurity, youth unemployment, and education disparities.  

Through our 2025 GTA Community Grants Program, we’re proud to support 32 organizations that are responding to local priorities with care, creativity, and a deep understanding of community. This year’s cohort reflects a wide range of neighbourhoods and programming approaches—united by a shared commitment to building connection and increasing access to resources and opportunities. 

Across the cohort, we’re seeing powerful examples of community-rooted leadership: 

• Food security and urban agriculture initiatives that provide access to fresh, culturally relevant food and reconnect community members to land, culture, and one another. 

• Partnerships with local schools that provide academic support and introduce students to post-secondary and career pathways. 

• Connecting youth to mentors from similar backgrounds to build confidence and reduce feelings of isolation. 

• Hands on vocational and entrepreneurial training that support youth to develop practical skills and support economic independence. 

Several of this year’s grants also represent continued partnerships with organizations we’ve funded in previous cycles, allowing us to deepen our relationships and support community infrastructure that takes time and trust to build.  

This year, we partnered with the Toronto Foundation to streamline the application process by creating a shared experience with their Vital Signs grant program. The goal was to reduce barriers to funding for communities. As a result of this collaboration, ten of the 32 recipients of the GTA Community Grants Program were identified through this joint effort. Among them is the Impakt Foundation for Social Change—an organization rooted in the principle of “for newcomers, by newcomers.” This year, they are receiving support to deliver an expanded version of their Family of Friends program, with a new emphasis on employment pathways and mentorship for newcomers and refugee youth. 

“We need each other, we cannot do it alone.”

— Moses Karatunga, Family of Friends program participant 

Click here to view the full list of 2025 GTA Community Grants recipients.