Closed: Black Entrepreneurship Program Ecosystem Fund: Application guide

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Purpose of this guide

This guide helps your organization complete its Application for Funding. The guide explains how to complete each section of the form and how to tailor your responses for the Ecosystem Fund.

Blank spaces count against character limits in the application form.

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Applicant Information (Q1-18)

This section of the Application for Funding requires all applicants to provide details on their organization, including name, sector and other descriptive information.

When completing this section, please note the following:

• In question 1, provide your organization's legal name as it appears on your articles of incorporation document(s). Do not include your own name. If your organization conducts business publicly by another operating name, please state this in question 2.
• In question 8, We want a full picture of your organization, founders and operations. Answer all parts of the question and demonstrate how your organization meets the applicant eligibility criteria listed in Section 2: Who Can Apply?
  • Sector of the economy: describe the sector your organization serves and the role it plays within it, and how it supports black entrepreneurship.
  • Organization history: share details on your organization's history, highlighting key milestones.
  • Management and governance: detail how your organization is currently managed and governed, as well as any future plans in this regard. Indicate how your governance structure is composed primarily of people who self-identify as Black (minimum two-thirds of positions).
  • Key personnel: introduce the individuals who drive your organization’s success, including leadership and members of the board of directors. Provide their names, titles and brief biographical information. Indicate how at least two-thirds of the organization’s leadership positions (e.g., directors, founders, etc.) are held primarily by people who self-identify as Black (minimum two-thirds).
  • Growth opportunities: explain how the proposed project aligns with your organization’s strategy and goals and enhances your organization’s operational capacity to support Black-led businesses and entrepreneurs.
• To complement this information, please include the following documents in your application using the “Add Attachments” button on the Application for Funding:
  • A copy of the organization's incorporation document(s).
  • Biographies of key management team and project team members.
  • Externally prepared financial statements for the last 2 years.
  • If available, a copy of your organization’s conflict of interest policy and procurement policy.
• In questions 11-13, indicate the current number of employees for each category. Do not include people employed by suppliers or contracted services.
  • Full-time employees (FTEs) working in Canada are those who work a minimum of a 35-hour work week.
  • Part-time employees (PTEs) in Canada are those employees who work less than a 35-hour work week.
  • Number of employees outside of Canada is the total number of employees (full-time and part-time) working for the organization outside of Canada, if applicable.

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Authorized Project and Financial Contacts (Q19-20)

We are looking for the names and contact information for the primary contacts for communicating with FedDev Ontario on matters involving the application and project financials (if they are different). Ideally, the authorized contact person is a signing officer for the organization who has full authority to bind the organization through funding agreements. If the person is not a signing officer of the organization, confirmation of that person's right to represent the organization may be required. Neither the Authorized Project Contact or Financial Contact can be a consultant or third party.

The applicant and/or any parties authorized by the applicant to speak to FedDev Ontario on their behalf must comply with the Lobbying Act throughout the application process and the life of any funded project. Prior to communicating with FedDev Ontario about an application, please review the provisions of the Act. For more information on lobbying and the Lobbying Act, consult the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada.

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Project Information (Q21-36)

This section provides a detailed account of the proposed project, including duration, location of activities and overall plan. When completing this section, please note the following:

• In question 22, please enter “Black Entrepreneurship Program Ecosystem Fund” as the program you are applying to.
• In questions 23-24, the start date cannot be before the date the application intake closes, January 9, 2026. Projects must be completed no later than February 28, 2030.
• In question 26, indicate whether any of the proposed project's activities are expected to occur on federal lands as defined in the Impact Assessment Act, 2019. Activities on federal lands could be subject to additional requirements.
• In question 28, please describe your project plan and include all of the detailed steps required to successfully achieve your expected outcomes. Your plan should demonstrate links to the eligible project activities as listed under Section 2: Who can apply. Provide realistic milestones and clear details on activities included in the initiation, implementation, and project completion stages.
  In your response:
  • Be clear on how your project focuses on increasing and enhancing your offerings and growing the number of Black entrepreneurs and businesses you support.
  • Outline any steps you will take to build the operational capacity to implement the project (e.g., hiring and training project staff, etc.).
  • Detail how the Black entrepreneurship community will access your service and describe the regions in southern Ontario that your project will support. Detail how your project will help Black entrepreneurs and business owners in these regions, and how you will coordinate with other organizations serving these regions. If applicable, describe the sector(s) within southern Ontario that your project will support.

  Important notes:

  FedDev Ontario may support project costs to build the operational capacity to implement your project. This could include costs of hiring and training, costs of developing procurement and conflict of interest policies, etc. Please see Annex B for more details on eligible and ineligible costs.
• In question 29, describe the objectives and expected outcomes of your project, and how they respond to the program objectives.

  This section should serve as a rationale for why this project should receive funding. Your project’s expected outcomes could include: increasing your existing service offerings; growing the number of Black-led businesses that you support; supporting Black entrepreneurs to access new markets, start a business, or grow an existing business; enabling coordinated or comprehensive support through collaboration with other organizations; and other outcomes to strengthen the ecosystem that supports Black entrepreneurs.

• In question 30, select “no” for further distribution of funds. The Ecosystem Fund will support only direct eligible project costs incurred by your organization or your project partners.
• In question 31, indicate and provide details on the clean growth benefits of your project, including how environmental benefits will be realized, for example, information on the environmental benefits of the clean technologies that will be adopted by your organization through this project or the number of businesses you will support to adopt green practices. Where possible, provide metrics to quantify the impact (e.g., percentage of energy or water saved, amount of greenhouse gas emissions reduced, amount of waste diverted from landfill, amounts of air pollutants reduced, etc.). Include a timeframe over which these benefits will be realized and describe the extent to which your project will support clean growth. If clean growth is not relevant to your project, please indicate.
  Definition: Clean growth

  Clean growth is about fostering economic growth that reduces environmental impacts and strengthens resilience to a changing climate.

  This is done through initiatives that promote and support clean growth outcomes (e.g. emissions reductions, waste reduction, sustainable jobs, etc.). This can include the introduction of practices to reduce carbon footprint or waste, the adoption or commercialization of clean technologies, circular economy initiatives, greening communities, and supply chain localization.

• In question 32, provide information about diversity and equity at your organization. Data collected may be used for research, statistics, program and policy evaluation, risk management, strategy development, reporting, and gender-based analysis (including Gender-based Analysis Plus). This information can help the Government of Canada monitor progress on access to federal support programs and services, identify and remove barriers, and make changes to improve inclusive access. Aggregate and anonymous data may be shared with other federal organizations and published for reporting and monitoring purposes.
• Question 32 has 3 components:
  1. The first column of the table is a voluntary self-declaration to indicate if your organization is led or majority-led by 1 (or more than 1) equity-seeking groups group. This data is used for statistical purposes only.
     Note: Selecting all options is not necessary and may skew the data. Choose the group or groups that most closely align with your organization’s leadership composition. If none apply, or you wish not to self-declare, this section can be left blank. "Led or majority-led" describes organizations where members of equity-seeking groups are involved in long-term control and management of the organization and play an active role in both strategic and day-to-day decision-making.
  2. The second column seeks to understand whether the project will benefit or encourage the inclusion of 1 or more equity-seeking groups. Select all that apply. Please note the responses to this column are linked to the third section of this question, where applicants must explain how their organization will influence federal inclusive growth priorities for each group selected.
  3. In completing the third section, describe in detail how your organization and project will serve the full diversity of the Black Canadian community. Include any supporting documentation as attachments, if applicable. Please explain both ongoing and planned methods in which your organization is addressing the representation of diverse groups in the Black entrepreneurship community. Examples of initiatives could include an organizational diversity plan or policy.
     Note: The Government of Canada is committed to GBA Plus, which incorporates consideration of gender and other identity factors such as age, education, language, geography, and culture in development of policies or programs. Applicants are expected to incorporate these considerations into their project.

• In question 33, list any key project partners and their role(s) in the project. These may include other not-for-profit organizations, industry or financial partners, post-secondary institutions, business accelerators and incubators or other levels of government or departments invested in the completion and the success of the project. Describe in detail the nature of these partnerships. If your project is serving as a consortia, what is the nature of the partnerships, what is the established governance structure, and what role does each partner serve? Are they inclusive and reflective of the communities the project is impacting?
  Note: You will also be asked to describe the financial contributions to be made and the status of each contribution (e.g., confirmed, pending confirmation, to be requested) for each identified key project partner in the Project Budget section. Any letters of intent/support from partners should be attached to the application and describe the amount and nature of both cash and in-kind contributions secured. If your project is approved, you will need to confirm all sources of the matching funding within 30 days of being notified.
• In question 34, describe the target audience and the clientele and value proposition for your project. Describe in detail, with metrics, the impact the project will have in strengthening the ecosystem that supports Black entrepreneurs, regional business growth, and entrepreneurship in southern Ontario. Refer to Section 1: What this program offers and Section 2: Who can apply for the eligible project activities, respectively. In your response, please:
  • Clearly identify similar or competing initiatives serving the same area and clearly explain how the project fills a demonstrated gap and/or complements existing support for Black entrepreneurs, and how you will collaborate with other organizations to provide coordinated support and services to Black-led businesses and entrepreneurs.
  • Describe your plan for collaborating with the Federation of African Canadian Economics (FACE) to improve referrals and provide Black-led businesses and entrepreneurs wrap-around support.
  • Indicate whether there are official language minority communities in the area(s) in which the proposed activities will take place, and detail how your project will include these communities.

    Important note:

    The Government of Canada is committed to enhancing the vitality of English and French linguistic minority communities in Canada. Projects must be accessible in one or both official languages. For additional detail, consult the Official Languages Act.
• In question 35, indicate key risks associated with the project (e.g., financial, trade, regulatory, implementation, any risks that may impact a successful project outcome) and potential risks to the broader economy (e.g., cybersecurity, privacy). Also, please identify risk mitigation measures for the project.
• In question 36, illustrate why financial assistance is required for this project and explain what the impact would be if the requested funding were not received. This section could include the broader impact(s) on your organization, sector, or region if funding is not received. Be sure to include how your organization remains sustainable both for the duration of the project and after project completion, and how the project improves the outlook of your organization.

  Tips

  When providing your responses to the above set of questions (Q29-36), please be sure to consider and address the extent to which your organization and project address unmet market demand and/or would strengthen southern Ontario's economy and competitiveness. If your project is of particular importance to the economic resilience of a community or region, describe this context in detail.

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Project Results (Q37)

All values provided under this section must be measurable and verifiable. Recognizing that not all indicators apply to every project proposal, applicants can select "No" for any of the options and will not need to complete the corresponding "Amount" column.

All amounts reported in this section must be measured from the estimated Start Date of the project to the End Date of the project. Any details provided in this section should be as realistic and achievable as possible, as you will be asked to report on these results throughout the project's duration. Any benefits that fall outside of this timeframe, but the applicant wishes to highlight should be included in question 29.

Please refer to Annex A for definitions of each indicator.

Important notes:

• Projects applying for support under the Ecosystem Fund are not necessarily expected to have results for many of the pre-populated results fields in Question 37 of the Application for Funding. Applicants can select “No” for the following indicators which are optional for the Ecosystem Fund:
  • Increased clean tech sales
  • New foreign investment in Canada
  • New intellectual property (IP) created or licensed
  • Number of new products or services commercialized
• Your organization will be expected to share results for increases in revenue, number of jobs created, and number of jobs maintained for businesses supported through FedDev Ontario funding and your project. Results cannot include non-project activities or revenue generated outside of the estimated Start Date and End Date of the project.

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Project Budget (Q38-39)

By completing this section, you are providing FedDev Ontario with the key project financing information needed to assess whether the resources requested are both incremental and appropriate for further review, including:

• Estimated total project costs, how much funding you are requesting, and a breakdown of this funding by fiscal year and cost category
• The source(s) and status of any other funding

Information provided in this section may be supported with a more detailed project budget and breakdown of costs submitted as an attachment. If your project is approved, you will need to confirm all other sources of funding within 30 days of being notified.

Important notes:

• All eligible costs must be incremental (i.e., for new and/or expanded initiatives), reasonable and directly related to eligible project activities. Please see Annex B for more details on eligible and ineligible costs.
• State costs in Canadian dollars (CAD) over the span of the project duration (Note: fiscal year is defined as April 1 to March 31).
• Costs incurred before the application intake deadline January 9, 2026, cannot be considered as eligible costs.
• If there are no costs associated for a cost category, enter "0" in the amount column for that cost category.
• All projects and associated costs must be completed by the estimated End Date of the project.
• If the project is in receipt of either financial or in-kind contributions, please note whether they are:
  • Cash contributions: Cash asset transactions which are provided by interested parties in support of a federally approved transfer payment project or initiative.
  • In-kind contributions: Non-cash asset transactions valued at fair market value (e.g., securities, equipment, use of facilities, labour, goods) that are provided by interested parties in support of a federally approved transfer payment project or initiative.

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Financial Information (Q40)

This section will allow FedDev Ontario to assess your organization's capacity to undertake the proposed project, including:

• If you have received government funding from any level (federal, provincial, municipal) in the last 5 years (question 40) and, if applicable, use some of the space provided in question 41 to explain the status and outcomes of this funding.
• Include an explanation of the status of any funding related to this project (e.g., confirmed, pending confirmation, to be requested). Explain if funding from any sources is contingent on receiving FedDev Ontario funding or any other requirements.
• Your organization's financial performance (e.g., assets, liabilities, cost structure, revenue streams). Note: forecasted revenue cannot be leveraged as a source of project financing.
• Include any information regarding the project budget that was not reflected in the application form. Include sales growth and financial projections as applicable to the project activities.
• How your organization will sustain operations, programming, if applicable, and direct jobs created and/or maintained post-project.

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Certification

Please ensure the certification section is completed by the authorized contact, who is also the member of your organization with signing power/authority to enter into a legally binding agreement with FedDev Ontario. Please note:

• Certification is the act of signing a formal document to confirm that you are bound by its contents.
• Making a false statement or providing misleading information may result in the Minister exercising any remedy available to him/her at law.
• You must review each statement and sign the Certification, this includes certifying that the applicant is not engaged in any illegal or criminal activity, and does not promote violence, incite hatred or discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, identity or expression, sexual orientation, colour, race, ethnic or national origin, religion, age, or mental or physical disability, contrary to applicable laws.
• Checking 'I Agree' provides an authorized signature of your organization certifying both the information provided on the application and that you are duly authorized to submit the application on the organization's behalf.
• Funding for the purposes of the Project should not be knowingly used, either directly or indirectly, in a manner that breaches economic sanctions imposed by Canada as described under the Special Economic Measures Act. Information on Canadian sanctions and export and import controls can be found at the following:
  • Canadian sanctions (international.gc.ca)
  • Types of sanctions
  • Export and import controls

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Confidentiality, Reporting and Visibility Requirements

FedDev Ontario may consult external experts as part of the application assessment process (for example other government departments and agencies) and share applicant information with such experts. Any confidential or proprietary information should be marked as such. In addition, all information provided by the applicant is subject to the Access to Information Act and Privacy Act. If approved for funding, the names of recipients, amounts awarded, and project descriptions will be disclosed publicly. Recipients will also be required to submit reports and other statements that provide details on project performance and comply with official languages and visibility and funding acknowledgement requirements in the contribution agreement.

If approved for funding, you will be expected to engage with FACE to support referrals that allow businesses to receive coordinated and comprehensive support. Sharing project reporting data with BEKH will be a condition of funding.

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Annex A – Project Indicator Definitions

Annex B – Cost Categories

Eligible project costs must be reasonable, verifiable, and directly support project activities. Eligible project costs do not include ongoing costs of production or operations.

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