Take advantage of the many funding opportunities that are available to producers and farmers within the North and throughout Ontario! Here are a few that you may want to look into:
Digital Main Street – Digital Main Street has officially launched the Digital Main Street Grants Program, which provides funding to qualifying small “main street” businesses and community business groups to enhance online promotion, selling and operations. In partnership with Ontario’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) and the Ontario BIA Association (OBIAA), Digital Main Street has formally launched the Digital Main Street Grant program.
There are two types of grants that will be available:
- Digital Transformation Grant: There will be 2,000 grants of $2,500 each available to qualifying small “main street” businesses to help them adopt new digital technologies.
- Digital Service Squad Grant: There will be 300 grants of $10,000 each available to qualifying municipal or business groups to develop and implement local squads of digital vendors and experts to directly help small businesses.
For more information, visit: https://digitalmainstreet.ca/ontario/
Women Entrepreneurship Fund – The Government of Canada is committed to advancing gender equality, women’s economic empowerment and supporting women entrepreneurs through the new Women Entrepreneurship Strategy announced in Budget 2018.
The Women Entrepreneurship Fund will fund women-owned and women-led businesses to invest in activities that focus on:
- Supporting pursuit of market opportunities abroad (e.g. international marketing strategy, supply chain integration, promotions, business advisory services, online presence/website development)
- Supporting Scale-up, Expansion and Growth(e.g. product/service development and improvement, inventory management, value stream mapping, upgrades to plant and equipment, process and technology improvements
- Additional activities that support the objectives of the Women Entrepreneurship Fund
For this grant, “women led” is defined as “an enterprise with a woman/women, with long-term control and management of the business, equity stake and an active role in both strategic and day to day decision making.” “Women-owned” is defined as “an enterprise where women own the majority of the company (more than 50%).” Be sure to read over the application guide in full because financial statements and projections (for example) need to be submitted with this grant.
Applications are due November 15, 2018. For more information and how to apply, visit the Women Entrepreneurship Fund website. You can also call Jaquelyn Holm with FedNor if you have questions on your eligibility or if you have questions about the application form and process. You can reach Jaquelyn at 844-809-6401.
Canadian Agricultural Partnership – CAP is a 5 year federal-provincial-territorial initiative to strengthen the agriculture, agri-food, and agri-based products sector and increase its competitiveness, prosperity and sustainability. Program information including how to apply, important dates, cost-share funding levels, and eligible projects is available on the new electronic CAP Program Guide at ontarioprogramguides.net/
