FAQs

We support various organizations, including charities, nonprofits, social enterprises, for-profit private companies, cooperatives, and venture capital funds. We invest in ventures with missions that align with our focus areas.

To invest in the most underserved and underinvested areas in Canada, we have chosen five specific focus areas to start with where we believe our investments can make a significant impact. 

• Formerly Incarcerated Persons during their first three years of reintegration, or planning to scale to serve Formerly Incarcerated Persons during their first three years of reintegration 
• Adult Refugees in Canada during their first three years of arrival, or planning to scale your impact to adult refugees in Canada during their first three years of arrival
• Solving socio-economic challenges in Rural Newfoundland & Labrador, or a proof of concept, successful elsewhere, that you can scale to Rural Newfoundland & Labrador 
• Solving socio-economic challenges in Scarborough, or a proof of concept, successful elsewhere, that you can scale to Scarborough
• Climate & Nature: scalable solutions within local food systems that aim to mitigate the climate impacts associated with food production, distribution, and consumption.

While we may expand our priorities in the future, if your proposed venture aligns differently from one or more of these focus areas, we currently cannot invest in your initiative. Stay tuned for tools that can hopefully help you find mission-aligned funders!

We welcome applications worldwide if your venture aims to produce meaningful outcomes for our focus communities within Canada.

Yes, we support organizations at various stages of development, including early-stage ventures with aligned focus areas and promising scalable social impact potential.

When our Impact Directors evaluate ventures for investment, they look at four key factors:

• The most meaningful outcome for the target population in their respective context
• Opportunity to catalyze significant improvement in the outcomes
• Sustainability of the outcomes after our funding ends
• Scalability of the outcomes by either breadth, depth or both after our funding ends

We also learn about the venture leadership, in particular their purpose, people and practice to be successful to serve our communities.

When our Impact Directors evaluate ventures for investment, they collaborate closely with you to assess several factors. The primary focus is on determining if your venture aligns with our focus areas and has promising potential for scalable impact.

Another important consideration is whether the investment could be catalytic for your organization, sparking a broader transformation and attracting additional investments and resources — a ripple effect extends the impact beyond the initial scope.

They also assess the organization’s leadership, the potential for the venture to achieve sustainability, and the value Northpine might add through financial and non-financial supports.

The sustainability of a venture refers to its ability to continue to achieve positive social impact while maintaining financial stability. The initiative can continue delivering impact even after the initial support ends.

Before investing, we work with investees to assess a clear exit strategy for Northpine, where our goal is to scale their impact beyond our involvement. This strategy can include securing social or financial capital from scale-out partners who will support their ventures to achieve continued outcomes and impact without setbacks, interruption or weakening once Northpine exits.

Scale-out partners are strategic organizations whose ventures collaborate to expand the impact of the investments. They could be other philanthropic foundations, government agencies, corporations, community organizations or nonprofit organizations that share our mission and can help scale the reach and effectiveness of the venture.

Northpine offers tailored financing options, including donations, grants, debt, equity, a combination of these, and non-financial resources through knowledge and relationships to support ventures. The funding type and non-financial assistance depend on the organization’s needs and its potential for impact.

Funding typically is $200K-$1M over two to three years, but amounts vary depending on the organization’s needs and our assessment of the outcome’s catalytic sustainability and scalability potential.

We expect organizations to use the funding in line with the ventures objectives for sustainable and scalable catalytic outcomes. We understand that this is done over time and requires flexibility, so we work with organizations to determine a tailored financing structure to meet the venture’s milestones.

We consider funding an organization for multiple projects or initiatives if they align with our investment criteria.

You can share each venture idea as a separate submission with us.

We encourage organizations to familiarize themselves with our focus areas and the information on our website, including these FAQs.

Unlike traditional application forms, our process involves a simple questionnaire that helps our Impact Directors better prepare for a conversation with you. Due to the high volume of ideas and inquiries, we kindly request that you complete the questionnaire before we can respond to requests to discuss your project.

For questions about using the intake platform, please contact Submittable support here.

We have a user-friendly platform where you can share your venture idea and start a conversation with us. Our process involves a simple questionnaire to help our Impact Directors and the team better understand your vision.

This questionnaire is not a conventional application form but a tool for us to be better prepared for a conversation with you.

Our goal is to reach out to everyone who fits eligibility within our focus areas who completes the questionnaire and arrange a meeting with the relevant Impact Director within a few weeks. Once we evaluate the potential alignment, the Northpine team will continue discussions with you and your team to understand your financial and non-financial needs to co-design a venture that will maximize the outcomes for our communities.

We have an ongoing intake process for receiving your venture ideas. However, there may be occasional temporary closures to review the ideas we receive, ensuring fairness and adequate attention from our Impact Directors.

We will make announcements on our website, social media channels, and through email updates to inform you of any temporary closure periods.

We encourage organizations to familiarize themselves with our focus areas and the information on our website, including these FAQs.

Unlike traditional application forms, our process involves a simple questionnaire that helps our Impact Directors better prepare for a conversation with you. Due to the high volume of ideas and inquiries, we kindly request that you complete the questionnaire before we can respond to requests to discuss your project.

For questions about using the intake platform, please contact Submittable support here.

Once you submit your venture idea through our Submittable platform, it will be saved in your secure account. You will use this account for all future collaborations with Northpine.

Upon submission, you will receive an acknowledgment email, and the relevant Impact Director will contact you with updates or to schedule an initial meeting. They will be your main point of contact and will provide you with any necessary updates as you collaborate on co-designing your venture.

The duration of the due diligence process can vary depending on the volume of ideas received. We aim to provide timely updates as we thoroughly evaluate each idea. However, it may take several weeks before an Impact Director contacts you with updates or next steps.

When collaborating with potential investee organizations, we aim to complete the venture co-design process within eight weeks. However, the timeline can vary depending on the specific initiative.

We encourage organizations to reach out with new, better-aligned ventures or rework previously shared ideas after making improvements based on their learnings or feedback received.

When we invest in organizations, we build relationships with them as we are on a shared mission for our communities. We work together to develop measures that:

• keep us all accountable for meaningful outcomes for our communities
  
• help us continuously learn how to serve our communities better through the venture
• track sustainability and scalability effectively
• convey success to potential scale-out partners who will provide supports after the Northpine Foundation exits

When we invest in a venture, we are building relationships.

Even though there will come a time when we will not be your “funders”, we work to build our community of exceptional leaders and continue to support and celebrate each other.