The 2023 TD Ready Challenge

The TD Ready Challenge is our annual North American initiative, which has ten (10) $1 million grants available to organizations developing innovative, impactful and measurable solutions for a changing world. This signature program created by TD is a key component to delivering on the bank’s corporate citizenship platform, the TD Ready Commitment.

 

In its sixth year, eligible non-profits and community organizations could apply for grants of CAD$1 million for Canadian-based organizations and USD$1 million for US-based organizations.

Ten 2023 TD Ready Challenge grant recipients have been announced! Click on the 'Recipients' tab to explore more.

Each year, the TD Ready Challenge invites eligible organizations to submit applications that offer solutions for a problem statement that is connected to one of the four drivers of change of the TD Ready Commitment: Financial Security, Vibrant Planet, Connected Communities and Better Health. The 2023 TD Ready Challenge is seeking innovative solutions to help address systemic barriers to affordable housing across the continuum from transitional to permanent homes, and to help increase access to affordable and stable housing for those that need it most. 

Background

At TD, financial and economic inclusion have long been core to our philanthropic, business, and sustainability priorities. As seen in the 2022 TD ESG Report , TD Pathways to Economic Inclusion focuses our efforts on three areas where we believe we have the knowledge and resources to make a meaningful impact: employment access, financial access and housing access. The problem statement for the 2023 TD Ready Challenge will focus on finding solutions to housing access.

Through our business, we provide tools and advice to help people access and remain in homes that meet their needs and contribute to the supply of affordable housing through our financing. Through our philanthropy, we support organizations that increase access to secure housing and related supports for more vulnerable members of our community, as well as organizations that improve the supply and support the refurbishment of affordable housing.

Housing costs are at an all-time high in both Canada and the US. According to Harvard University’s annual State of the Nation Housing report,1 in 2020 in the US, 30% of all households had “unaffordable” rent or mortgage payments, defined as exceeding 30% of monthly household income. According to the National Post in April 2022, home prices in Canada rose by 30% since 20202 and according to a Global News Report of January 2023, the national average rent increased by more than 12% since December 2021.3 The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp (CMHC) says that 3.5 million more homes need to be built in Canada by 2030 in order to achieve affordability for all Canadians.4

While everyone needs shelter, some people face challenges and barriers to accessing affordable housing. This can include:

  • Racialized communities5
  • Indigenous communities6
  • Seniors7
  • Families with children, especially those headed by single women of colour8
  • Newcomers9
  • Veterans10
  • Low-income communities11
  • People with existing health conditions and/or disabilities12

Problem Statement

The 2023 TD Ready Challenge is seeking innovative solutions to help address systemic barriers to affordable housing across the continuum from transitional to permanent homes, and to help increase access to affordable and stable housing for those that need it most.

The 2023 Challenge

How can organizations address the Problem Statement?

The 2023 TD Ready Challenge seeks to provide financial support to organizations that have designed innovative, scalable and/or replicable solutions focused on addressing the 2023 Problem Statement.

Such solutions could be focused on, but are not limited to, one or more of the following: 

  • Housing supply challenges
  • Addressing construction and development costs
  • Homeownership
  • Financial education programs
  • Innovative loans and financing
  • Other

The Grants

For 2023, there are a maximum of ten (10) grants available under the TD Ready Challenge for Canada and the US together. Eligible Canadian-based organizations are able to apply for CDN$1 million and eligible US-based organizations are able to apply for USD$1 million.

We will have a clear preference for programs:

  1. That have wide demographic or geographical reach in areas where TD operates. This includes all of Canada, US states within TD's Retail footprint (map and listing found here), and the Metro Detroit area (Lapeer, Livingston, Macomb, Oakland, St. Clair, and Wayne Counties).

  2. Which will use the grant to scale and / or replicate solutions to additional communities or populations (or pilot projects with material evidence of viable success and scalability).

  3. That have a clear evaluation and measurement process to track impact.

  1. Where the organization has not received any funds or Grants from TD of CDN $250,000 or more or USD $250,000 or more during the period starting on August 31, 2022 through to and including August 31, 2023.

Additional considerations include:

We will not fund Grant applications that focus on:

  1. Marketing and/or awareness programs/campaigns

  2. Construction of new housing units unless project demonstrates ability to address systemic barriers

  3. Rehabilitation and/or refurbishment of existing housing units unless project demonstrates ability to address systemic barriers

  1. Purchase of land for new housing units unless project demonstrates ability to address systemic barriers

  2. As part of the application process, TD requires an understanding of the financial status of your organization. If your organization's audited statement(s) reflect(s) a recent deficit, please explain the reason for this deficit in your application. Please note that a deficit will not impact your eligibility for a TD Ready Challenge Grant.

Eligibility Criteria

Programs presented in applications must deal directly with people and provide benefits to people and communities. Applicants can be Canadian, or US organizations as described below:

  1. Canadian registered charities and not-for-profit organizations; or
  2. U.S. charitable and not-for profit organizations which meet the following criteria and can provide written confirmation of same:

a. Have received Section 501(c)(3) determination from the Internal Revenue Service (the "IRS"); or

b. Are treated by the IRS as an organization that is not a private foundation as described in Sections 509(a)(1),(2) or (3) of the Internal Revenue Code (the "IRS Code"); or

c. Are a local/state government organization.

Note: 2018, 2019 & 2020 TD Ready Challenge Grant recipients are eligible to apply.

  • Elementary and secondary schools
  • Religious organizations (i.e., organizations whose primary purpose is religious practice or worship). However, faith-based organizations that provide programs and services for broader community benefit, may be considered.
  • Pageants
  • Sports teams and sporting events
  • Individuals or individual pursuits/fundraising initiatives
  • Recreational groups (lodges, fraternal clubs, self-improvement organizations, etc.)
  • Conferences, trade shows, fairs
  • Production of videos, DVDs and television shows
  • TD Employees
  • 2021 and 2022 TD Ready Challenge Grant Recipients

Challenge Structure and Calendar

Event

September-October

An internal TD North American Judging Panel will review applications and select applications to move into final round of reviews.

November

TD Ready Challenge finalists to be notified and next steps will be shared.

December

A TD North American Executive Judging panel and subject matter experts will assess applications that move into final round of review and determine the selected recipients.

January 2024

2023 TD Ready Challenge successful recipients will be selected and notified.

Final Round Judging Panel

Selected applicants who move into the final round of review will have their applications assessed by our TD North American Executive Judging Panel, consisting of TD executives and external subject matter experts from both Canada and the United States.

General inquiries

Yes. All applications must be submitted electronically via the application portal.

Individual meetings with applicants are not possible. The online submission ensures that all applications are submitted and reviewed in a consistent way.

Given the time required to connect with all potential applicants, application reviews are not possible. The online submission is the best way to manage everybody's time and to ensure that all applications are submitted and reviewed in a consistent way.

Grant applications must be received by 4:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Wednesday, September 13, 2023. In fairness to all applicants, late or incomplete applications will not be considered. Applicants are responsible for allowing enough time when submitting their application to ensure its timely submission. Paper applications will not be accepted.

No. The initiative proposed needs to be delivered in areas in areas where TD operates. This includes all of Canada, US states within TD's Retail footprint (map and listing found here), and the Metro Detroit area (Lapeer, Livingston, Macomb, Oakland, St. Clair, and Wayne Counties).

Submitting the application

No. You may submit only one application to the 2023 TD Ready Challenge. Additional applications will not be reviewed.

Your application must be accompanied by your organization's most recent audited financial statement conducted by a public accounting firm/professional, which must have been completed in the past two years. Important: accountant's reviews of non-audited compilations are not acceptable.

No. The documentation requested is required in order to submit a complete application. In fairness to all applicants, incomplete applications will not be considered.

All required documents must be in PDF format. The minimum font size for the detailed project application must be 10 point. Excel files will not be accepted. Your application must be accompanied by your organization's most recent audited financial statement conducted by a public accounting firm/professional, which must have been completed in the past two years, which must be scanned and condensed into a single document. You must not upload separate files as they will not be considered part of the application.

Shortly after submitting your application, you will receive an e-mail notification confirming your submission.

Yes. A copy of your application will be embedded in your e-mail notification confirming your submission. We recommend that you keep a copy of the application for your own records. However, we ask that you do not send it to us as this may lead to duplicate records.

If you receive this error message, please contact a member of your organization's technology staff. You may need to adjust your computer's settings in order to access the application.

Yes. You can copy information from an existing Word document and paste it into the appropriate text box in the application.

Evaluation

There will be 3 rounds of assessment as follows:

First Round of Assessment:

Following the Submission Deadline Date, an internal TD North American Judging Panel, selected by TD in its sole discretion and consisting of members of the TD Sustainability & Corporate Citizenship team and internal TD employees from both Canada and the United States, will review applications and assess them against the below criteria. This Panel will select applications to move into the next round of reviews and all applicants, whether successful or not, will be notified of their application status by email.

Assessment Criteria Weight
Strategic alignment

The need or opportunity described by the applicant aligns with the 2023 Problem Statement.		 30%
Feasibility of the proposed plan

The intended outcomes or results of the 2023 application proposal are feasible considering the activities, resources, and minimum 12-month funding window. The applicant will be in a reasonable position to expand the impact of the 2023 application proposal within 12-36 months.		 30%
Well-positioned team

The mission and/or core activities of the applicant aligns with the 2023 TD Ready Challenge Problem Statement. The applicant is well-positioned to deliver on intended results and objectives, which includes that the applicant has current established ties with the community in which they are working and/or has the ability to create new ties with communities they may be intending to reach.		 20%
Value for money

The budget is reasonable considering the activities, outputs and scale of the application proposal.		 20%

IMPORTANT: Applicants will not be advised of any of their assessment scores.

Second Round of Assessment:

Selected applicants will move into a second round of review completed by an internal TD North American Judging Panel, selected by TD in its sole discretion and consisting of members of the TD Sustainability & Corporate Citizenship team, internal TD colleagues from both Canada and the United States and external subject matter experts from both Canada and the United States. This Judging Panel will review applications and assess them against the same criteria used for the First Round of Assessment set out above. This Panel will select applications to move into the final round of reviews and all applicants, whether successful or not, will be notified of their application status by email.

Final Round of Assessment:

Selected applicants who move into the final round of review will have their applications assessed by our TD North American Executive Judging Panel, consisting of TD executives and external subject matter experts from both Canada and the United States.

This Judging Panel will review these applications and assess them against the same criteria used for the First Round Assessment set out above plus one additional component involving a TD Employee Voting exercise which will have a 10% weighting.

TD Employee Voting exercise

For this TD Employee Voting exercise, applications will be anonymized, summarized and displayed internally so that TD Employees across North America can vote for the application of their choice. The TD Employee Voting exercise will have a 10% weighting, however this weighting will only be applied provided a minimum of 100 votes are received and the votes demonstrate a thoughtful review of the application in question. If the TD Employee Voting component is activated, the results of this voting will be provided to the Judging Panel and the weighting of the remaining criteria to be used by the Judging Panel will be adjusted as set out below. If the TD Employee Voting component is not activated, then the Judging Panel will review applications and assess them against the same criteria used for the First Round of Assessment set out above.

Selected applicants may be asked to prepare supplementary materials for review by the Judging Panel as part of the Final Round of Assessment. Successful applicants will be contacted by email by the end of January 2024.

Assessment Criteria Weight
Strategic alignment

The need or opportunity described by the applicant aligns with the 2023 Problem Statement.		 27.5%
Feasibility of the proposed plan

The intended outcomes or results of the 2023 application proposal are feasible considering the activities, resources, and minimum 12-month funding window. The applicant will be in a reasonable position to expand the impact of the 2023 application proposal within 12-36 months.		 27.5%
Well-positioned team

The mission and/or core activities of the applicant aligns with the 2023 TD Ready Challenge Problem Statement. The applicant is well-positioned to deliver on intended results and objectives, which includes that the applicant has current established ties with the community in which they are working and/or has the ability to create new ties with communities they may be intending to reach.		 17.5%
Value for money

The budget is reasonable considering the activities, outputs and scale of the application proposal.		 17.5%
TD Employee Voting Component 10%

IMPORTANT: Applicants will not be advised of any of their assessment scores. In addition, a financial analysis of the organization may be conducted to measure the financial health of the organization.

Final funding decisions will be made by the TD North American Executive Judging Panel. Successful recipients will be announced in January 2024.

There will be 3 rounds of assessment as follows:

First Round of Assessment:

Following the Submission Deadline Date, an internal TD North American Judging Panel, selected by TD in its sole discretion and consisting of members of the TD Sustainability & Corporate Citizenship team and internal TD employees from both Canada and the United States, will review applications and assess them against the below criteria. This Panel will select applications to move into the next round of reviews and all applicants, whether successful or not, will be notified of their application status by email.

Assessment Criteria Weight
Strategic alignment

The need or opportunity described by the applicant aligns with the 2023 Problem Statement.		 30%
Feasibility of the proposed plan

The intended outcomes or results of the 2023 application proposal are feasible considering the activities, resources, and minimum 12-month funding window. The applicant will be in a reasonable position to expand the impact of the 2023 application proposal within 12-36 months.		 30%
Well-positioned team

The mission and/or core activities of the applicant aligns with the 2023 TD Ready Challenge Problem Statement. The applicant is well-positioned to deliver on intended results and objectives, which includes that the applicant has current established ties with the community in which they are working and/or has the ability to create new ties with communities they may be intending to reach.		 20%
Value for money

The budget is reasonable considering the activities, outputs and scale of the application proposal.		 20%

IMPORTANT: Applicants will not be advised of any of their assessment scores.

Second Round of Assessment:

Selected applicants will move into a second round of review completed by an internal TD North American Judging Panel, selected by TD in its sole discretion and consisting of members of the TD Sustainability & Corporate Citizenship team, internal TD colleagues from both Canada and the United States and external subject matter experts from both Canada and the United States. This Judging Panel will review applications and assess them against the same criteria used for the First Round of Assessment set out above. This Panel will select applications to move into the final round of reviews and all applicants, whether successful or not, will be notified of their application status by email.

Final Round of Assessment:

Selected applicants who move into the final round of review will have their applications assessed by our TD North American Executive Judging Panel, consisting of TD executives and external subject matter experts from both Canada and the United States.

This Judging Panel will review these applications and assess them against the same criteria used for the First Round Assessment set out above plus one additional component involving a TD Employee Voting exercise which will have a 10% weighting.

TD Employee Voting exercise

For this TD Employee Voting exercise, applications will be anonymized, summarized and displayed internally so that TD Employees across North America can vote for the application of their choice. The TD Employee Voting exercise will have a 10% weighting, however this weighting will only be applied provided a minimum of 100 votes are received and the votes demonstrate a thoughtful review of the application in question. If the TD Employee Voting component is activated, the results of this voting will be provided to the Judging Panel and the weighting of the remaining criteria to be used by the Judging Panel will be adjusted as set out below. If the TD Employee Voting component is not activated, then the Judging Panel will review applications and assess them against the same criteria used for the First Round of Assessment set out above.

Selected applicants may be asked to prepare supplementary materials for review by the Judging Panel as part of the Final Round of Assessment. Successful applicants will be contacted by email by the end of January 2024.

Assessment Criteria Weight
Strategic alignment

The need or opportunity described by the applicant aligns with the 2023 Problem Statement.		 27.5%
Feasibility of the proposed plan

The intended outcomes or results of the 2023 application proposal are feasible considering the activities, resources, and minimum 12-month funding window. The applicant will be in a reasonable position to expand the impact of the 2023 application proposal within 12-36 months.		 27.5%
Well-positioned team

The mission and/or core activities of the applicant aligns with the 2023 TD Ready Challenge Problem Statement. The applicant is well-positioned to deliver on intended results and objectives, which includes that the applicant has current established ties with the community in which they are working and/or has the ability to create new ties with communities they may be intending to reach.		 17.5%
Value for money

The budget is reasonable considering the activities, outputs and scale of the application proposal.		 17.5%
TD Employee Voting Component 10%

IMPORTANT: Applicants will not be advised of any of their assessment scores. In addition, a financial analysis of the organization may be conducted to measure the financial health of the organization.

For 2023, the maximum total combined number of Grants available under the TD Ready Challenge for Canada and the US together, is a total maximum of ten (10) Grants (each a "Grant" and collectively the "Grants"), based on a budgetary funding commitment by The Toronto-Dominion Bank ("TD") for each of Canada and the US as follows:

  1. A total Canadian budget maximum of CDN $10 million for a maximum of ten (10) Grants of CDN$1 million each; and
  2. A total US budget maximum of USD $10 million for a maximum of ten (10) Grants of USD$1 million each.

The foregoing budgetary funding commitment is based on the clear understanding that there will not be more than a combined total of ten (10) Grants for Canada and the US together.

In 2023, Canadian-based organizations can request CDN $1 million and US-based organizations can request USD $1 million.

In 2023, ten (10) $1 million grants are available. Successful Canadian-based organizations will receive CAD$1 million and US-based organizations will receive USD$1 million. No other grant amounts will be awarded.

After the grant is awarded

For the 2023 TD Ready Challenge, successful Grant recipients will receive their specific Grant amount in a maximum of three annual installments, and the amount of each installment to be based on the length of the project. The exact amount of each installment to be mutually agreed in writing between the Bank and each recipient. An executed agreement between the Bank and each successful recipient will be required, which will include the mutually agreed upon installment payment schedule.

Yes. If your organization is successfully selected to receive a grant award, you will be required to submit progress reports. The number of progress reports will be mutually agreed to in writing between the Bank and each recipient and the total number of reports will be based on the length of the project.

No. Unless an extraordinary circumstance is identified and discussed with the Bank in advance, grants may not be used for any other purpose than the purpose set out in the organization's original 2023 TD Ready Challenge application.

If your organization is selected to receive a 2023 TD Ready Challenge grant, the grant funds must be put to use no later than three years from the award date of the grant.

Please contact us by email at tdreadycommitment@td.com. Include "The 2023 TD Ready Challenge" in the subject line of your email.

Specific questions for US organizations

In the United States, the TD Ready Challenge is handled by the TD Charitable Foundation, which can only make grants to eligible 501(c)(3) organizations. If you have recently received your determination letter from the IRS, you may not yet be in the IRS database against which we match potential applicants. Please e-mail a scanned copy of your newly issued 501(c)(3) determination letter to us at US-CharitableGiving@TD.com. A member of the TD Charitable Foundation team will give you further instructions on how to proceed with the grant competition application.

No. US organizations will be paid in USD. For more information see the FAQ: " What grant amounts are available for 2023?"

The 2023 TD Ready Challenge Recipients

In our sixth year, the 2023 TD Ready Challenge received over 350 applications from eligible non-profit and charitable organizations across our North American footprint. Each application was extensively reviewed by a TD judging panel based on alignment to the problem statement, level of innovation and potential for sustainable impact. TD colleagues also had the opportunity to vote for their preferred finalist.

Ten recipients rose to the top with strong submissions that clearly demonstrated innovative, measurable, and scalable solutions that address systemic barriers to affordable housing across the continuum from transitional to permanent homes, and to help increase access to affordable and stable housing for those who need it most.

Meet the 2023 TD Ready Challenge grant recipients. Click on the recipients to learn about their programs in their own words.

Have a question about the TD Ready Challenge?

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