FSC Social Impact
Challenge 2026
Thank you to all participants. Submissions are now closed.
FSC new initiative coming soon.
Meet the top three winners
Meet the top three winners
Ressa McMullen
A school-based mentorship and resource-navigation program connecting Indigenous high-school students with Indigenous healthcare mentors and information on healthcare education pathways and supports.
As We Have Always Been: Supporting Indigenous Representation in Healthcare
Mina Mahmood
A 12-month Edmonton pilot pairing paid, trained unemployed or underemployed graduates with isolated seniors for sustained weekly companionship, aiming to reduce loneliness while creating early-career employment pathways.
Bridge Generations
Hidden Struggles: Connecting Indigenous youth in Treaty 7 to culturally safe mental health careMeharab Ali and Omar Negmeldin
A Treaty 7-specific Indigenous youth mental-health navigation tool that uses a community-verified service directory and constrained AI routing to connect youth to culturally safe supports.
Social Impact Channel winners and their ideas for social impact
A school-based mentorship and resource-navigation program connecting Indigenous high-school students with Indigenous healthcare mentors and information on healthcare education pathways and supports.
A 12-month Edmonton pilot pairing paid, trained unemployed or underemployed graduates with isolated seniors for sustained weekly companionship, aiming to reduce loneliness while creating early-career employment pathways.
A Treaty 7-specific Indigenous youth mental-health navigation tool that uses a community-verified service directory and constrained AI routing to connect youth to culturally safe supports.
An 8-week asynchronous AI upskilling and peer-support program for women on parental or extended leave, designed to improve return-to-work confidence, AI literacy, and professional identity.
An interest-free microloan and credit-building model for financially excluded Canadians, pairing small essential-needs loans with alternative underwriting, financial literacy, and positive credit reporting.
A rotating pop-up workshop model for youth without stable parental support, combining practical life skills, ID support, employment pathways, peer Guides, and low-barrier neighbourhood-based access.
A bundled retention pilot originally framed through girls' hockey that could be broadened into a girls-in-sport retention model testing financial subsidy, female-only space, female coaching, and first-generation family navigation.
An opt-out post-overdose discharge workflow that default-enrolls medically cleared overdose survivors into a 72-hour peer-navigator pathway to improve connection to existing addiction and harm-reduction supports.
A free public platform that converts Canadian legislation into structured, source-linked, plain-language civic briefings for young Canadians and newcomers with low confidence understanding public policy.
A non-carceral, community-led anti-trafficking collective in Montréal that coordinates organizations, survivor leadership, accompaniment, warm referrals, policy analysis, and prevention-focused capacity building.
Challenge summary
We believe real change doesn’t start in the halls of government, it starts when people take a stand in their own communities, whether social, cultural, economic, regional, identity-based, people care deeply and want to see something better.
Grounded in research and built on our experience piloting innovative ideas like The New Leaf Project, Foundations for Social Change (FSC) is launching the FSC Social Impact Challenge, a national, fully virtual initiative inviting Canadians to propose bold, community-driven solutions to urgent challenges across the country.
The most promising idea will receive $25,000 and be piloted by FSC, with the goal of driving policy change and long-term, systems-level impact.
No cost or fee to enter. Open to Canadian citizens and permanent residents.
Challenge Focus Areas:
- Community Belonging
- Justice
- Environment & Climate Change
- Health
- Economic Well-being
- Education & Research
- Cross Generations & Demographics
* These categories are provided as examples and do not limit the scope of eligible ideas. Ideas may span multiple focus themes.
The Participant Experience
Tackle real-world challenges with creative, practical solutions
Help drive change that goes beyond individuals to influence systems
See your idea tested, implemented, and turned into measurable impact
Gain national recognition, with the winner featured across FSC platform.
hELP US BUILD THAT BRIDGE
What’s next for foundations for social change?
Good Ideas are everywhere.
This year, our Social Impact Challenge invited Canadians to bring forward innovative solutions to social challenges.
We received
222 Ideas
From across the country
What stood out was not a shortage of good ideas, but a common gap between having an idea and having the relationships, resources, funding and infrastructure needed to bring it to life.Our multidisciplinary team analyzes each objective, designs a tailored roadmap, and implements with rigorous oversight.Rather than choosing only one solution to advance, we began asking a bigger question: how could FSC help more of these promising ideas move forward?
We are now developing a national platform and support infrastructure designed to help changemakers strengthen their ideas, connect with the right organizations and expertise, navigate funding opportunities, and overcome practical barriers to implementation. FSC would not deliver each project itself. Instead, our role would be to help connect promising ideas with the people, partners and resources that can make them possible. We are currently in discussions with foundations, social service organizations, and community partners interested in helping promising ideas move toward implementation.
We will begin by learning alongside participants from the Social Impact Challenge and measuring success by whether ideas make meaningful progress: stronger plans, new partnerships, funding secured, implementation partners identified, and ultimately more solutions moving from idea to action.make an impact
We know Canadians care.
We know YOU care.
Now it’s time to take action.