About us

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada established the Bahá’í Foundation Canada / Fondation Bahá’íe Canada (“BFC”), as the vehicle to hold funds and administer scholarships, bursaries and financial support for educational activities on its behalf.

BFC is registered as a charitable organization with the Charities Directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency. Its registration number is 88615 1596 RR0001. The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada has contributed the initial funding for a variety of awards and hopes that in future that BFC will be the direct recipient of donations to its various existing funds and to establish new endowments.

BFC is intended to provide financial assistance opportunities that are not based solely on academic achievement to Canadian youth and adults of limited financial means as they undertake education and training. BFC also expressly recognizes the value of various types of training programmes and capacity building activities in addition to those formal education and training programmes through its grants and awards programme.

BFC has been established with seven initial funds that offer awards to eligible individuals seeking financial assistance. The current funds are the Edward Gillis Memorial Fund, the Nasser Sabet Scholarship (Memorial) Fund, the Helen Bishop Fund, the John Aldham Robarts Memorial Fund, the Counsellor Hedayatoullah Ahmadiyeh Fund, the Indigenous People’s Education Fund and the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity Fund. It is the goal of BFC to grant the net annual income from these various funds each year to eligible applicants for financial assistance in accordance with the specific provisions of each Fund.

In addition to the awards in support of applicants attending degree and certificate-granting post-secondary programmes, BFC through its awards and bursaries provides financial assistance to individuals of limited financial means of all ages to participate in educational and training programmes that reflect the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith and that aim at developing their capacities to engage in and be active in serving their communities and neighbourhoods.

Children’s Programmes — Programmes whose goal is to build capacity in children under the age of approximately 11 years of age with tested and established curricula and materials intended to introduce moral and spiritual values that help the participants develop the qualities of character to live, learn and work together in their homes, schools and communities will be eligible for financial support.

Junior Youth Programmes — For adolescents between 12-15 years, capacity building programmes that focus on working with established curricula and materials to further develop this moral framework as well as enhance language skills and the power of expression are also eligible for financial support from BFC. A programme that has these objectives and the curricula and materials designed to produce these outcomes meets the BFC definition of capacity building.

According to Bahá’í teachings, the complementarity of developing personal capacity and serving one’s community is central to the development of healthy, nurturing communities. Individuals who have incorporated positive moral and spiritual values into their characters and are actively engaged in increasing their intellectual capacities by enhancing their skills of critical thinking, and expressing their thoughts clearly are better equipped to constructively participate in the life of their communities.

The building of capacity in these areas through systematic programmes is considered to be a service to the community in which these individuals live, study and eventually work because the training of children and youth in the types of programmes described is the most effective long-term strategy for increasing the positive, service oriented human resources within a community in a manner that will empower the community to identify its own needs, develop ways of meeting those needs and encourage its members to become active participants in community-building.

BFC will fund the participation of individuals in programmes it identifies as having these goals and the ability to deliver the desired outcomes. BFC welcomes applications for financial support from third party organizations who deliver such programmes into a neighbourhood or community.

Funding of third parties will be through grants made in response to applications for funding of specific programmes proposed by the third party applicants. The application process will require the third party to identify its programme’s specific goals, detailed budget, timeline for delivery and method for assessing outcomes as well as report to the BFC throughout the delivery of the programme and at the completion of the programme.

It is not the intention that BFC will deliver any of its own programmes. Its purpose is to provide financial assistance and support to individuals participating in these programmes and to the third parties that will deliver the programmes.

Staffing of BFC and its activities will be provided through volunteers and support from the National Spiritual Assembly thus limiting BFC’s administrative costs.