Grant and Funding Programs Offered by Fondation de la Pointe-de-l’Île (FPDI)

Fondation de la Pointe-de-l’Île is an autonomous, non-profit charitable organization dedicated to supporting education in the Pointe-de-l’Île territory of Montréal, which includes Montréal-Nord, Saint-Léonard, Anjou, Rivière-des-Prairies, Pointe-aux-Trembles and Montréal-Est. Created to recognize and strengthen the education sector, the foundation combats school dropout and social exclusion by providing financial support to youth and to educational and community projects.

The foundation’s strategy is to support young people aged 4 to 24 and impactful projects initiated by primary and secondary schools, adult education and vocational training centers, and community organizations. Funding focuses on preventing school dropout and encouraging students to return to and persevere in their studies.

Through its financial assistance mechanisms, the foundation offers grants to projects that align with its mission and intervention axes. Principles for financial aid include clear conditions: projects must be directly linked to the foundation’s mission, touch at least two intervention axes, and go beyond the normal, routine activities of a school. Financial assistance generally cannot exceed $5,000 per project, and an initiative may be submitted only once per school year. Applicants complete a dedicated funding request form and provide organizational documents when applying for the first time.

Each year, the foundation also holds a scholarship gala where bursaries are awarded to students in every primary and secondary school and in adult and vocational education centers. These bursaries recognize students who have overcome personal, academic, social or behavioral difficulties, as well as high-achieving and deserving students continuing on to vocational or college studies.

The foundation partners with the local school service centre to operate the Fonds de soutien à l’innovation technopédagogique, a multi-year initiative designed to support innovative teaching approaches that leverage new technologies, particularly at the primary level. The fund combines significant in-kind and financial contributions from the school service centre, the foundation and business partners to support projects that are inclusive, adaptable to varied student abilities and free of extra costs for parents.

Historically, the foundation has also supported specific thematic initiatives such as the Projet Lecture, through which between 2012 and 2017 it provided $1,000 grants drawn from a $50,000 envelope to fund reading-related projects in schools. More broadly, it offers annual financial support to schools for innovative projects that fit its intervention axes and to community organizations whose objectives align with its mission.

The foundation’s intervention axes emphasize recognition of students’ effort and perseverance, their academic and professional aspirations, their civic and environmental engagement, and the mobilization of schools and community organizations around structured, innovative actions against dropout. By blending project-based grants with individual bursaries, Fondation de la Pointe-de-l’Île plays a central role in the local funding ecosystem for educational perseverance and student success.