Role of Innoweave in the funding ecosystem
Innoweave is a Canadian capacity-building initiative that provides financial support and structured coaching to charities, nonprofits, and other social purpose organizations. Now operating as a project of MakeWay, Innoweave focuses on helping changemakers across Canada clarify the impact they seek, design effective strategies, and adopt innovative approaches to address complex social, economic, and environmental challenges. Funding is delivered primarily as grants that offset the cost of tailored coaching engagements with a national network of certified coaches.
Since its launch in 2012, Innoweave has supported hundreds of organizations through more than 900 projects, distributing millions of dollars in small and medium-sized grants. The program emphasizes hands-on, project-based learning: grantees work with coaches to test new models, refine their theories of change, and embed learning and evaluation practices into their operations. Streams have included Impact and Strategic Clarity, Collective Impact, Scaling Impact, Social Enterprise, Policy Engagement, Developmental Evaluation, and Impact Measurement.
Funding approach and coaching streams
Innoweave structures its support around thematic coaching streams grouped under three broad pathways: Clarify and Align, Grow Your Impact, and Learn and Adapt. Within these, organizations can apply for funding that helps cover the cost of intensive coaching. For example, the Impact and Strategic Clarity stream supports teams to define an intended impact, develop a theory of change, and set strategic priorities. Other streams help participants explore social enterprise models, scale promising initiatives, or engage more effectively in public policy and systems change.
Funding typically takes the form of contributions toward coaching fees, with organizations contributing a portion of the total cost. Innoweave uses expressions of interest and full proposals to select participants whose readiness, capacity, and learning objectives align with each stream. Grants are time-bound and oriented around concrete deliverables such as impact statements, learning plans, or business and governance frameworks.
General evaluation and selection considerations
Across its portfolio, Innoweave looks for teams that are ready to invest time and leadership attention in change processes. Selection criteria commonly reference organizational readiness, the ability to benefit from coaching, availability of data and evidence to inform decisions, and commitment from senior leaders and board members. Geographic and issue-area diversity may also be considered to ensure a balanced group of participants. Because coaching capacity is limited, each funding round is competitive, and teams are encouraged to carefully assess their timing and internal resources before applying.
Supported audiences and impact
Innoweave serves a wide range of organizations, from small community groups to national networks, working in fields such as health, food security, climate action, youth services, housing, arts and culture, and social finance. Its impact page highlights an average grant size around $12,500 and documents hundreds of participating organizations across all provinces and territories. Case studies illustrate how funded coaching has helped groups refine strategies, launch social enterprises, build collaborative initiatives, and strengthen impact measurement systems.
By pairing flexible funding with expert coaching, Innoweave occupies a unique niche in the Canadian funding ecosystem: instead of financing frontline service delivery, it invests in organizational capacity, leadership, and learning. Under MakeWay’s stewardship, the program is evolving further, with future funding rounds and refreshed offerings planned to better support wellbeing, justice, equity, and community-led approaches.
