Canadians are a generous lot, with just over five million donating as much as $12.8-billion to charities in 2023, according to Canada Revenue Agency records. Yet when it comes to giving to causes focused on homelessness and the country’s housing crisis, many Canadians simply don’t know where and how to start.
Front Door, a new national project directory from Partners for Affordable Housing, is here to show the way.
“It’s Canada’s only affordable housing project directory,” says Amy Bolt, who oversees programs at Partners, a national non-profit organization that connects public, private and philanthropic partners with community housing providers. “Front Door increases the visibility of high-potential but not-fully-financed projects. Providers list their work, funders sort by region or cause, and we help make the match.”
Built with input from community housing providers and funders, Front Door connects donors, foundations and impact investors to construction, acquisition or rental assistance projects at any stage – from early strategic planning through to operations.
“The idea is to showcase the amazing work that our partners are doing, and to ultimately connect affordable housing providers with funders looking to make a tangible impact,” explains Ms. Bolt. “We know there are many individuals and organizations eager to support community-driven housing solutions. Front Door makes it simple for them to turn that desire into action.”
While the housing crisis is a countrywide problem, solutions are local – and often stalled because non-profits can’t access big public dollars until a project is “shovel-ready.” But getting to that stage requires feasibility and site studies, and fully developed plans, all of which can add up to millions of dollars with no guarantee of government commitments.
“Front Door can accelerate that early work by facilitating funding to cover those associated costs,” says Sarah Button, executive director of Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation (CCOC), a not-for-profit organization in Ottawa that owns and manages more than 50 rental buildings with close to 1,700 units of affordable housing.
CCOC plans to break ground on at least 200 new units by the end of 2026 and has targeted a 50 per cent increase in its real estate portfolio by 2034. But the big question, says Ms. Button, is how the corporation will pay for all these planned projects.
“We have a development pipeline and ambitious targets, but getting to shovel-ready is expensive – it can cost almost a million dollars to get a project from idea to shovel-ready. A platform that connects us with donors and patient capital for those steps means we can move faster.”
Graham Cubitt, who helps co-ordinate Hamilton is Home, a coalition of eight non-profit providers in Hamilton, Ont., sees Front Door as a bridge. The coalition has identified roughly 1,400 units that could be built in Hamilton if early financing hurdles were cleared.
“Everybody acknowledges the crisis, but most people don’t know how to start solving it,” says Mr. Cubitt, who is also president of Flourish, which provides real estate development services for affordable housing and social-purpose projects.
“Directing philanthropic dollars to the hardest part – the very early costs – gets the horse to the racetrack. A tool that helps fund what’s shovel-ready in each community can move the needle, and after that, public funding and conventional financing can follow.”
He acknowledges there’s work to be done to educate philanthropists and companies about how they can make an impact on the affordable housing crisis. Many Canadians still see homelessness and affordable housing shortages as problems for governments to solve, but as more and more families grapple with the costs of staying housed, philanthropy funding has become a critical part of the solution, says Mr. Cubitt.
Ms. Bolt at Partners says philanthropy dollars have already transformed key Canadian sectors such as health and education. With Front Door, donors now have a way to make a meaningful impact on affordable housing.
This article was originally published on November 20, 2025, as part of the National Housing Day special feature in The Globe and Mail, produced by Randall Anthony Communications.