Building Communities Through Arts and Heritage

Looking for funding for a society project? Most Canadian Heritage Funding Programs don't appear to be applicable to the family history community, but there is a source that's not been tapped recently.

Building Communities Through Arts and Heritage is a federal program with the objective of encourag(ing) Canadians of all ages to get involved in local cultural, heritage and commemorative events, specifically to:

Engage citizens in their communities through festivals, events, and activities that promote performing and visual arts, as well as through the expression, celebration, and preservation of local historical heritage``

In 2013-2014 the program funded 754 projects for a total of $17.7M in grants and contributions. The top grants were for $500,000, the average $21,000, the minimum and amount most frequently granted $2,000. The larger grants were categorized as Legacy Funds, the smallest and most awarded are in the Festival category. In between in terms of amount granted is an Anniversary category.

Searching the grants database for 2013-14 none of the grants had a title mentioning genealogy, genealogical, ancestry, or family history. Perhaps there were no applications. 25 of the 754 grants used the stem word hist*. 10 of those were for $2,000, the largest for $80,400 was for Fêtes de la Nouvelle-France SAQ.

There were no grants with the word England or English, Welsh or Wales, or Loyal* in the title, 4 with the word Scottish, 2 Irish and none had the term Anglo. 12 used the term Franco.

Do those figures reflect the pride these communities take in their heritage?