Want to apply for a donation? Follow the steps below if your donation request is for:

• An annual fundraising campaign

• A major fundraising campaign

How to request a donation:

1. Review the eligibility criteria below to see if your application is eligible for funding. Please note that eligibility does not guarantee funding. Each application follows an evaluation process and financial support is granted according to the available budget and National Bank's objectives.
2. Once your online application is submitted, you'll receive a confirmation email. Please allow three months for a response. The timeline may be longer if we receive a very large number of requests or if yours is incomplete. If this happens, we'll contact you for more information.

The selection process is guided by our donation policy, which serves as a tool in the evaluation of applications received. This process is designed to be as fair and transparent as possible and to maximize the impact on the community.

Eligibility criteria

For National Bank to consider your application, it needs to meet the following criteria:

• Come from a non-profit organization

• Address National Bank's priority sectors, as described in the donations section. These include health, education, community support, arts and culture, entrepreneurship, inclusion and diversity, and the environment.

Exclusions

At National Bank, we believe that all not-for-profit organizations deserve support. Unfortunately, we can't fund all the requests we receive, no matter how worthy they are. To standardize our approach, we prefer to focus our philanthropic efforts outside the following areas:

• Organizations that are not registered under federal law

• Organizations that receive financial support from United Way/Centraide

• Provincial campaigns for organizations that we already support at the national level

• Social clubs

• Political parties, political organizations, or interest groups promoting a political ideology

• Lobby and special-interest groups

• Individual projects

• Private foundations

• Private elementary and high schools

• Projects taking place outside Canada

• Annual conferences and meetings

• Audio, video or web productions

• Charity auctions

Donation management

National Bank applies these criteria to all eligible requests, and the selection of organizations that receive financial support is based on those criteria. We consider the following:

• Nature of the request and financial objective of the campaign

• History of donations already made to the requesting organization

• Value of our commitments in the requesting organization's sector

• Analysis of comparable donations made in the same sector

• Commitment of our employees to that cause or organization

Other types of donations

The majority of National Bank's contributions to organizations may be of a financial nature, but donations can sometimes take another form.

Equipment donations

Occasionally, National Bank will donate furniture and equipment that it is no longer being used. 

Responding to urgent needs

In addition to concerted action and our donation program, National Bank's in-branch fund raising efforts have been put to use to relieve urgent humanitarian needs and support on-the-ground operations of the Canadian Red Cross.

Our reports from previous years are available for reference purposes only. As the information they contain has not been updated since their publication, they no longer necessarily reflect the current activities or commitments of the Bank, and the methodology used for the calculation and disclosure of certain data may have evolved over time. National Bank does not plan to update this information, except as required by law, and therefore recommends that readers not place undue reliance on it.

2023 ESG report

2022 ESG report

2021 ESG report

2020 ESG report

2019 ESG report

Certain information contained in this section relates to the Bank's targets and commitments in terms of sustainable development, environment, social progress and governance, and the measures it will take to achieve them, including its targets and its climate strategy and its efforts towards the transition to a low-carbon economy, as well as how to support its clients in this transition.

The Bank cautions readers that these are not guarantees of future performance, as such information is based on our current expectations, estimates and intentions and is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Bank’s control and the effects of which are difficult to predict. These factors, risks and uncertainties are described in more detail in the Report on Environmental, Social and Governance Advances, in the Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Notebook, in the Climate Report and in the Annual Report, all available on bnc.ca.

1. National Bank joined the United Nations Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) in 2021, which supports banks' efforts to combat climate change by aligning financing activities with the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. The Bank uses the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) Standard to calculate its financed emissions from its financing and investment activities. For more details, see the most recent Climate Report.