Syncrude is proud of our employees and retirees who volunteer and make vital contributions to their communities. To celebrate and encourage their efforts, we offer volunteer and busing grants for the organizations they support. We also support employees and retirees in their efforts toward lifelong learning with employee matching educational grants.
Employee volunteer grants
Employees and retirees may apply for:
- Two $750 Employee Volunteer Grants per year, for separate organizations. To be eligible, employees/retirees must volunteer a minimum of 40 hours within a calendar year with a non-profit organization.
- One Busing Grant per year for an organization that has a youth/travel competition focus. To be eligible, employees/retirees must have volunteered a minimum of 40 hours within a calendar year with a non-profit organization.
- $2500 for Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo-based organizations
- $1200 for City of Edmonton and City of Calgary (including surrounding urban areas) based organizations
- Both a Volunteer and Busing grant. To be eligible, employees/retirees must have volunteered a minimum of 40 hours within a calendar year with a non-profit organization.
- $3250 for Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo-based organizations
- $1950 for Edmonton and Calgary (including surrounding urban areas) based organizations
Employee Volunteer Grants will be reviewed monthly and depending on the timing of the application, it may take up to six weeks to be processed. The annual deadline for submission of applications is on November 15.
To apply for any of the Volunteer Grants, click on the following link: Good Neighbours Program.
Eligible volunteers
- Permanent full-time employees that have been employed for more than six months or permanent part-time employees that have been employed for more than one year or retired Syncrude employees.
- The employee/retiree must be currently involved with the organization and have volunteered a minimum of 40 hours before applying for a grant.
- Must reside within the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo region, City of Edmonton and surrounding urban areas, and City of Calgary and surrounding urban areas.
- The employee/retiree must be confirmed, active, continuing and unpaid by the organization (occasional involvement, advising, infrequent attendance at meetings or participating in intermittent fund-raising activities is not considered “active” involvement).
- Volunteers who are active in more than one organization may apply for a volunteer grant on behalf of a maximum of two separate organizations a year.
- Employees/retirees are eligible for one busing grant per year (one grant per trip). Travel must be outside of the non-profit group’s region and within Alberta.
- Volunteer hours must be accumulated by the employee, not a family member.
- Syncrude employees seconded to educational institutions or non-profit organizations are not eligible to apply.
Eligible organizations
- A Canadian organization with a charitable business number issued by the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (for more information visit the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency website)
- Amateur Athletic Association (for youth only) or a non-profit organization as defined in the Canadian Income Tax Act
- A Canadian public elementary or high school (kindergarten to grade 12) parent volunteer associations, for example a Parent Teacher Leadership Group (PTLG)
- A project that contributes to a worthwhile community service and is broad-based in its reach to the community, such as training or workshops, etc.
Ineligible organizations
- Individual pursuits or research
- Religious organizations or cultural initiatives that are for the benefit of the membership or faith community only
- Political Parties/candidates (except as permitted under the Relationships with Government Application Guidelines)
- Lobby groups
- Labour organizations
- Private or Charter schools
- Home school programs
- International relief funding
- Private Clubs funded through membership fees
- Research Chairs
- Organizations in a conflict of interest with our business
- Requests for funds after the planned event to offset budget shortfalls
Employee matching education grants
Syncrude will match employee/retiree contributions to accredited post-secondary institutions, to a maximum of $500 per calendar year, per employee/retiree.
Eligible educational institutions are those Canadian colleges and universities that are a member of either the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada or the Association of Canadian Community Colleges. They must be accredited post-secondary institutions authorized to issue receipts that are accepted by the federal government for tax deduction purposes
To apply for a matching education grant, please send an email to SyncrudeCI@suncor.com with the following information:
- Copy of your donation receipt
- Your employee number
- Designation to – if you have a preference let us know
- Educational institution contact, mailing address, email address and telephone number (if not already provided on the donation receipt)
