About the Fund
The Zoie Gardner Overseas Fund (ZGOF) is a fund of the Unitarian Universalist Community of Victoria (UUCV), resulting from a generous bequest, and existing for the purpose of supporting education of girls and young women in low-income countries. The ZGOF Committee reports to the UUCV Board. We expect that the fund will be fully depleted in five to seven years.
Since ZGOF’s inception in 2014, the fund has supported projects in Myanmar, Sierra Leone, India, Nepal, Tibet, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Tanzania and Kenya.
The ZGOF Committee is currently comprised of: Remi Odense (Chair), Lynn Beak, Evan Guengerich, Frances Hancock, Mariko Matsumoto, Laura Porcher, Kristina Stevens and John Worton. We sadly honour the recent passing of our previous Chair, June Fukushima, and note her valuable contribution to the work of this committee.
Now Receiving Expressions of Interest for Project Funding - Due April 15, 2025
ZGOF is now open to receiving Expression of Interest from a few additional Canadian charitable organizations in spring 2025, for contributions averaging about $20,000-25,000. Funds may be used for such things as scholarships, tuition fees, skills training, workshops, support groups, and goods and services that support education and empowerment of girls and young women, eg. medical care, female health and reproductive care, teachers, tutoring, counselling, family support, transport to school, bicycles.
Applicants must be a registered Canadian charity.
For more information on our funding criteria, please see the ZGOF Project Funding Criteria.
If your Organization and project fit our funding criteria, you are invited to download, complete and submit an Expression of Interest, due April 15, 2025.
We expect to review Expressions of Interest mid-April. You will hear back from us after our review. Organizations with prioritized projects will then be invited to complete our Application for Project Funding, due May 23, 2025. Successful projects will be announced early June.
For further information, please submit questions through the ZGOF portal further below. You may also upload your Expression of Interest through this portal.
Application and Reporting
For organizations applying to ZGOF for the first time, your Expression of Interest must have been approved by the ZGOF Committee, prior to submission of a funding application.
For organizations that have had previous ZGOF funding, your Project Report must be approved by ZGOF, prior to our consideration of your next project application.
Next Application Deadline: May 23, 2025
If your project is approved, your organization will be expected to submit a Project Report at the end of the project.
Documents for download:
Note: Expression of Interest, Application for Project Funding and Project Reporting Form are Word Documents which must be downloaded, completed, saved to PDF and then uploaded to the portal below. If the Word Documents are opening in your browser when you click the link, they may look incorrectly formatted. Please right click on the link and click “Save As…” to download them to your computer. When you open them in Word, they should look correct.
- ZGOF Project Funding Criteria
- Expression of Interest
- Application for Project Funding
- Project Reporting Form
Before initiating your Application for Project Funding or Project Reporting Form, please check with your ZGOF liaison to ensure you have the most current version.