Small businesses that are based in Canada, legally licensed or registered to operate in Canada, have 50 employees or less, and are in good financial standing (no petition in bankruptcy or insolvency) are eligible for nomination.

In order to qualify to win a Grant Prize, a small business must remain in good financial standing throughout the contest period, including winner selection.

One (1) of the four (4) Grant Prizes will be reserved exclusively for a Purolator customer. For the purposes of this contest, a Purolator customer is defined as having a Purolator Business Account in good standing at the time of contest entry and the winner announcement, and has made at least one shipment between June 14, 2022 to June 14, 2023.

There is additional criteria related to Purolator employees, their vendors/partners, and family members and individuals they are domiciled with. Please see the full Contest Rules for more information.

Should you have additional questions about eligibility, please contact us at support@purolator.com.

You can nominate a small business if you are a legal resident of Canada who has reached the age of majority in your Province or Territory of residence at the time of entry, and be:

• A small business owner or founder self-nominating your own business, OR
• A community member of a small business which includes:
  • Customer
  • Employee
  • Family/Friend
  • General Supporter/Community Member
  • Partner/Vendor
  • Purolator Frontline Employee

For the purposes of this contest, a “Purolator Frontline Employee” is defined as a Purolator Inc. courier, retail, or terminal/hub employee. Purolator Inc. head office or corporate employees, directors, or executives are not eligible to submit a nomination. There is additional criteria related to Purolator employees, their vendors/partners, and family members and individuals they are domiciled with. Please see the full Contest Rules for more information.

Should you have additional questions about eligibility, please contact us at support@purolator.com.

We encourage communities to rally behind their favourite small businesses and support them through nominations. A small business may be nominated as many times as possible , however, each nomination must be submitted by a unique individual and the content of each submission must also be unique, as determined by the contest administrator and/or judging panel.

Individual nominators can submit up to five (5) individual small businesses for the True North Small Business Grant Contest. Each nomination must be submitted separately, for a different small business, and be unique, as determined by the contest administrator and/or judging panel.

Any attempt to create false nominations may result in disqualification.

For more information, please see the full Contest Rules.

There are four (4) Grant Prizes, each consisting of:

• $25,000 cash
• $500 in Purolator shipping credits

One (1) of the four (4) Grant Prizes will be reserved exclusively for a Purolator customer. For the purposes of these Rules, a Purolator customer is defined as having a Purolator Business Account in good standing at the time of contest entry and the winner announcement, and has made at least one shipment between June 14, 2022 to June 14, 2023.

The selected Grant Prize recipients will be free to use the $25,000 cash prize in any way that legally benefits their business. Plus, one (1) of the four (4) Grant Prize recipients will be selected to receive a bonus Community’s Choice Award through the voting process as outlined in the rules. The Award includes a $500 Visa^‡ Gift Card, and a $5,000 pay it forward donation that Purolator will make to a registered Canadian food bank as chosen by the winner of the votes.

There are six (6) Finalist Prizes each consisting of a $500 Visa^‡ gift card available to each of the eligible small business Finalists who are selected to be in the Top 10 but are not awarded with a Grant Prize. There are four (4) Nomination Prizes each consisting of a $500 Visa^‡ gift card available to eligible nominators. One (1) of the four (4) Nomination Prizes will be reserved for a Purolator Frontline Employee and shall be done by a separate draw.

There will be three (3) individual Voting Prizes available to be won by eligible Voters, each consisting of one (1) $250 Visa^‡ gift card.

All prizes valued in Canadian dollars (CAD) and are inclusive of HST.

For more information, please see the full Contest Rules.

All nominations must be submitted online by Wednesday, June 14, 2023, 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET).

The Contest consists of four (4) important time periods:

1. Nomination submission period: 10:00:00 a.m. ET on April 26, 2023 to 11:59:59 p.m. ET on June 14, 2023
2. Entry evaluation and judging, and Grant Prize finalists and winner notification: June 15, 2023 up to October 13, 2023
3. Public announcement of Grant Prize winners and Community’s Choice Award Voting: October 16 – October 31, 2023
4. Public announcement of the winner of the Community’s Choice Award Voting: around November 29, 2023 and up to December 31, 2023

• Take some time to review the entire nomination form before you start. All required fields are marked with an asterisk (*).
• Type and save your written answers in a separate document (such as Microsoft Word) and copy and paste them into the online form when you are ready to submit. This will ensure that you have a copy of your answers in case of technical issues.
• The main questions ask (1) how the relationships with the nominated small business’s community contributes to their success, in 300 words or less (2) why the business deserves a grant in 250 words or less. If you need some help getting started, here are some ideas to consider:
  • How does this small business support their customers, employees, or community and vice versa?
  • What does this small business mean to you and/or the community?
  • How does this small business contribute to supporting Canadians?
  • How well does this small business represent Canadian innovation/entrepreneurship? What makes this small business stand out?
  You may answer the question however you like and you do not have to address everything that the small business does. Focus on the best points that stand out for you and give examples to help flesh out your answer.
• Consider reading the written portion aloud to hear how the writing flows. If you have to have to take a breath while reading a sentence, it may be too long and could be shortened into smaller sentences.
• Please double-check your spelling and grammar.
• Don’t miss the deadline! Submit your completed nomination form by by June 14, 2023, at 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET).

Should you have additional questions about eligibility, please contact us at support@purolator.com.

For each of the four (4) $500 Visa^‡ gift card Nomination Prizes, a random draw for each of the prizes will be pulled from the eligible nominator pools on June 29, 2023. Potential winners will be contacted by July 31, 2023. For more information, please see the full Contest Rules.

To determine the four (4) Grant Prize recipients of $25,000 cash and $500 in shipping credits, and the six (6) Finalist Prize recipients, the evaluation process will be conducted in three phases, with advancement based on scores from the following criteria:

• Quality of Content: 35%
• Impact, Business Model and Values: 60%
• Community Support: 5%

Phase 1: each eligible small business nomination will be reviewed by our judging panel and a minimum of 10 of the top entries will be selected to advance to Phase 2 based on the scoring criteria.

Phase 2: the small businesses of the top entries will be contacted to provide supplementary material which may include more information about their business and a short video or interview on topics related to, “what would you like the judges to know about your business” and “what would the grant funds would be used for”. The supplementary material will be evaluated using the scoring criteria and up to 8 of the top candidates will advance to Phase 3.

Phase 3: up to 8 of the top candidates’ nominations and supplementary materials will be presented to the final judging panel who will review and score the candidates based on the criteria above to determine the four (4) recipients of the Grant Prizes. The remaining top Candidates from Phase 2 will be ranked in order of scoring, be declared as a Finalist Prize Winner.

Grant Prize recipients will be announced by October 16, 2023.

During the Community’s Choice Award voting period, the small businesses that have been selected as Grant Prize winners will have the opportunity to win the Community’s Choice Award. The qualifying small business with the highest number of votes on the voting forms submitted by eligible voters at the end of the voting period on October 31, will be declared the winner of the Community’s Choice Award.

For each of the three (3) $250 Visa^‡ gift card Voting Prizes, a random draw for each of the prizes will be pulled from the eligible nominator pools on November 8, 2023. Potential winners will be contacted by November 15, 2023.

For more information, please see the full Contest Rules.
Should you have additional questions, please contact us at support@purolator.com.

Congratulations on your nomination! Someone in your community felt that your business deserved a shout out of appreciation!

At this point in the nomination process, nothing else is required from nominated businesses. If however, you would like to self-nominate and provide more information about your business, you are welcome to submit a nomination for the grant as well.

Once the nomination process is closed, our adjudication committee will determine who the finalist candidates are. At that point, we will reach out to the potential finalists to determine if they would like accept/decline moving forward in the grant process.

If you would like to decline the nomination, simply email us at support@purolator.com.

For media inquiries, please see our press release.

Should you have additional questions about the True North Small Business Grant Contest, please contact us at support@purolator.com.