The Patriotic Fund was a charity begun in 1812 to provide financial assistance to families of soldiers. It was revived for the Crimean and Boer Wars and again in 1914 in an emergency session of the Canadian Parliament, this time under the auspices of the Governor-General, the Duke of Connaught. The Canadian Patriotic Fund of 1914, was a national organization (covering all provinces except Manitoba, which had organized separately), its objective being to give assistance where necessary to the dependent relatives, in Canada, of Allied soldiers and sailors on active service in World War I.

The fund was administered locally through volunteer committees which acted on general instructions from Headquarters, but had discretionary powers as to the approval of applications and the amount of grants. The funds were raised by voluntary contributions from businesses and the general public. On Prince Edward Island funds were sometimes raised in conjunction with the Canadian Red Cross Society which aided sick and wounded soldiers as an auxiliary to the Army Medical Corps.