| In 2004 Alberta Ecotrust conducted a comprehensive two-part study to assess environmental priorities in Alberta and to identify the major gaps in capacity of the environmental sector. We surveyed thought leaders in academia, industry, government and the non-profit community to determine the priority environmental issues of concern in Alberta and then separately surveyed and conducted focus groups in the environmental NGO community to get an accurate snapshot of their capacity to undertake the significant mandate of protecting the environment.
Executive Summary
Alberta Ecotrust Foundation has been a highly successful environmental grantmaker in Alberta since 1992, when it was founded in response to a need by grassroots groups for funding to support their community-based projects. However, Alberta Ecotrust is able to fund less than 40 percent of the projects that request its support. Funding for environmental projects continues to be scarce in Alberta, and it is important that Alberta Ecotrust funds are directed to activities that will achieve the most significant results.
In reviewing its overall strategic goals, Alberta Ecotrust determined that a formal needs assessment should be done to look at the environmental issues, resources, challenges and activities in Alberta communities. Among other things, such an assessment would identify environmental priorities and gaps in resources and capacities.
The needs assessment project began in the fall of 2003 and consisted of four data collection and research components, which were completed and analyzed by the spring of 2004. The application, project review and funding processes currently used by Alberta Ecotrust were considered as a “bookend” against which changes could be considered.
Needs Assessment Highlights
Priority Environmental Issues and Sustainability Strategies
Water quantity and quality, wilderness preservation and climate change were identified by respondents as the most important environmental issues facing Alberta at the present time. Urban land management was also in the top five issues.
Very few of the issues were rated as not being important or of high priority by most respondents, one of the notable exceptions being recycling and waste management which are seen to be reasonably well addressed now in the province.
Energy efficiency and conservation, and habitat and wilderness protection were viewed as the most important “proactive” strategies for sustainability.
Overwhelmingly, respondents held the view that existing programs were not adequately addressing environmental issues or leading to implementation of sustainability strategies.
The formal education system, particularly elementary through senior high school, was regarded as having a very important role in raising awareness of environmental issues and promoting personal environmental stewardship, but the school system needs to be more formally engaged in these activities.
Raising awareness and educating the public was most often named as the key role for the voluntary sector working on environmental issues in Alberta.
Role and Effectiveness of Alberta’s NGOs Working on Environmental Issues
Non governmental organizations (NGOs) feel they have been reasonably successful in getting the message out about environmental and sustainability issues, but less effective in actually bringing about change.
Key factors limiting the effectiveness of environmental and community groups are lack of funding (especially for core activities, including staff), volunteer management and recruitment, and communications skills. Both survey respondents and focus group participants said repeatedly that they couldn’t do much without funding to hire staff and “keep the lights on.”
Alberta’s NGOs are regarded as being most effective on big “ecosystem” issues such as protecting wilderness, wildlife, forests and wetlands, and on climate change.
Generally, non-ENGOs rated the effectiveness of the voluntary sector more highly than the non-profit organizations themselves did.
A substantial majority of respondents regard raising awareness and educating the public about environmental issues as a key role for the voluntary sector
Environmental and Community Group Capacity and Needs
Of four key full- or part-time staff positions (executive director, fundraiser, volunteer manager, and office manager), organizations were least likely to have a dedicated fundraiser. Barely half of the organizations had two or more of these four key positions filled on a full- or part-time basis.
- Two-thirds of organizations had three or fewer core staff in Alberta.
- Respondents most often use public education, outreach and advocacy as a means of bringing about change and raising awareness of environmental issues.
- More than half of respondents said they already collaborate with others on regular basis for most of their projects. Key barriers to collaboration are concern over additional time and costs required for communication and coordination, and lack of partners with sufficiently similar style and approach.
- Groups assessed their greatest capacity to be in the areas of project and program development and management, and financial management. The areas with least capacity are general fundraising, volunteer recruitment and management, board development and communications. Charitable organizations generally rated their capacity more highly than non-charitable organizations.
- High priority areas for building capacity were general fundraising, governance and leadership, and organizational promotion and general communications.
- Funding sources are very fragmented, with many organizations saying they must go to a number of sources to get the funds they need to do their work. Canadian foundations are the biggest source of funds for environmental and community groups in Alberta, with over half saying they get at least 10% of their funds from this source.
- The areas of greatest funding need were core staffing and administration, fundraising and resource development, project or program delivery and implementation, and new project or program development.
- The areas where organizations have the most difficulty securing funding are core staffing and administration, fundraising and resource development, and administrative non-staff expenses.
Advice to Environmental Grantmakers
To build organizational capacity, the three most common suggestions were that grantmakers:
- Fund operations, staffing and other core needs
- Sponsor training sessions or fund individuals to attend sessions sponsored by others
- Facilitate networking and partnerships among NGOs and between NGOs and others to share experience and expertise
To improve collaboration, the most-often named suggestion was to sponsor workshops, seminars, Eco-Fairs and dialogue days to bring groups together.
Grantmakers should collaborate more among themselves to identify common priorities and to adjust their funding applications and granting processes to:
- Support for capacity building activities
- Fund overall programs, not just new projects
- Do a preliminary screening to ensure the project is compatible with the funder’s mandate
- Put more emphasis on funding priority issues
- Reduce restrictions on how funds can be used
- Simplify and standardize the application process, particularly to ensure the amount of work required is appropriate for the size of the grant
- Allow multi-year, long-term funding, especially for work on priority issues
- Minimize administration responsibilities and make reporting requirements more flexible (especially financial reporting)
- Minimize or eliminate matching fund requirements
Download the Summary Report to read more about the powerful results of this important initiative and click here to review changes to the Alberta Ecotrust grant program!
|
