Read the summary of our 2004 "Maximizing Effectiveness" report, which indicates that grassroots and environmental organizations face significant challenges.

We know that our Environmental Grant Program is a critical piece of the funding puzzle in Alberta. Yet this program must grow substantially to meet the exploding demand for environmental grants in Alberta. So we leverage the good work of our grant recipients and other environmental non-profit groups by ensuring they have access to superior resources on good management, fundraising and communications skills.

Much of this expertise we can provide ourselves. Our success and expertise are proven, our network is vast and our commitment to community-based environmental action has been demonstrated continually for almost 20 years. Yet the most important contribution we can make to strengthen the ability of Alberta groups to be effective is to use our networks and relationships to bring new and proven resources to this community.

We maximize the effectiveness of those working with Alberta environmental groups by :

• Developing and delivering a suite of capacity building resources
• Presenting a high-calibre, two-day annual "Maximize" workshop for Alberta groups
• Partnering with renowned experts, service providers and capacity builders to offer tools, tips and training
• Utilizing technology to be as inclusive and accessible as possible to all stakeholders

Maximizing Effectiveness 2007

Alberta Ecotrust hosted its first Maximize workshop in Calgary in March 2007. The event brought about 100 Albertans (volunteers, consultants, board members and paid staff) together to take part in a series of interactive and provocative sessions. 

Presenters for the two-day event came from Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto and were selected to provide some of the best available training in the four capacity building areas identified as high priorities by Alberta environmental organizations (ENGOs): volunteer management, strategic communication, fundraising, and organizational governance.

To ensure accessibility for all ENGOs and to deliver a high profile list of presenters, the event was subsidized by support from EnCana Corporation and Suncor Energy Foundation through Alberta Ecotrust's Community Resource Fund. Further support to ME '07 was provided by Volunteer Calgary and CentrePoint.

Maximizing Impact 2008

Building on the Maximize series, Impact 2008 was held in October at Fort Edmonton and included participants from environmental organizations, watershed groups, government and corporate employees, and interested citizens. A high calibre line up of presenters included Keynote Speaker and presenter Dianne Russell of the Institute for Conservation Leadership in Washington DC, Angus McAllister of McAllister Opinion Research, Paul McLaughlin, reporter and journalist and Jeff Gailus of Bristlecone Communications.

Highlights included a sombre session on Environmental Burnout and a riveting presentation on Environmental Communications, which was followed up by a subsequent webcast on the topic a few weeks later that included interested participants from across Alberta and as far away as Toronto and Vancouver.