In this issue

• Spring Greening: May 2010 Grants Awarded
• Thirsty for Knowledge: Waterlution's Water Innovation Lab for Young Leaders
• Welcome Home! A Friendly Face Returns to Alberta Ecotrust
• Volunteers for a Day: Corporate Crews for Non-Profit Projects

Spring Greening
Alberta Ecotrust May 2010 Grants Awarded

With spots for 38 corporate and environmental non-profit partners, you might think the Alberta Ecotrust Grant Review Committee would be feeling a bit crowded these days. And indeed, Kim Kiel, the Foundation's grant program manager was apprehensive going into the May 18th meeting of the committee. With an all-time high number of participants at the table, she had only seven hours, including time for lunch, to steer the committee through an ambitious decision-making agenda: winnowing an exceptionally strong field of 50 grant proposals that represented a collective request for over $1 million to eight or nine that could be funded with $165,000. More...

Thirsty for Knowledge
Waterlution's Water Innovation Lab for Young Leaders

One of the best things about working at Alberta Ecotrust is the opportunity to support inventive non-profits as they design and implement pioneering environmental programs.

Waterlution is such a non-profit, and its Canadian Water Innovation Lab is definitely a trail blazer. Slated for October 2010, the Lab will bring 250 young Canadians together in Alberta's Bow Valley for a once in-a-lifetime learning event. More...

Welcome Home!
A Friendly Face Returns to Alberta Ecotrust

Although no trumpets are sounding, Alberta Ecotrust staff members are genuinely delighted to welcome Wanda Spooner back to their ranks. Hired initially in 2003, Wanda started work as Ecotrust's first full-time Fund Development Manager and eventually added communications to her busy portfolio. In early 2006, she took eight month's maternity leave to have her first child, returned for a year, and then worked part-time from out of town until she had her second child in April 2009. Returning to the Foundation in May - this time as Partner Development Manager - means not only the welcome reappearance of a friendly face but an important connection to the history and partner relations of the Foundation. More...

Volunteers for a Day
Corporate Crews for Non-profit Projects

Are you a non-profit program officer who needs a team of volunteers to help clean up a creek bed, count wildlife, pull invasive species, or perform other short-term work? If so, please drop us a note. Increasingly, our corporate partners are looking to pair their employees with community projects and we receive several calls each year asking if we know of programs that could use some extra hands. Acting on our mandate to expand the space in which corporations and ENGOs work together to protect Alberta's environment, we are keen to help. You can contact us at information@albertaecotrust.org.