Budgeting Tool | Calgary Plan | Grant Opportunities
If You Had More Funding, How Would You Spend It?
Please take less than 10 minutes with CCVO’s interactive budgeting tool to identify your nonprofit’s funding priorities.
We are charting a course to secure appropriate funding and stabilize our sector - and we’ll get further if we get specific. We will use your responses to communicate our sector’s priorities to funders, governments, and other stakeholders, and we'll make recommendations on how to best allocate funding dollars. Your participation is crucial!
If you work in the nonprofit sector (paid or unpaid) and have an understanding of your organization's daily operations, please take a few minutes with the budgeting tool. Tell us what you would do with new funding: Grow existing programming to make it available to more people? Expand the diversity of your services? Increase your capacity to cope with external issues like climate change or internal practices like diversity, equity, and inclusion?
Thank you in advance for using your time and expertise to support Alberta nonprofits!
Policy Highlights
2025 Federal Pre-Budget Consultation Toolkit
Each year, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance and the Department of Finance invite Canadians to participate in their pre-budget consultation processes. Imagine Canada has created a toolkit to help you understand the federal budget cycle, the pre-budget consultation process, and how to get involved. See the toolkit here.
HUMA Committee Report on Intergenerational Volunteerism
The Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities (HUMA) has created a report on intergenerational volunteering. Recommendations include:
Development of a national volunteer action strategy to promote and support volunteering in Canada, including intergenerational volunteering.
Investment in research on intergenerational volunteerism.
Increasing availability of funding for intergenerational volunteering.
Increasing funds available for incentives to help recruit and retain volunteers.
See the full list of recommendations here.
Calgary City Building - Lunch and Learn
The City of Calgary's draft Calgary Plan is now available. The Calgary Plan is the long-term municipal development plan for Calgary. It is Calgary's highest-level city-planning document. This document has been meticulously prepared, incorporating insights from participants to ensure they are comprehensive and reflective of the collective input received.
The draft plan is available for your review and feedback online. To facilitate a deeper understanding and foster further discussion, the City of Calgary is hosting a series of lunch and learn sessions throughout June and July for community organizations. These sessions will highlight key aspects of the Calgary Plan and provide an opportunity for questions and comments.
Register for a Calgary Plan Lunch & Learn:
Stay tuned for more information on how to get involved in the other public engagement opportunities from June 24 to July 21.
Mount Royal University Nonprofit Managment
Mount Royal University's Nonprofit Management Extension Certificate offers flexible, online courses taught by nonprofit professionals. Areas of focus include: leadership skills for nonprofit managers, financial management skills, volunteer management, marketing, ethics, government relations, fundraising, legal requirements, and board governance. From developing a public relations plan to exploring risk management processes, target the practical skills and current content relevant to the goals you want to achieve. This program is eligible for the Canada-Alberta Job Grant. Find out more information here.
Funding & Grants
Volunteer Screening Development Grant
The Volunteer Alberta screening development grant supports the development of effective screening practices and processes. They provide up to $3,500 to support nonprofit organizations facing resource and capacity challenges in the area of volunteer screening. Organizations must be a registered nonprofit with an annual operating budget of less than $10 million. Organizations must also have fewer than 10 permanent staff and have more than 10 volunteers a year requiring vulnerable sector checks.
Approved applicants must participate in foundational learning through webinars and guides. A community of practice is also available. The deadline for applications is July 15. Find the application and more information here.
Community Safety Investment Framework Call for Proposals
The goal of the Community Safety Investment Framework is to improve the well-being of Calgarians experiencing crisis by investing in programs and services that provide a primary or secondary crisis response:
Primary Crisis Response - Providing immediate support to a person in crisis within the first 24 hours of reaching out for help.
Secondary Crisis Response - Providing coordinated access to immediate services (housing supports, psycho-social supports, etc.) as well as follow-up, with a focus on case management in the immediate aftermath of when the crisis has occurred.
Funds are available to support new and existing programs or initiatives which work to advance one of the following outcome areas:
Improved crisis triage
Increased availability of 24/7 non-emergency support and outreach services
Increased access to community and peer support programs
Integrated case management
Funding is available to registered nonprofits with an elected volunteer Board of Directors, operating within Calgary’s city limits. There is no maximum or minimum amount that can be requested. Applications are due by July 18. See the application and more details here.
National AccessAbility Week Funding – 2025 and 2026
National AccessAbility Week (NAAW) funding is for projects that improve understanding and knowledge of Canadians on accessibility and disability inclusion, reduce stigma and attitudinal barriers towards persons with disabilities, and share best practices and lessons learned related to NAAW activities within the disability community during NAAW in 2025 or 2026.
Organizations can receive up to $100,000 a year. The deadline for applications is July 17. Find out more information and apply here.
Youth Legal Initiatives Fund
The Alberta Law Foundation has recently established a Youth Legal Initiatives Fund to support initiatives that respond to existing and emerging legal issues facing youth aged 26 and under in Alberta. Projects must align with one of the following outcomes: preventative measures, improved legal literacy and education, positive legal outcomes, reduced recidivism, legal empowerment and self advocacy, reduced legal vulnerability, research, or policy influence.
Organizations can apply for two types of grants, offering flexibility to conduct needs assessments, program designs, service delivery, research, and community-based initiatives. Organizations can receive up to $50,000 with the Needs Assessments and Program Design Projects Grant and up to $250,000 per year or $750,000 over three years with the Service Delivery and Research Projects grant.
Applications are open to nonprofits and indigenous communities and organizations. Applications will be accepted until May 31, 2025. Find more information and apply here.
Blogs & More
Change is Coming: How Can the Sector Prepare for Conservative Rule?
Tim Harper, The Philanthropist Journal
There’s no denying there is angst out there, but those who have steered foundations and charities through various changes in government warn against apocalyptic assumptions and are confident that no change in government will get in the way of good work being done for the vulnerable. They cite past examples of breakthroughs – some quite surprising – under Conservative governments that have defied stereotypical expectations. There is a need to be vigilant but no need for high anxiety, they say. Read More→
Let’s Imagine Podcast Episode 19: The Burden of Care – Addressing Challenges in Employment in the Nonprofit Sector with Laura Mcdonough and Steven Ayer
Imagine Canada
Our results really point to the need for organizations to have these objective measures to be able to understand, are they doing well or not? And what are the areas specifically they can do something about? And when we look at things like particularly the gap between job satisfaction with managerial staff versus frontline staff, that can lead to some bias when people are trying to understand whether people like working for the organization, why people are leaving, because you have a bunch of folks who are reasonably satisfied making the judgments about what to do about these sorts of issues, but they're not the ones experiencing it. Listen here→