State of the Sector Survey closes Friday! | Arts, Sports, and Marketing Grants
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2023 State of The Sector Survey
We're calling on all nonprofits operating in Alberta to spend 15 minutes to complete the 2023 State of the Sector Survey. As critical actors in the nonprofit sector, the survey is a crucial tool to keep us informed about the current landscape, challenges, and opportunities within our sector. Information from this survey will play a vital role in shaping our collective efforts.
Organizations that fill out the survey can enter to win a Parks Canada Discovery Pass, free Reach Hire job postings or free Boland salary and benefit 2023 subscription. Organizations should complete the survey only once. The survey closes on Friday, October 13.
Policy Highlights
Quality of Life Report
Calgary Foundation
Calgary Foundation's annual Quality of Life Report tells the story of a city trying to hold onto hope while trying to pay our bills. 81% of Calgarians feel a sense of belonging and 69% of Calgarians rate their happiness as good or excellent, an increase of 5% from previous years. In nearly every other category though, Calgarians are making do with less.
40% of Calgarians can’t afford to buy a home and 36% can’t afford to rent. 41% of renters can't afford a place to live. 36% of parents skip meals to ensure their kids can eat and 28% of households with children can’t afford healthy food. 80% of Calgarians are concerned about safety in Calgary. Read the full report here.
Sell with Impact: Stories and Research from the Canadian Social Enterprise Sector
Buy Social Canada
Buy Social Canada's report shares data from a survey of 132 Buy Social Canada Certified Social Enterprises operating across Canada. While the report does not capture all the social enterprise organizations in Canada, it shows that social enterprises are growing steadily with over 9,000 employees and a gross revenue of $237.2 million.
The top three challenges social enterprises face are currently: access to markets (59%), business capacity (51%), and access to finance (48%). Read the report here.
Learning Opportunities
Learning Opportunities
Get the Most Out of Google Ad Grants for Charities
October 12 | online
REGISTER
Identifying and Interrupting Microaggressions in the Workplace
October 17 | online
REGISTER
Engaging Email Outreach with Second Revolution Communications
October 17 | online
REGISTER
Developing Policy & Assessing Risk
October 25 | online
REGISTER
DEAM Idea Conference
October 26 | online
REGISTER
The Evolution of Language
October 26 | online
REGISTER
Funding & Grants
Community Run Art Microgrants
The Calgary Arts Development Community Run Art Microgrants program provides funding for Calgary organizations to hire local artists to create public art in their neighborhood. Projects must fall under one of five themes:
Foster truth and reconciliation
Art for social change
Uncover little-known stories about the city or overlooked histories
Explore stories of your community
Bring beauty, joy, whimsy, and hope
Organizations can apply for up to $10,000 in funding. Applications are open to community-run organizations, including informal groups that define themselves in terms of distinct communities, neighbourhood associations and nonprofits or charities. The deadline for applications is November 3. Find out more information and apply here.
Trailblazer Fund
Switchback Creative's Trailblazer Fund provides organizations with $10,000 worth of design or branding or website development services. Organizations can choose between a branding development package or a website design and development package.
Applications are open to registered charities and nonprofit organizations and closes on November 15. Find the application details here.
Doc Seaman Amateur Sports Program
Calgary Foundation's Doc Seaman Amateur Sports Program supports:
Amateur ice hockey across Canada;
Initiatives that encourage young people to learn about, enjoy and play amateur sport of all kinds;
Initiatives that increase equal access and promote participation in community-based amateur sport;
Registered Canadian amateur athletic associations
Applications are open to registered charities and other qualified donees and are due by November 15. Book an appointment to find out more information here.
Friends of Chinook Blast Grant Program
The Friends of Chinook Blast Grant Program provides funding to events and programs within the festival dates of February 2-19 2024. Events or programs must fit within the Chinook Blast winter theme of encouraging the community to bundle up, show up and warm up by participating in the outdoor & indoor festivities. Events and programs must be within the Calgary city limits. Priority is given to events and programs with larger breadth or depth of community reach as well as events and programs that reflect and contribute to the vibrancy, diversity, and vitality of Calgary’s arts, sporting ,and experience sector.
Any individuals and organizations residing in Calgary with previous experience programming and executing events can apply for funding. The maximum grant amount is $5,000 and the deadline for applications is November 3. Apply for funding here.
2023 PAAC Annual Conference
The 2023 PAAC (Public Affairs Association of Canada) Annual Conference is coming up October 23-24. At this year’s PAAC Annual Conference, attendees will engage in insightful discussions, build meaningful connections, and share best practices and new ideas at the forefront of the public affairs industry. With increasing polarity in the political landscape coupled with rapid change and innovation in public affairs, there has never been a more important time to come together to build consensus and connection to chart a path forward. The Conference will be held at Fonda Fora & University of Calgary Downtown Campus.
A nonprofit rate of $550 is available and includes a 1-year individual membership for PAAC, which holds a value of $275. Register and find out more information about the Conference here.
Blogs & More
AI as a Tool for Grant Professionals
Philip Deng, Grant Station
“I love grant proposal writing because of the repetitive questions, arbitrary character limits, idiosyncratic budget formats, and the endless variety of infuriating grant portals,” said no grant professional, ever. By some estimates, 46% of all grant awards may cost more than they are worth when the true investment of people’s time and energy is taken into account. AI is a practical tool grant professionals can use to accelerate the progress being made in trust-based philanthropy by helping to reclaim their time. There are many parts of grantseeking that are huge time-wasters, such as rummaging through folders for content to reuse, shrinking or expanding character counts, and reworking old answers into new ones. Read More→
What is the State of Welfare in Canada?
Jennefer Laidley, Mohy Tabbara,Tyler Meredith & Elizabeth McIsaac, Maytree
2022 was a pretty eventful year in many ways, but for us related to total welfare incomes, we wanted to highlight four important events which provide some context for our analysis. First 2022 saw the end of COVID-19 benefits. Several jurisdictions had provided benefits to cover costs associated with the pandemic in 2020. None of those was extended into 2021 and the one COVID-related benefit that was available in 2021 was not available in 2022. So 2022 saw the end, there were no COVID benefits provided by any jurisdiction.
Also, inflation, as you well know, was at a 40-year high in 2022 at a rate of 6.8%. And this was a huge hit to purchasing power for everyone. But for people receiving social assistance, it was especially problematic. And we’ll have a look at how problematic and what jurisdictions did or didn’t do in response. Watch the Webinar→