Effective Fund Hunting in Alberta
Sitting down to write a commentary about the funding environment in Alberta (specifically) and Canada (more broadly) lends itself to readily pre-packaged platitudes, including the always joyful “we will have to do more with less.” Interestingly, this saying is universally applied: to small businesses looking for funding to expand, to local communities confronting an aging infrastructure, and not-for-profit organizations determined to do good at the grassroot level.
Not that this universal platitude is inherently untrue, of course. In fact, it is not difficult to show that while funding opportunities are becoming increasingly diverse in scope and approach they are, in many cases, simultaneously shrinking in terms of the amount of money being made available to the broadest categories of need: infrastructure renewal or replacement, new programming, or technological upgrades, to name but a few.
In short, there is certainly an abundance of evidence that justifies concern, complaint, and catastrophizing when it comes to the future of funding in today’s world.
I want to suggest, of course, that other, more positive, and innovative responses, do exist, especially if those of us who spend our days locating and securing funding dollars are willing to shift the ways we approach the task at hand: finding money. To this end, I will use my occasional contributions to this publication to provide some explanation of the guiding principles that might help negotiate the terrain of today’s less-than-friendly funding environment:
1. Get savvy with systems, as Kate Raworth explained so eloquently in her book Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist. Move away from seeing traditional funding pathways as straight lines (need money-find money-get money) and begin to see them as dynamic, ever-changing world of emergent trends and complex possible relationships. How projects have been funded in the past is likely not the same way they are being funded today and is very likely not how they will be funded 10 years from now. Taking the time now to develop a systems approach to your funding puts you one step ahead of the rest of the pack as they follow the road most travelled.
2. Heading off the beaten path allows you to embrace the power of what design thinkers call expansive thinking or what most of us know more commonly as “thinking outside the box.” Instead of approaching a project as a simple statement (we need an ice arena), approach it as a complex, still-evolving opportunity (we need a building that can function, in part, as an ice arena). By doing so, you give yourself freedom to view the project differently and, not surprisingly, to view the funding of that project differently.
Ask yourself, for instance, what an ice arena is: a building that houses an ice plant, for example. Now think about ice plants, which tend to produce heat as a byproduct of their basic operation. Suddenly you are no longer building an arena but a building that houses an ice plant to make the ice rink but also produces heat. Allow your thinking to expand further. What might this heat (which is free since you are paying to operate the ice plant anyway) be used for? How about redistributing this free heat to warm a greenhouse during Alberta’s winter months? A few phone calls can confirm if this is possible (it is), so now you are looking for funding for a building that houses an ice plant that produces ice in the rink AND heat for an attached greenhouse. And so on.
At the end of this project, step back and consider the number of “mini projects” (or fundable assets) that you have generated during your journey down this rabbit hole: (i) a building, (ii) an ice plant, and (iii) a greenhouse (to keep it simple for now). So, instead of looking for funding for an ice arena, you are now looking for funding for a building that provides recreation to the community and can also house a community garden or small business that is looking to take advantage of the specialized produce market that is growing rapidly in Alberta.
Engaging a systems approach to funding opens up insights into what a project can be (as distinct from is) while simultaneously generating additional sources of potential funding and increasing your chance for success.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us for assistance with your funding/grant needs. Please email me at k.dyer@albertacounsel.com