Non-profits launch campaign for stable funding sources
By Troy Bannerman - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on February 9, 2023.
Many non-profit organizations in our community are struggling to find the funds that allow them to function. And many of non-profits provide services that cannot be found in other organizations within the community.One of those is Volunteer Lethbridge and Amanda Jensen, the executive director, described her organization in a recent interview.
“Volunteer Lethbridge is a non-profit leadership centre for our community. And what that means is we do a few things. Of course what we are most known for is matching volunteers in our community to opportunities offered by our non-profit member organizations. We also provide training and capacity building opportunities to help organizations learn and be able to share with each other. Another pillar of what we do is we convene conversations that matter. So, you will see Volunteer Lethbridge being involved in things like; equity, diversity, and inclusion conversations, or poverty reduction, ect. And the last pillar of what we do right now is advocate for the sector.”
In advocating for the non-profit sector, Jensen noted, “that is something that is of course, very top of mind right now as we head into a provincial election. And so, Volunteer Lethbridge has partnered with other organizations across the province in a campaign call ‘Non Profit Get Out to Vote,'” she said.
Jensen said two years of research has gone into a report telling where the non-profit sector is at and “that we’re struggling while other sectors are starting to come out and to recover. That’s not happening for non-profits. And generally the reason is there is an increased demand for non-profit services and there are decreasing stable, long-term funding sources for our work. Which really puts us into grants cycles and doesn’t allow us to work on our missions.”
Jensen added “this report that was generated over the last two years across the province is being used now to say, ‘OK, what are the top five priorities that nonprofits across the province need so that we can be uniform in our requests of our candidates as we go into the election?’ So, I’ll tell you the two that we asked for off the top, which are most important are: an immediate $30 million injection out of the current provincial budget, probably administered through current grant contracts so that it can be done quickly. It’s for non-profit organizations.
“How to get it out there quickly might be to address those who already have contracts with the province in order to not create more red tape right before the budget swings over to the new year and also to address inflation and other rising costs that their current grant holds already have or are already experiencing. The other thing we’ve asked for is $100 million per year for the next three years to be put into what we are tentatively calling a Community Prosperity Fund. Which would be used to address what I’ve mentioned; the rising costs of providing services, the rising demand, and the decrease in stability around funding.”
In addressing operating a nonprofit in our community, Jensen noted, “I think the City of Lethbridge is involved with a number of non-profit organizations through operational grants or fee for service agreements which is critical for those organizations to keep going. So I’m certainly grateful for those organizations to have that support from their municipality. I think one thing we can look at is how to make it easy for collaboration for non profit organizations. The sharing of resources, the sharing of ideas, and one of those things might be to create a non profit leadership hub, which is something that Volunteer Lethbridge is very interested in, where by we could co-locate and, again, share resources, share services models, attract leasehold rates.
“So, as we as Volunteer Lethbridge, explore this to a greater degree I think there will be a lot of opportunity for the City of Lethbridge to be involved as a potential co-creator, a supporter. Which could be through land or capital, and or things like operating grants. So, there are many ways that the City of Lethbridge can continue their support to non profits in our community.”
“I think the number one step,” Jensen concluded, “as we embark on this is a, I hesitate to use the word, ‘feasibility study’ because I don’t want to make it sound like it’s too big. But we need to go to our non-profits and take the temperature, and see what they want, what they would use, what they’re interested in and co-build something that works for the community and not just led by one organization or municipality et cetera. So, that will be the integral next step.” 2
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