Journeying Together: Edmonton Community Foundation
Edmonton Community Foundation (ECF) is an endowment-based philanthropic organization and strategic and collaborative funder that makes it possible for the people of Edmonton to reinvest in their community and charitable activities. It is a unique funder in that it has no specific granting pillars, and supports the entire charitable sector.
About five years ago, the organization posed the question: “What would happen if we could dedicate some resources to a very narrow focus area and fund it intensively?” It led to the development of Edmonton Shift Lab, a social innovation project in partnership with Skills Society Action Lab, working to shift attitudes, systems, and ideas to reduce racism in Edmonton.
Ashley Dryburgh is the Focus Grants Associate with ECF and, along with her team, was instrumental in creating an equity statement for ECF as part of a process facilitated by Naheyawin, the Pride Centre, and the Centre for Race & Culture. It is through this work that she has become our nitotem.
How did you become involved with Naheyawin?
ECF officially got involved when we had a Tatawaw session with Hunter and Lewis. Most recently, however, we engaged with Naheyawin to conduct our equity audit.
How has journeying with Naheyawin transformed you? As an organization? As individuals?
Well, first, it has helped us begin to answer a big question we have been asking for the past two years: “How do we know we are doing good work?”
We think we are good people, but how do we know if we are actually supporting marginalized communities, and addressing equity in the community?
That led to our hosting a series of conversations, bringing together different community members with no agenda other than to connect and form relationships. One conversation that stood out for me was one in which someone asked the question: “What should Edmonton’s response be to the issues raised by Black Lives Matter.”
We learned that many organizations that support marginalized communities are not registered charities. Because of how the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is structured, ECF can only support registered charities, so we began our “equity audit” with a policy change: If a registered charity is working in partnership with a not-for-profit that supports a marginalized community, they can get an extra opportunity to apply for support, without it hurting their chance to apply for regular funding.
We engaged Naheyawin, the Pride Centre and the Centre for Race and Culture to both hold interviews and focus groups to talk with members from their communities and get feedback to develop effective tools of support.
As a result, we have changed the way we ask questions and written an equity statement, recently approved by our board. This work has made us pause and think a little deeper about the best way we can offer support.
As an individual, I have heard from a number of different places across Canada, and, certainly, Naheyawin does this really loudly, asking “What does it mean to re-engage with a treaty relationship?”
One of the small things that has changed for me, is I’ve been challenged in land acknowledgements. Hunter wrote a beautiful one for the Edmonton International Fringe Festival this past summer, and I asked if I could use that in different contexts.
I’ve made it my challenge to not make land acknowledgements part of housekeeping and really relate it to why we are here. They need to align and relate to whatever event they precede. That is the bare minimum we can do. I hope that others pause and think more deeply about it, too. It’s about getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Where do you see this work leading you?
As an organization, it’s going to lead us to years of work. Our equity statement is just the beginning. We have many actions tied to it, and I hope it is going to make us a more equitable funder, but also inspire other organizations like us around Edmonton and across the country to do similar work.
As an individual, this work is continuing to challenge my politics and the way that I walk in the world. I have an abandoned Ph.D., focused on “whiteness” and am always getting better at all this. It’s recommitting me to doing that work.
What do you hope Canada is known for in seven generations?
A Blackfoot elder recently challenged the way I think about seven generations. He said the way we often think about seven generations is it’s you seven generations in the future.
Another way to think about it is, there are three generations behind you, three generations in front of you, and you are in the middle, between past and present.
I hope in the future, we are known for being accountable to our history, being able to acknowledge that we let a terrible time pass and that we moved forward to a better time.
