Deadline: 20-Jan-23
The Alberta Ecotrust Foundation is now accepting Expressions of Interests (EOIs) for the 2023 Environmental Impact Grant program.
Alberta Ecotrust Foundation’s Environmental Impact Grant funds initiatives across Alberta in support of their charitable purpose and vision of healthy ecosystems for all Albertans. Throughout the history of the program they’ve supported a diverse range of initiatives and programs, from identifying key biodiversity and conservation areas in Alberta, to engaging Albertans on the issues of climate change and energy transition, to supporting ecological restoration work on farms, creeks, and landscapes across the province. And many, many other important environmental initiatives over the last 30 years.
The 2023 Environmental Impact Grant reflects the recent refreshing of Alberta Ecotrust Foundation’s integrated program framework and responds to the urgency of both the biodiversity and climate crises as well as advancing the circular economy. It is because of these challenges that they offer funding to a variety of organisations doing important work in Alberta.
Focus Areas
- Nature-based Solutions & Conservation
- Initiatives deploying Nature-based solutions (NbS) for the purposes of measurable and attributable carbon sequestration and ecosystem services.
- Initiatives that advance community led climate, water quality/conservation and biodiversity solutions that protect key ecosystems.
- Initiatives that improve understanding of agriculture’s role in NbS and decarbonization pathways.
- Climate Resilience & Emissions Reductions
- Initiatives that advance emission reduction strategies that can be attributed to municipal or community GHG emissions including Nature-based solutions.
- Initiatives that advance low carbon resilience – resulting in emission reductions while also adapting to climate change and improving community resilience.
- Circular Economy
- Initiatives that enhance the knowledge and understanding, or ability for communities to engage in circular economy activities.
- Initiatives that accelerate the transition to a circular economy.
- Overarching or Foundational
- Justice/equity
- Initiatives that address environmental justice and its role in achieving environmental outcomes.
- Initiatives that address the lack of access for marginalised, under-represented groups in achieving environmental outcomes.
- Monitoring
- Initiatives that strengthen the overall capacity of land and water leaders and stewards.
- Initiatives to undertake and improve monitoring, measurement, and reporting plans (e.g. water or biodiversity monitoring).
- Financial
- Initiatives that value ecosystem services and the monetization of environmental attributes
- Initiatives that facilitate sustainable conservation financing to sustain Indigenous stewardship of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) through research, policy and capacity building.
- Initiatives that explore financing mechanisms for Nature-based Solutions.
- Justice/equity
Funding Information
- In 2023, a total funding envelope of $550,000 is available. Applicants can request up to $50,000 in funding, or request less than the full amount.
- Alberta Ecotrust Foundation will consider disbursing up to $100,000 to multiple groups in partnership on a high impact initiative.
Eligible Activities
- To be eligible for funding, initiatives must:
- Address at minimum one focus area and challenge statement
- Have a minimum of 20% matching funds
- Can be cash or in-kind
- Can have multiple sources of matching funds
- Non-cash contributions, such as salaries, can be used as matching funds provided they are an auditable expense
- Initiative end date is a maximum of 24 months after the start date (proposals for shorter initiatives are also accepted)
- Education initiatives must link to a broader strategy, align with a theory of change, or demonstrate a measurable impact.
- Address at minimum one focus area and challenge statement
Ineligible Activities
- The following initiatives are ineligible for the Environmental Impact Grant:
- Education focused initiatives that do not link to a challenge statement within the focus areas or fail to link to a broader strategy, align with a theory of change, or demonstrate a measurable impact.
- Projects focused on greenhouse gas emission reductions in Calgary or Edmonton that would qualify for the Climate Innovation Grant.
- Single, one-off, roof-top microgeneration, technology installations, building retrofits or new building initiatives without an accompanying approach to scaling up across a demographic or sector.
- Regranting.
- Conference sponsorship.
- Community Gardens.
- Alberta Ecotrust recognizes that advocacy is an important function of the voluntary sector and supports activities focused on the good of the public and commons. However, they will not support or fund an initiative that targets or impugns the reputation of any individual, organisation, or sector.
- he Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) made changes to the rules governing the political activities of charities. The CRA has lifted the quantitative limits specified in the Income Tax Act that a charity can only devote a limited portion of its resources (generally, about 10%) to non-partisan political activities that are ancillary and incidental to its charitable purposes. This is good news for charities and allows them to participate more fully in the democratic process of contributing to and improving public policy.
- However, the rules prohibiting charitable organisations from devoting any part of their resources to the direct or indirect support of, or opposition to, a political party or candidate for public office remain in effect. Like all registered charities, Alberta Ecotrust Foundation (AEF) is subject to these restrictions. This includes any political activity they undertake theirselves directly, or those activities they indirectly support by providing grants. As such, any initiatives that undertake this type of activity will be ineligible for an Alberta Ecotrust grant.
Eligibility Criteria
- The following are eligible recipients of the Environmental Impact Grant:
- Registered charities
- Nonprofit organisations
- Band Councils; Tribal Councils, Tribal Associations or Tribal Governments; and Organisations of Indigenous communities across Alberta
- Note: Organisations are able to submit more than one initiative at the EOI stage, but only one full application will be accepted.
Ineligible
- Private sector, or for-profit organisations
- Individuals
- Political parties
- Municipalities, the Government of Alberta and provincial agencies, academia, for-profit and private sector entities can be eligible provided they partner with a charitable and/or nonprofit organisation who acts as the lead proponent for the initiative.
For more information, visit Alberta Ecotrust Foundation.