Community Foundation of Southeastern Alberta celebrating 30th year

By Justin Seward

Commentator/Courier

Community Foundation of Southeastern Alberta is celebrating 30 years in 2022.

The CFSEA is a registered charity which supports vibrant, healthy and caring communities across the region.

“We are currently just digging deep into the archives and trying to recognize donors of all sizes and past volunteers who have made large contributions with time, talent or treasure in supporting the Community Foundation over the last 30 years,” said Niki Gray, CFSEA acting executive director.

CFSEA’s community engagement co-ordinator Sydney Ratzlaff will be writing 30 stories of past donors and volunteers which will be available through blogs on the organization’s website and on social media in the coming months.

CFSEA will also be setting out goals throughout the year, beginning with the marketing campaign March 15 and sharing a new logo.

“We really are just highlighting the champions of the Foundation over the last 30 years,” said Gray.

Another goal for the CFSEA is to grow its monthly donors to 30 by the end of 2022.

“We are nowhere near 30,” she said.

“So, we have 100 per cent of our board and staff (who) do donate to the Community Foundation. So outside of staff, we only have one other monthly donor. So we’re trying to hopefully grow that to 30 by the end of the year.”

Gray said the board is a diverse group of community members, who are not only involved in the Community Foundation, but in other areas of interest to them and their ongoing support to the staff and the community has been incredible.

“We typically only grant twice a year, and in 2020 we were flowing funding through the Government of Alberta and the Government of Canada and our grants committee and our board were meeting weekly to determine and approve grants that were being approved by the grants committee,” said Gray. “ So the number of volunteer hours that they put in 2020 was insane. And so that was just an example of one time they had to go above and beyond their already monthly contributions of time.”

A 30th anniversary celebration will be held June 8 and will include a Founder’s Day picnic, spring grant distributions and musicians playing.

Public will be welcomed to join.

CFSEA has distributed close to $7 million in grants in 30 years to help in the communities it serves.

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