This is part of a series examining how local non-profits are doing since changes to the way the city handles grant funding came into effect this year.
The St. Albert Bereavement Fellowship is making a plea for help to the community, after facing severe cuts to a significant grant it receives from the city.
After city council approved changes to St. Albert’s outside agency operating grant program last year – which provides “keeping the lights on” money to local non-profits – the fellowship saw its funding cut 39 per cent, from $9,000 in 2018 to $5,472 this year.
The grant program was altered in order to improve transparency in the process, eliminating an invite-only system that saw the same groups invited to the table each year, and reducing a perceived duplication in funding with other city grant programs.
St. Albert Bereavement Fellowship past-president Faye Tkachuk said the fellowship will get by until the end of the year, thanks to generous donations by members of the public.
“We’ve struggled but we’ve made it thanks to the community,” she said. “We have scratched and saved and with the donations we should be OK until December. January 1 is another story.”
Tkachuk added the donations were on a one-time basis, with no guarantees for the 2020 funding year.
The outside agency grant program sets a pot of $9 per capita each year and divvies the money up based on recommendations by the community services advisory board (CSAB), with city council making the ultimate decisions. Overall, the changes resulted in a $14,700 increase in the fund, from $580,069 last year to $594,700 this year.
It has been a challenging year for funding, Tkachuk said, since the fellowship has seen donation reductions elsewhere as well.
The fellowship has its belt tightened pretty far to begin with. Having no part- or full-time staff, its only staffing costs include contractors for web design and a facilitator, along with honorariums to pay professional speakers for meetings.
“We’ve taken very stringent measures to make sure we are able to function. We have functioned, let’s put it that way ... and thanks to some very tight budgeting been able to make it. Are we rolling in it? No, of course not.”
While operating with less funding, the St. Albert Bereavement Fellowship has also seen increased interest from the community, which Tkachuk said puts further financial strain on the fellowship and its volunteers. Tkachuk said on average they are seeing about seven new people at each meeting held at Red Willow Place.
Tkachuk said she hopes the fellowship is successful in its outside operating agency grant application for 2020, adding not having any funding at all would be a “big black bruise.”
“We are hoping we will be successful, and the community steps up again this year,” she said. “We’ve been there for 32 years for them, and we’d love to be around for the next 32 years.”
