What is the Collaborative Granting Process (CGP)?


The objective of CGP is to prioritize investment in community-driven projects that build on existing strengths or address high-priority needs and service gaps in Edmonton’s urban Aboriginal community.

The goals of the Collaborative Granting Process are to bring community expertise to:

  • Identify areas of high priority and/or unmet need;
  • Identify barriers to build community capacity and identified gaps in service;
  • Inform the development and prioritization of the programs necessary to respond to service gaps and to overcome barriers to timely, fair and culturally appropriate services to the Aboriginal community; and,
  • Provide funders with community-driven project recommendations that will serve to assure them of the community’s support for projects that meet its needs.


The benefits associated with the collaborative granting process include:

  • Attracting additional funds to support community projects;
  • Providing strategic planning opportunities to assist the community in establishing and monitoring its priorities;
  • Improving opportunities for collaborations; and
  • Increasing exposure of project proposals to multiple funders without increasing resource demands


While the Wicihitowin Circle is not a funder, by facilitating the Collaborative Granting Process it works to bring potential funders together with applicants for the benefit of Edmonton’s Aboriginal community.

The Collaborative Granting Process was first launched in May 2009 with the intent to improve with each Cycle. The Wicihitowin Circle will undertake an evaluation process upon completion of Cycle 2 with feedback from CGP applicants, participating funders, and other community entities serving Edmonton’s Aboriginal community. The Wicihitowin Circle is interested in hearing about your experience and how we can improve the process.

While a formal evaluation of cycle 1 did not occur, improvements have been made to subsequent Cycles based on feedback received from the Resource Partner Circle, the Action Circles, the Proposal Ranking Committee, the Wicihitowin Circle, and the applicants:

The following are the key areas identified by the Resource Partner Circle, the Action Circles, the Wicihitowin Secretariat and the Wicihitowin Circle:

  • Develop a document that clearly articulates the objectives, goals, priorities and roles around Collaborative Granting.
  • Provide applicants with information on which funding organizations are participating.
  • Provide timely and consistent communication with applicants at every stage of the process.
  • Revise the proposal application form to clearly identify expected funding contributions.
  • Have applicants identify a primary and secondary priority only as opposed to several.
  • Develop an Action Circle process to better align community priorities with funding priorities.
  • Clearly identify the members of the Action Circle who are ranking the project proposals.
  • Provide proposal development support.
  • The proposal ranking committee must review all of the proposals to identify partnership opportunities and identify which proposals go to which Action Circle for ranking.
  • The proposal ranking committee and Action Circle ranking process must clearly identify why a proposal is ranked high or low.
  • Copy the potential funder on the letters to applicants.
  • Evaluation focused on the applicant experience and how it can be improved.

 

History

In 2008, the Wicihitowin Circle became the Steering Committee for the Edmonton Urban Aboriginal Strategy and the Collaborative Granting Process was developed to assist Wicihitowin Circle in prioritizing funders’ investments in community-driven projects that align with the Wicihitowin community plan.

Edmonton's Urban Aboriginal Strategy

The Urban Aboriginal Strategy (UAS) is a community-based, five-year initiative funded by the Office of the Federal Interlocutor which aims to improve the social and economic opportunities of Aboriginal people living in designated urban centres.

 

Collaborative Granting Process

Contributions from the Urban Aboriginal Strategy (UAS) Project funding, combined with additional funds leveraged through contributions from other funders are made available to the Resource Partner Circle for alignment and recommended fiduciary distribution in assisting to address the Wicihitowin Community Plan Priorities. The Resource Partner Circle is comprised of representatives from each of the contributing funders participating in that particular granting Cycle.

The delivery of the UAS initiative in Edmonton is carried out in collaboration with the Office of the Federal Interlocutor who provides Wicihitowin Circle with funding to support the on-going operation and facilitation of the “Collaborative Granting Process” project. Projects submitted to the CGP that align and respond to community priorities, as identified in the Wicihitowin Community Plan, and advance UAS / Funder mandates are selected for funding at the Resource Partners Circle meetings.

Project funding is provided directly to eligible applicants through contribution arrangements between the Applicant and the funder. Contribution arrangements are conditional transfer payments for a specified purpose that must be accounted for and are subject to audit. Recipients are required to provide reports, as specified in their specific Funding Arrangement.

It should be expected that some projects may not be successful in receiving funding through the Collaborative Granting Process. Factors which may preclude agencies from full acceptance may include: limited funding available, project idea did not fit funding program requirements, operating funds or infrastructure was not in place, funder(s) were concerned about the organizational capacity of the applicant and/or the project idea needed to be further developed.