Erin Peden, executive director of the CFCAB. (rdnewsNOW/Ashley Lavallee-Koenig)

By Ashley Lavallee-Koenig

COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF CENTRAL ALBERTA

Red Deer and District Community Foundation announces new name and new look

Jun 12, 2024 | 12:09 PM

The Red Deer and District Community Foundation (RDDCF) will become the Community Foundation of Central Alberta (CFCAB); it announced the new name, a new logo, and appointed new board members at its annual general meeting.

On June 12, community members and members of the newly named CFCAB broke bread at the Pidherney Centre over breakfast as the name and logo were announced, and the foundation celebrated their 35th anniversary.

“We wanted to ensure that all of the communities in this catchment area feel like we represent them as closely as we do the community that we are housed in, so it was a make sense move for us,” said Erin Peden, executive director of the CFCAB, “not only in terms of accurate representation of our district, but also because what we need people to hear first is that we are a community foundation and that we are here for the community, we are owned by the community, and our granting decisions are determined by the community.”

The name change was accompanied by a logo change, which may be a simple circle, but represents the foundation’s larger themes of coming together and moving with communities. Residents will see the branding slowly change over the coming months, with the transition expected to be completed in January 2025.

In addition to the branding announcements, the CFCAB introduced and added four new directors to its board: Austin Janes, Dan McPherson, Martin Palinda, and Greg Shea.

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In 2014, the foundation had an operational deficit of $88,000. By the end of 2023, they were sitting at a surplus of about $577,000. In 2023, the CFCAB distributed more than $1.8 million dollars, and they ended the year with $19.2 million in assets.

“What we do as a community foundation is based in relationships, support, and a desire to understand. Relationships and vulnerability, those are the currencies exchanged before any monetary currency is,” said VandenBrink.

VandenBrink has been with the foundation for about eight years, a journey that began when she received a Women of Excellence award from the foundation and was eager to learn more about them. She said that although there have been changes to operations, and to the ways in which they give, the core of the foundation has remained the same.

Peden added, “In the last couple of years, we’ve really recognized that we can support the community in more than just dollars and cents. We can support with financial literacy, we can support with our endowment tools, we can support with our knowledge of where the funding gaps are. We act as kind of the in-between place between philanthropists and the causes that really matter to them.”

Looking forward, the foundation intends to release a catalogue for businesses interested in sponsorship opportunities and charities looking for funds. They expect it to be released in the fall of 2024.

The foundation will also be offering microgrants to non-profits in surrounding rural communities.

“That will provide opportunity for us to really know these communities, know who is doing what for services within these communities, and how we can better financially support them,” Peden said.

Alberta has nearly 30,000 non-profit and charitable organizations, which Peden says is the highest per capita concentration in Canada.

READ MORE:

• Community Foundation revamps Microgrant Program, finds bigger home
• Youth in Philanthropy program gets kids thinking about how to help community

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