(WOOD BUFFALO, AB) May 24, 2019 — Major players in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo’s social profit sector are making a fundamental change to how they work together and serve the community. United Way Fort McMurray and Wood Buffalo, the Wood Buffalo Community Foundation and FuseSocial have formalized a working relationship to minimize duplication of effort and generate shared impact. This new collaborative approach will not only strengthen the individual agencies and the sector – but the community as a whole.
“Our mission remains to engage individuals and mobilize collective action to benefit our community,” noted Cecilia Mutch, Executive Director of the United Way Fort McMurray and Wood Buffalo. “By formalizing and defining our relationships with the rest of the sector we’ll be able to maximize our impacts, and give our partners support to make the most positive impact on the community.”
FuseSocial’s Executive Director Chantal Beaver noted that “We’ve always believed that a thriving Wood Buffalo is tied to strong social profit organizations. The more agencies who join in, the more remarkable this new relationship will help us all become.”
In fall of 2018, the three agencies announced their intent to collaborate on a shared strategy to help the community. In February a Request for Proposal was announced, and in March the Collaboration selected Capacity Canada to lead this process.
Capacity Canada is a national charity based in Waterloo, Ontario. It specializes in helping charities and social profits strengthen their leadership & governance by measuring performance against objectives – building their capacity to enact positive change. Capacity Canada’s relationship with local agencies goes back a decade, and intensified after the May 2016 fires.
“I’m proud that we were selected to support this evolution, but the real credit goes to the local agencies who saw an opportunity and had the courage to pursue it,” said Cathy Brothers, CEO of Capacity Canada. “If this was easy or common, it wouldn’t be newsworthy. Their leadership deserves recognition.”
“This Collaboration is not a project with an end-date,” said Tony Mankowski, board member with the Wood Buffalo Community Foundation. “This is an evolution in how we knit our social fabric. We will identify shared priorities and help community members and agencies engage in collaboratively taking action on those priorities. We will collect and share our progress in meeting these priorities.”
“Everyone in our sector wants a more resilient, more prosperous community,” noted Mutch.
“This Collaborative is a microcosm of the ‘Think Local, Act Global’ approach for our community,” added Beaver.
For more information, contact:
Cathy Brothers, CEO
Capacity Canada
866-317-1992 x1 [email protected]
Cecilia Mutch, Executive Director
United Way For McMurray and Wood Buffalo
780-791-0077 [email protected]
Chantal Beaver, Executive Director
FuseSocial
780-791-9333 [email protected]
