The beginning of the year brought an opportunity for many organizations, including CCVO, to once again gather safely in person.  We wasted no time bringing our community together with a sold-out gathering in the magnificent Carya Community Commons to welcome and meet our newly elected Mayor Gondek and members of City Council and to introduce them to the exceptional leaders in Calgary’s nonprofit sector.   We were also thrilled to convene leaders across the province with the launch of our inaugural Alberta Leaders’ Summit in November.  This sold-out gathering brought 150 nonprofit, government and private sector leaders from across Alberta converge in Edmonton at the Jubilee Auditorium to discuss the impacts of the past years and collectively envision the future. We are looking forward to our next summit in 2024!  

The calendar year drew to a close with the recognition of some of our most remarkable leaders at our CCVO Queen’s Platinum Jubilee medal ceremony.  We were deeply honoured to stand among these inspiring leaders!  In the spring we gathered once again for another packed event at the Grand Theatre to welcome and Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley, in the lead up to the 2023 Provincial Election, as she shared her vision for our sector and maintained the momentum by hosting UCP Leader and now Premier Danielle Smith in an online discussion to talk about what matters most to Alberta’s nonprofits.  These standout events were woven together through our year-long Nonprofit Connections speaker series where we presented distinguished voices from across our province covering subjects such as the Provincial budget, anti-racism and volunteering, advocacy, and the nonprofit workforce.   

A heartfelt thank you goes out to all those who participated both in person and virtually throughout the year, engaging with our events and communities of practice centered around human resources, evaluation, and communication. It has been a true pleasure to finally meet many of you face-to-face for the first time.  We eagerly look forward to continuing to meet and to learn about your priorities and your impact in the work that you do. 

For the many nonprofit advocates across Alberta, this year carried particular significance due to the highly contested Provincial election.  For CCVO, this meant placing a high priority on ensuring the needs of Alberta’s nonprofits were heard, understood, and valued by all political parties.  Our efforts began by establishing a foundational understanding of the impacts to our sector through the publication of our Too Essential to Fail research report.  This report reflected over two years of research and listening to you including the creation of a directory of all Alberta nonprofits to illuminate the sector’s importance and its challenges stemming from the pandemic and inflation.  The report was launched along with a featured campaign on the Nonprofit Vote website calling for the Government of Alberta to respond with immediate supports for nonprofits.   

We took insights from this report and our call to action directly to our Provincial leaders through our “Day on the Legislature”, with support from The Nonprofit Vote and our colleagues at ABNN.  As the election date neared, we built upon this groundwork, publishing our shared Platform Priorities  and distributing them to all parties along with a public campaign advocating for nonprofit supports to be featured within their election platforms.  We were also proud supporters of the arts sector’s push for more support through a letter and text-based campaign on The Nonprofit Vote, spearheaded by the Rozsa Foundation.  To delve deeper into our advocacy journey and our efforts to amplify the voice of our essential sector, check out “The Road So Far”.   

Join us in bidding farewell to our Manager of Research Kirsten Boda, who has embarked on a maternity leave and new family adventure and extend a warm welcome to Carol Chu who joined us as our Community and Events Assistant. We are grateful for the leadership and support of the Muttart Foundation, Calgary Foundation, Suncor Energy Foundation and Government of Alberta whose investment in CCVO supports our work to create conditions for all Alberta Nonprofits to thrive. 

 On behalf of the entire Board and staff at CCVO, we thank you for all that you do each and every day!   Your work strengthens our communities, infuses them with vibrancy, and fosters compassion among us all.  We look forward to continuing to raise a strong voice to champion you and to create moments for us all to gather in thought and celebration for the year to come!