Scoping Statement & Purpose

“ As a coalition of equity-seeking social justice organizations, we are exploring the future of systems of accountability over the next 10 years. We are redesigning our own practices to center community and create the conditions for a radical culture of accountability. Through this work, we aim to build a movement of social justice organizations shaped by mutual accountability to those most impacted by inequity.”

The project connects directly to CFRAC’s mandate to move beyond one-off, transactional training workshops and toward long-term systemic culture shifts. It addresses root causes of systemic exclusion by shifting non-profit operations from “upward” accountability (focused solely on funders and boards) to reciprocal, relational accountability rooted in community trust.

Key Activities

Through this project, CFRAC is working with the community to:

• Redesigning Accountability Flows: Transforming accountability structures from legalistic compliance into reciprocal community responsibility and public, community-centered progress reporting.
• Three Horizons Strategic Framework: Facilitating collaborative sessions (including full-day in-person and half-day virtual sessions) to map current status quo tensions (Horizon 1), transition pathways and generative “What If” questions (Horizon 2), and aspirational 10-year systemic visions (Horizon 3).
• Minimum Viable System (MVS) Experiments: Designing and testing small-scale, 6–12 week systemic experiments to pilot alternative workflows, power-sharing models, and resource flows before scaling.
• Non-Transactional Engagement Methods: Utilizing Truth and Reconciliation–inspired Sharing Circles for qualitative learning, arts-based practices to conceptualize complex systemic ideas, and individual 1-on-1 Co-Design Conversations with organizational leadership.
• Equitable Resource & Knowledge Infrastructure: Allocating funds and resources to participating organizations to resource carrying out their experiments, onboarding partners to a shared Notion knowledge-management hub, and working to dismantle systemic policy barriers across Edmonton’s social justice ecosystem.

Learnings from the Project

As participants developed and activated their individual experiments, the Minimum Viable System (MVS) methodology proved essential in providing a safe, practical testing ground to envision and practice what accountability actually looks like in daily operations. Engaging in these small-scale tests helped teams understand how both staff and community feedback directly shape organizational practices, uncovering previously unrealized possibilities and practical opportunities for systems change within their existing work.

Partners

Active Partners include: HIV Edmonton, Pride Centre of Edmonton, Gateway Association, Alberta Council for Global Cooperation and Create|Act.

Funders