Scoping Statement and Purpose

The Fiscal Agency initiative—evolving into a long-term Grassroots Community Partnership model—redefines traditional fiscal sponsorship by moving away from top-down administrative oversight toward reciprocal, capacity-building relationships. Through partnerships backed by municipal and provincial grants, CFRAC serves as a supportive intermediary that handles financial governance and compliance while ensuring grassroots collectives retain full operational and creative control. In 2023–2024 alone, CFRAC administered over $164,660 in project-based funding, expanding through 2024–2026 to incorporate the City of Edmonton’s Community Safety and Well-Being Grant alongside systemic refinements and ecosystem mapping.

“We are exploring the system of fiscal agency partnerships whose stated purpose is to engage grassroots organizations’ anti-racism initiatives into the larger ecosystem of anti-racism work. This work targets institutional policies, procedures, and norms through capacity building, equity audits, and transitioning fiscal agency from a transactional mechanism to a relational partnership.”

Alignment with CFRAC: Emerging from the 2023–2024 Systems Innovation Approach to Anti-Racism project, this initiative directly supports CFRAC’s strategic mission to dismantle power imbalances in non-profit funding ecosystems. By providing essential financial, administrative, and developmental backing, CFRAC enables grassroots and unincorporated community leaders to direct their own programs with autonomy while embedding their initiatives into Edmonton’s broader anti-racism movement.

Funder Grassroot Projects and Initatives:

• Generational Society – EmpowerHub: Closed the digital divide by providing BIPOC community members with free computer and internet access alongside digital literacy and anti-racism workshops.
• Generational Society – Waano Mentorship Program: Offered culturally grounded mentorship for racialized youth, centering mental wellness, leadership, and personal empowerment.
• Step Up Anti-Racism Youth Workshops: Facilitated youth-led creative learning, activism, and storytelling sessions to equip young people to confront racism.
• StandinGirls Anti-Racism Project: Delivered a bilingual mentorship and cultural empowerment initiative tailored to Francophone Black girls and young mothers through intergenerational dialogue.
• Feed the Soul YEG – Culinary Digital Strategy & Visibility Program: Advanced economic equity by expanding the digital reach, storytelling, and sustainability of Black-owned culinary businesses in Edmonton.
• Edmonton Urban Choir – Community Choir Program: Promoted healing, representation, and multicultural connection through inclusive choral performances.
• Aiya Collective – Chinatown Care Package Project: Countered anti-Asian racism and preserved cultural heritage through mutual aid care packages and community education in Edmonton’s Chinatown.
• Christophe Danumah – Anti-Racism Education & Community Activation: Facilitated community storytelling and educational workshops to foster intercultural dialogue and collective healing.
• Black Owned Makers Inc. – Culinary Justice and Storytelling Program: Uplifted Black food entrepreneurs and addressed systemic barriers in the culinary industry through branding, storytelling, and community events.
• Anna Ouedraogo – Elders Engagement for Cultural Continuity: Hosted storytelling circles connecting Black youth with community Elders to preserve ancestral knowledge and advance anti-racism.
• Ama Dogbefou – Cultural Expression & Racial Justice Project: Utilized performance art and community dialogues to confront anti-Black racism and encourage intercultural understanding.
• Salamane Yameogo – Francophone Youth Anti-Racism Leadership Initiative: Equipped Francophone African youth with civic engagement tools and leadership development through bilingual workshops.
• Community of Care – Healing Justice and Anti-Oppression Initiative: Provided trauma-informed healing spaces, peer support circles, and education for racialized individuals navigating systemic harm.
• Maskwa Medicine – Building Your Bundles (2-Year Project): Created dedicated community spaces to engage with Indigenous ways of knowing, cultural learning, and healing circles.

Further Exploration

CFRAC is committed to expanding this initiative by securing sustained funding to offer structured capacity building and administrative support to emerging organizations and individuals receiving municipal grants. Moving forward, the team will continue refining the model from a transactional fiscal intermediary into a deeply relational partnership framework, establishing permanent governance supports and strengthening the collective infrastructure of grassroots anti-racism movements across Edmonton.

As we have navigated a relationship first way of operating we have have had bumps along the way and have navigated conflict and rupture through that same lense. And as we keep developing and growing our capacity we also continue to learn with each relation that we are fortifying.

Funder