On Saturday, June 18, 2022, we ran our first donor thank-you event! We were excited to show our appreciation for the 100+ donations we have received in the past year and the dozens of monthly donations we receive.
Recently, we have received questions about how our funding works. So here’s a backgrounder.
- The vast majority of our funding comes from grants from organizations like the Edmonton Community Foundation, Tomorrow Foundation, Participaction, and the Youth Harbour Project. These resources help us run community events and initiatives.
- We have received some grant funding from the City of Edmonton in the past.
- As noted above, we have received donations from Edmontonians across the City too.
Proportionally speaking, grant funding from the City represents a minority of our funding. This funding has primarily been focused on specific initiatives like conferences, which support residents in learning about safer streets, and events like Open Streets in 2019, which had a focus on connecting Edmontonians with local businesses in our core.
Though we also work with the community to push for municipal policy change and infrastructure improvement, we wouldn’t frame this as “paying twice for the same expired milk” as a recent Letter to the Editor asserted.
We would say that Edmontonians have access to one, nice, cold, enjoyable glass of milk (or almond milk or oat milk or even just water or maybe beer… pick your poison) by having the opportunity to attend community events that leverage both the City and community assets efficiently.
Hopefully, this provides more information about who or what is behind Paths for People. The Author of the Letter to the Editor can reach out via our general contact form or attend our AGM where we review our financial statements with our membership to learn more.
We are also sure that, as someone who has taken the time to voice their potential concerns via a Letter to the Editor, the Author would also have opinions about how to build vibrant neighbourhoods. We are all ears! Hearing different perspectives from across our City enhances our understanding of what we can do together to reach our City goals of 15-minute communities and Vision Zero.