Page 8 - ECF-Thrive-March-Spring-2025-flipbook

“Traditionally, animal welfare
focuses so much on the
animal that the human
element of that was forgotten
a little bit.”
— Leanne Niblock
8 Together we thrive
8 Together we thrive
To better understand that complex system, and how the Alberta
SPCA could best support the animal welfare community going
forward, Niblock wanted the organization to take a step back from its
day-to-day work, to consider bigger questions about its future.
“The team here really wanted to look at how we might address the
root causes of the problems that the animal welfare community is
seeing in the province,” she explains.
In 2024, thanks to support from Edmonton Community
Foundation (ECF), the team at the Alberta SPCA was able to do
exactly that. It completed a strategic planning process, gathering
insight and feedback from others in the animal welfare community to
identify priorities and how the organization could adapt its offerings
to respond to growing needs. At the end of the process, it produced a
four-year strategic plan to guide the organization going forward.
“Collecting input and conducting research to guide an
organization’s mission is crucial,” says Melisa Zapisocky, ECF’s Grants
Associate. “It can also be expensive to do properly. Many charities
face a tough choice — investing time and money into developing a
strategic plan or using those resources to deliver their services.”
This was the quandary the Alberta SPCA found itself in.
“Often, non-profits can’t do this kind of work, because we’re
spending so much money on the care of animals,” says Niblock.
“Which is what we should be doing, of course, but to be able to ask
the bigger questions is so valuable.”
Through this process, the Alberta SPCA team also gained insight
into the factors that might lead a person to neglect animals. Because
of the interconnected nature of individual, animal and community
well-being, the SPCA would have to support both human and animal