EFC Strategic Compass (2026-2030)

Standing on the banks of a river, you learn quickly that the water never flows the same way twice. The lesson isn’t to memorize where the rocks were yesterday, but to read the current as it is today — its depth, its pace, the unseen eddies.

We are operating in a landscape defined by rapid ecological change, political volatility, social polarization, and a fast-evolving information environment shaped by mistrust. None of these forces move in isolation, and none of them are static. Each day requires us to read the river and act in ways that are meaningful and not reactive. Trying to navigate this moment with a fixed map would give us the comfort of certainty, but not the capacity to move well.

That’s why Environment Funders Canada has chosen a Strategic Compass (2026–2030) rather than a rigid plan.

A compass doesn’t tell you every step to take. It gives you orientation. It allows for adaptation without losing direction. It helps you move with confidence even when conditions inevitably change.

Our North Star is clear: a future where environmental funders act as a courageous, connected force, working on root causes, shifting systems, and supporting solutions that are durable, widely supported, and grounded in Indigenous sovereignty and economic models that best serve people and nature.

As a network, we are increasingly stepping into a navigator role — not just reacting to symptoms, but helping position environmental action within broader conversations about prosperity, wellbeing, and ecological regeneration. Trust continues to be foundational to our work as we support Indigenous-led work more meaningfully and continuously interrogate both our place of privilege and our funding practices.

Getting there requires embracing the full reality of EFC as a big tent. We call this a safe harbour in our Strategic Compass, and EFC has played this important role throughout my entire professional career in this crazy world of environmental funding.

I’ve long believed that one of EFC’s greatest strengths is our ability to hold difference without losing cohesion. At a time when many institutions are fragmenting or hardening along differences in perspective, EFC offers something rarer: a trusted place where funders with diverse points of view come together to learn, challenge one another, and build better answers.

It doesn’t mean consensus for its own sake. It means candour. It means room for disagreement. It means approaching differences of opinion with curiosity and a genuine intention to learn, and with an openness to being convinced to change our minds. It means recognizing that environmental progress isn’t owned by any one entity or approach — and that lasting solutions must intersect with the political and economic realities of our time without becoming captive to them.

It doesn’t mean pretending that the political dimensions of our work don’t exist. But it does mean remaining strictly non-partisan in accordance with CRA guidelines while having those discussions.

It doesn’t mean our Executive Director and the EFC team have to personally hold or express the moderate point of view to make everyone feel comfortable. It means they can draw on the broad vantage point that EFC holds within our movement to identify gaps, offer analysis and propose solutions that may fall anywhere on the opinion spectrum – sometimes those positions are aligned with centrist views, occasionally with conservative views, and quite often with progressive ones – so long as the EFC table is set in a way that everyone else on every part of the pro-environment spectrum is welcomed in, and invited to meaningfully engage with the EFC community.

It’s on the EFC team to set the table. It’s on all of us to engage, to be brave, and to voice our opinions even when we expect others to disagree.

Most importantly, it means we continuously show up for one another, even (especially) when we don’t agree.

We’ll know we’re on the right course if EFC continues to feel like a home for shared intention and action — and if, collectively, we see greater clarity, coordination, and confidence across environmental funding in Canada.

I know the river will keep changing—that’s a given. Whether we’re holding a canoe paddle, a fly rod, or a beach chair, I am grateful that, as members of EFC and as friends and peers, we are navigating it together.

Rod Ruff
Chair, EFC Board of Directors
President & CEO, Alberta Ecotrust Foundation

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