Calgary Foundation Community Building grant supports AWS in 2026
The Ability Workshop Society (AWS) is grateful to receive a Capacity Building grant from the Calgary Foundation. The application will cover most of our operating costs for 2026. We will use the grant on five initiatives:
Strategic Planning
Recruiting Skilled Members;
Website;
Sustainable Business Model; and,
Seeking Strategic Partners.
Strategic Planning
We conducted several comprehensive Strategic Planning sessions in January and March.
Key outcomes were:
strategic priorities for the next three years;
assignment of board member responsibilities and secondary support.
a shop space team was named and given the mandate to focus on future shop space options.
Recruiting Skilled Members
A significant number of new volunteers have been recruited, including several with skills on the administration or management side.
Website
Development of the new website is well under way and will go live in September.
Sustainable Business Model
Three AWS participants were sponsored by the Calgary Foundation in the Spring 2026 Thriving Non-Profits Cohort Program.
The intent of the program is to provide non-profit organizations with both an understanding of the risk of dependence on grants and donations, and some knowledge and tools to develop sources of income that will enable both sustainability and growth potential. We are now implementing learnings from that course.
Strategic Partners
Future work to be done.
Impact of Changes
We are making major changes to our historic business model and the culture it has nurtured.
Our primary focus has always been one-of-a-kind solutions to facilitate daily living to individuals with disabilities at a very reasonable cost.
Conflicts between our mission and new initiatives are difficult hurdles to overcome; however, the Board is doing their best to find solutions and implement appropriate change that ultimately benefit our maker volunteers, and ensure the continuation of our operation.
