Introduction: Turning my Vision into Reality

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In a landscape where small businesses often struggle to secure the funding they need to drive innovation, Funding Futures emerged as a bold new initiative that few believed in at first. But I saw its potential clearly. This project was designed to unlock opportunities for small businesses across Alberta by providing capital to support groundbreaking advancements in Agri-Tech, Energy Transition, and Social Impact.

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The mission was simple: fuel the ingenuity of local businesses, help them overcome financial barriers, and create lasting change within our communities. Despite initial skepticism, Funding Futures has already proven its worth, awarding $30,000 across three categories and propelling businesses that are shaping the future of Alberta. What began as an idea has become a powerful catalyst for innovation, and the results speak for themselves.

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By investing in the future today, Funding Futures is building a resilient, forward-thinking business ecosystem that will benefit Alberta for years to come.

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Target Audience & Strategic Alignment

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Target Audience

My primary focus for Funding Futures was on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Alberta, specifically those with 4 to 20 employees and annual revenues between $250,000 and $3,000,000. This demographic, identified  Small Business team target audience, representing a critical segment for FY24.

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The initiative particularly engaged businesses within the Agri-Tech, Energy Transition, and Social Impact sectors—industries recognized by our leadership as key drivers of economic growth in our province. By fostering innovation within these sectors, the goal was to catalyze both local and regional development.

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In addition, a goal was to build partnerships with post-secondary institutions, think tanks, local chambers, and city departments that are dedicated to advancing small business innovation. Through these collaborations, we were able to expand the reach of Funding Futures and ensure that Alberta’s most promising SMEs have access to the resources they needed to thrive.

 

Business Plan Alignment

The Funding Futures initiative was fully aligned with the three strategic pillars of our business plan: Differentiate, Expand, and Transform. As we continued to offer a distinctive banking experience that set us apart from competitors, Funding Futures enhanced our capacity to expand by investing directly in the communities we serve.

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This initiative also reinforced our commitment to transformation, positioning the credit union as a center of excellence for business banking a five year plan. While not originally included in the 2023 Business Plan, I was able to advocate budget to launch the pilot and begin building a platform for long-term growth.

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Measurements of Success

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Business Acquisition: Product Offering + build book of business 

• Number of Business unlimited accounts opened. 

• Number of appointments booked.

• Number of winners who are existing members vs become new members.  

• Number of meetings had with each winner during the 12 months.

• Number of members who buy additional products or services.

 

 Brand Engagement & Brand Awareness: Deepen our connection with our membership and within our communities:

• Number of applicants.

• Number of click rates on the contest website. 

• Number of companies who apply.   

• Number different regions that applications come from.

• Number of e-comms that go out recognizing us. 

• Traditional and social media coverage 

 

 Brand Affiliation & Brand Engagement.

• Social listening and media analysis:  internal and external, pre/during/post financial award

• Number of community partners involved.

• Number of judging panel members

• Number of ELT, senior leadership, LOB engaged.

 

Additional Engagement Metric:

• Survey to all applicants on what products and services they would like to see us explore offering in the future to help their businesses grow. This metrics for this would be.

  • How many applicants filled out the survey.

  • How many applicants know the business banking products and services we currently offer.

  • How many applicants bank with us vs do not bank with us

  • Insights on what businesses want from a bank to help their businesses grow.

• Survey to all judges on how the Funding Futures initiative. Metrics could be.

  • How many complete survey

  • Insights on what we did right and what we can implement for Year 2

  • Suggestions on who should be part of the judging panel for Year 2

  • Insights on how these thought leaders would like to see us being present in the Agri-tech, energy transition and social impact spaces moving forward.

  • Insights on how we can support business banking better moving forward i.e., products, services, partnerships.

• Offer incentive for applicants to fill in survey i.e., Chance to win a gift card 

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