CEI has been fundraising for over 35 years.  During that period we have seen government go into a major DOWNLOADING exercise.  The name most often placed on this activity was cost cutting.  In actual fact the activities that government was doing, and the public expected them to do were actually downloaded to the private sector and NGOs.  Although we are in the environmental field where this has been extensively done it has happened in Education, Health Care, Child Care, Housing, Mental Health, Safety and numerous other areas.

This DOWNLOADING has placed pressure on all NGOs to raise the funds to conduct programs that were, not too long ago, paid for and conducted by government.  This is turn has made fundraising an extremely competitive busniess.  Competition  for the limited funds are becoming more and more fierce.   This leads to programs being cancelled and extensive burnout in the NGO community.

In 2006 the Board of Directors of CEI decided that the NGO had to become more self sufficient and depend less on donations, and grants. They put into place an agressive program of SOCIAL INITIATIVES to provide CEI with sustainable base funding. Grants and donations will be used to start some new initiatives but it was a formal decision that all new initiatives had to be self sustaining within a short time period, usually one year.  

The first part of the program was to wipe out the existing debt for CEI, this was done as follows: in 2006, Clio Smeeton, president of the Cochrane Ecological Institute, CEI, donated 20 acres of her land to the CEI. She had hoped to be able to offer two 20 acre parcels to the Charity.  This parcel of land was sold to pay off all CEI debts and to assist in putting in place 3 Social Initiatives intended to bring long-term reliable funding to the CEI. The Social Initiative are described below.

The first Social Initiative was a boarding facility for dogs and cats.   This facility also was designed to provide advanced educational opportunities when combined with CEI’s Animal Rehabilitation programs.  We started construction the dog and cat boarding kennel over the winter of 2006-2007. The kennel is now complete. We have 16 indoor-outdoor runs for the dogs and two large wooded exercise areas for social dogs to play in. The kennel building was designed and built for its purpose. The dogs have in-floor heating in their indoor runs, and each bank of indoor runs opens off the central office so that it is easyto keep and eye on the dogs and talk to those dogs who are unhappy at being left behind by their owners. Cats are not left out! Our "Cat Country Cottage" provides 11 cat boarders with a house of their own, well away from the dogs! Each boarding cat has a floor to ceiling enclosure with window views, and their own tree!

The educational portion of this relates to praticums for vet students. CEI has partnerships with several of the Wildlife Rehabilitation centres in the area and with local Vet Clinics so they can offer a fully rounded experience for vet students.   This fits in well with our mandate of injured and orphaned wildlife rehabilitation and education.  So Far in 2007 we have had one vet from the UK and one from Italy.

CEI CONSULTANCY  
Providing Advice, Technological Exchange, and Training in Environmental Management

For the past 36 years, the CEI has been working in the fields of Ecosystem Restoration, Environmental Management and Education. This experience has shown us that, in many areas, CEI’s contribution, in an advisory capacity, towards Technological Exchange and Capacity Building is valued by the people and organizations we work with. In the past this was always paid for through money raised by CEI through grants and donations, but now, with our goal of achieving sustainability for the CEI in mind, the CEI’s Consultancy has taken the provision of advice to another level. The CEI Consultancy offers highly specialized programs and services for a fee. The funds raised from the CEI ‘s Consultancy work go towards CEI’s charitable programmes. Through the CEI Consultancy, the CEI is currently working in the regulatory processes in the North West Territories, Nunavut and BC as well as programmes for the Blood Tribe in Alberta.

Two of the programs have involved aquatic systems. CEI undertook a Technological Exchange and training programme for Blood Tribe Land Management personnel on the sampling and management of dug-outs on Blood Tribal lands. In addition, also at the request of Blood tribe Administration, CEI developed software routines that collect information to assist with the management of endangered species habitat, pasture management and canid populations on Blood Tribal Lands.  The software used was CyberTracker (http://www.cybertracker.co.za/) which runs on PDA devices and is linked to the Blood Tribe Land Management GIS system for data download and analysis.

The second water related project was the formation of the Horse Creek Watershed Conservation Society. Funded by the Alberta Stewardship Network, the CEI undertook a survey of Horse Creek Watershed, a survey of landowners along the watershed, resulting in the establishment of a landowner group, Horsecreek Watershed Conservation Society, responsible for the future monitoring of Horse Creek watershed.  

VANISHING ARTIFACTS

Worldwide, skills which had value for 1,000’s of years are being lost. These skills in building, gardening,, fabric making, tool and utensil construction and design maintained vital communities as well as creating works of intrinsic beauty and practicality. The goods produced by using ancient skills and knowledge enabled their producers to live a reasonable life and did not contribute to habitat degradation. The changes brought about in the 20th century have produced laboursaving equipment, easy transport, and a plentiful food supply for the developed nations at a huge cost to the rest of the world and our environment. The CEI’s Social Initiative # 3 VANISHING ARTIFACTS is the CEI’s small attempt to reverse this trend. Working in the North and in the eastern Mediterranean we see beautiful objects produced by the indigenous peoples of these areas. The CEI believes that if a market was found and a just price paid, the communities where these objects are made could be maintained. There would be no need for economic migration and no loss of priceless skills. It is a big job and if you are interested please contact us: cei@nucleus.com.