Pat Letizia has worked with Alberta Ecotrust Foundation for 25 of its 30 year history and led the organization as Executive Director and CEO for over 20 of those years.
In the past 25 years, she has had many achievements as a leader, partnership broker and advocate for Alberta’s environmental nonprofit sector including:
- Leading environmental grant programs that have disbursed over $11M to 734 environmental projects in the issue areas of land use, water and climate change;
- Brokering significant partnerships supporting environmental projects including a landmark 25-year $1.25M agreement with corporate partner Encana in 2002 and, more recently, the $44M Climate Innovation Fund endowment partnership with Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the City of Edmonton and the City of Calgary as part of the Low Carbon Cities Canada Network in 2020;
- Championing ongoing sector needs assessment research and network mapping beginning with 2003’s Maximizing Effectiveness to improve the effectiveness of grant programs, create relevant capacity building programs and advocate for needs of the sector with other funders by sharing the story of the sector through events like Picture a Province in 2012;
- Co-founding and serving on the Boards of vital networks like Canadian Environmental Grantmakers Network (now Environment Funders Canada) and Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations;
- Introducing systems thinking and social innovation frameworks to Alberta’s environmental landscape by co-leading social labs to co-design environmental solutions and narratives with diverse community stakeholders through 2012’s Taking Stock (environmental policy), 2014’s Project Blue Thumb (water quality) and 2019’s Alberta Narrative Project (climate narratives.)