Dear colleagues, friends, fund holders, and donors,
By now you will have received Tracey Vavrek’s thoughtful letter sharing that she will be leaving the Community Foundation of Northwestern Alberta at the end of March 2020. While we are saddened by her departure, we are also incredibly humbled and grateful for Tracey’s dedication and tireless work ethic within the Foundation. Over the past nineteen years, Tracey has worked to grow this organization through her beliefs of objectivity, collaboration and strategic thinking.
Tracey has accomplished many incredible achievements in her time with the Community Foundation, including the introduction of new and innovative internal governance strategies, the launch of Vital Signs, and expanding the reach of our Foundation to communities such as Valhalla, Peace River, Horse Lake, Fox Creek, Fairview, and Grande Cache just to name a few. She has personally helped each Board and staff team member on their professional and personal journey, and for this we are eternally grateful.
In her time here Tracey has grown a very small team with only $150,000 in assets to an organization with just under $10 million in assets.
While Tracey has expressed her deepest gratitude, it is us who cannot begin to express how deeply grateful we are for all she has given of herself to the Community Foundation.
We don’t know what we will miss more; Tracey’s unwavering dedication to the Community Foundation or her dinner parties and incredible hospitality. We wish Tracey along with her husband Vince and their entire family all the very best in the future, and look forward to working closely with Tracey as she takes on a new role with a national organization in the charitable sector, where we’re sure she will thrive and continue to help this community we all love.
The next chapter:
Change is inevitable in life and this time of growth is no different. The Board of Directors and Staff at the Community Foundation are well prepared for the transition that we will undertake as we search for a new leader of the organization.
We have strategically planned and collectively identified and prioritized the needs of the Community Foundation as we dive into this new decade.
A task group led by myself as Board Chair, along with Vice-Chair, Gareth Pugh and Treasurer, Amy Richards has been tasked with selecting a new CEO for the Community Foundation. We are excited for the road ahead and we are dedicated to ensuring the needs of this growing organization are met through new and insightful leadership.
We are now accepting applications until March 1st, 2020.
We look forward to the next few months working with Tracey, our Board and Staff, as well as our amazing community of donors and friends to support the transition of our Foundation’s leadership. Your continuing interest and perspectives are highly-valued and we welcome your feedback, comments, or questions at any time.
With my kind regards,
Natasha Collins-DeCoste
Chair, Board of Directors
