2025-2027 Strategic Plan
Our 2025-2027 Strategic Plan affirms our commitment to make the Foundation a much stronger force that benefits both the real estate industry and all Albertans.
This plan is the result of an extensive engagement process carried out in spring 2024, bringing together information from:
1
a significant review of all of the Foundation’s work, including governance, finance, human resources, granting, and more;
2
an extensive engagement effort that gathered important feedback and direction from our interest-holders to feed into the plan; and
3
considerable reflection by the Board of Governors and the Staff Team about the purpose, processes, and activities of the Foundation.
Our Mandate
The Real Estate Act states that the Foundation’s purpose is to promote and undertake:
the education of related professionals and the public in respect of the real estate industry
law reform and research in respect of the real estate industry
other projects and activities to advance and improve the real estate industry
Our Mission
To make strategic investments, form partnerships, and support initiatives that benefit Albertans through the real estate industry in all its forms.
Our Vision
Stronger real estate industry. Stronger Alberta.
What We Heard
We invited over 300 interest-holders, including industry members, past grantees, and sector representatives to contribute to the Foundation's strategic planning initiative. We heard that the Foundation can:
Lead
Interest-holders expressed a need for the Foundation to actively engage and lead efforts to increase awareness of sector concerns and opportunities.
Connect
The Foundation is uniquely positioned to bring together communities of interest and introduce diverse actors within the sector who might otherwise be unfamiliar with one another.
Support
Interest-holders expressed a desire for increased support through investment in early-stage projects, greater flexibility with mandates, and multi-year funding for both projects and permanent staff.
Strategic Priorities
Three strategic priorities emerged from a deep internal review of our policies and processes, and from our consultations with our partners. In each priority, we identify clear goals to improve the work of the Foundation and better serve the real estate industry and Albertans.
Collective Impact
In partnership with our interest-holders, we will identify and magnify the impact we make in our province through grantmaking.
Building Sustainable and Resilient Capacity
We will sustain, strengthen, and embolden the evolution of the Foundation's work to better meet emerging challenges and opportunities to achieve maximum results.
Dynamic Engagement
We will create evolving value by continuing to understand and invite, our interest-holders to share research, data and knowledge that improves the real estate industry and addresses needs in our communities.
Organizational Values
The Foundation is guided by our values of:
Respect
We value respect in all our relationships: with each other, with all our interest-holders, and with grantseekers.
Collaboration
We value collaboration by actively seeking partnerships that advance the Foundation’s mandate and vision.
Transparency
We value transparency in the communication of all of our activities and investments. We are committed to making all of our processes, impacts and outcomes visible to funders, applicants and the public.
Continuous Learning
We value continuous learning through all of our processes, programs and initiatives. We are deeply committed to efficiency, efficacy and improvement.
Strategic Priorities & Goals
Collective Impact
In partnership with our interest-holders, we will identify and magnify the impact we make in our province through grantmaking.
We will establish clearer measures of change to evaluate our progress effectively.
We will implement active monitoring practices to track performance and outcomes consistently.
We will assess "Is anyone better off?" to determine the tangible impact of our initiatives.
We will broaden and deepen interest-holders’ voices to ensure inclusive and representative decision-making.
We will identify emerging trends to respond to emerging and existing sector challenges.
Building Sustainable and Resilient Capacity
We will sustain, strengthen, and embolden the evolution of the Foundation’s work to better meet emerging challenges and opportunities and achieve maximum results.
We will grow, expand, and evolve as a grantmaker by identifying bold change initiatives, actively supporting them, and implementing reflection routines to enhance funding practices.
We will reduce barriers for potential grantees by exploring flexibility in funding models, balancing due diligence with accessibility, experimenting with impactful projects, and creating a 10-year funding vision.
We will grow, expand, and evolve as an industry resource by keeping Governors and staff informed about sector trends, and committing to shared learning opportunities in key focus areas like DEI, climate, and funding practices.
We will ensure stability and efficiency of AREF personnel and processes through a commitment to workflow effectiveness.
We will seek out impact investment opportunities and build relationships with impact investment partners.
Dynamic Engagement
We will create evolving value by continuing to understand and invite, our interest-holders to share research, data and knowledge that improves the real estate industry and addresses needs in our communities.
We will enhance and expand our role as a convenor by seeking out and hosting opportunities for connection,collaboration and dialogue.
We will increasingly play a role in timely knowledge collection and mobilization by amplifying opportunities to connect diverse players in the industry and support partnerships that promote shared learning and outcomes tracking.
We will grow, expand, and evolve our leadership opportunities in grantmaking, research, and policy spaces.