Last year we were amongst the 29 lucky Canadian co-ops that were awarded a grant from Co-operators.
By the time we applied for their support it had become clear to us that if we ever wanted to make a difference at a larger scale, that we needed to learn a thing or two about how to spread the word about our work online. So, in March 2021 we applied for a grant to get our coop all set-up for reaching more (and more diverse!) program participants. After submitting our application we eagerly awaited their response. And not just because we really wanted to get equipped to increase our reach and impact.
We were also very eager to receive their response because several other funders that we had approached in early 2021 had indicated that they could not support us. Why? Because they can not fund anything to do with sex.
Without it we would not exist. But talking about it? Taboo! Providing adults with guidance to better understand it and develop a healthy relationship to it. Controversial!
Call it what you will: Sad? Shocking? To be expected?
We will admit that we found it a wee bit frustrating. Especially the position of a certain government agency. Since we are basically doing a job that our governments failed to do for us. If all of us who are adults today had received comprehensive sex and relationship education in school, there wouldn't be such a need for it now!
But let’s get back to the positive news. There are also funders like Co-operators who acknowledge how important it is to invest in wellbeing and healthy relationships. And wow, it provided such a boost to our energy to receive their 20K grant and their encouraging words of support. ”We awarded Coop Unime a grant as we value their dedication to wellbeing, inclusivity, and accessibility. We were also impressed by how they have managed to build a real movement of supporters around their mission, and by their opportunity to scale in the years to come.”
Now you may be curious what we did with money. We invested it in training and collaborating with various communications experts to design and implement a proper online outreach strategy. You’ll soon start to notice some of the fruits of this work…
This week we sent Co-operators our funding report, so we’d like to take this opportunity to publicly thank them for their invaluable support.
A also big thank you to you, our dedicated community! Without you, we probably would not have received this grant.
It will take a while before our new “outreach” efforts will start to organically result in a bigger online community, so if you’d like to give us a boost now: we’d love it if you could tell a couple of your friends about us!