From the Fall of 2020 into the Spring of 2021, the Southern Interior Development Initiative Trust (SIDIT) undertook a comprehensive consultation process to solicit input from key stakeholders of the organization on its new direction. As a result of input from hundreds of stakeholders across the Southern Interior region of BC, the organization created its new direction, and the organization rebranded as the Economic Trust of the Southern Interior (ETSI-BC).
The new ETSI-BC brand and Strategic Pillars gained immediate support and across its service area, which encompasses nine regional districts, 32 First Nations, 53 communities and a combined population of over 750,000 citizens. The new ETSI-BC rebrand has allowed the organization to immediately and impactfully elevate the region's economic development capacity and recovery at a time when this support was most needed.
The new strategic direction and new brand of ETSI-BC gave stakeholders in the region confidence to engage with the "new" Trust and collaborate on economic development projects to support the economic advancement of communities and key sectors in the Southern Interior. The impact has been tremendous in terms of engagement and positive response. During its first year as ETSI-BC, the organization has enjoyed over 50 new partnerships with other economic development service providers, to deliver valuable training and resources in the region.
Other impacts include ETSI-BC funding of over $3 million for 85 projects in the region, that are worth $8 million in total. This represents approximately 50% of all the projects that had been funded in the organization's history. In addition, engagement with First Nations in the region has grown significantly. In the organization's first 15 years of existence, only 3 Indigenous-led projects had been funded. In the first year as ETSI-BC, 11 Indigenous-led projects were provided with over $442K from ETSI-BC, almost 4 times the total provided in the 15 years prior.
The positive impact of ETSI-BC on the economic development landscape in the Southern Interior was evidenced by the fact that over 80 participants registered to attend the celebration of its first anniversary, 425 people have followed the organization on LinkedIn since its launch on April 1, 2021, and over 6,100 users have interacted through its website in almost 10,000 sessions. The feedback and testimonials provided in the attachments speak to the positive impact on individual practitioners and communities.
In its first year, ETSI-BC held four funding intakes and committed $3.1 million (a record year) to 85 projects that focus on economic development capacity building, innovation, and key sector development, developing human capital and supporting business resilience. Forty of the projects were approved in communities with population of less than 5,000 - the communities that are in the greatest need of support. Another 40 projects were funded in communities with 5K-25K residents. The ETSI-BC core funding was leveraged at a rate of 4 to 1, meaning the communities were able to access additional resources as a result of our funding.
The consultation process, strategic planning approach and methodology of developing new grant application platform and reporting structure can serve as a best practice for other organizations. ETSI-BC conducted 15 stakeholder consultations and carried out several surveys to ensure that it had the input needed to make sure its plan was relevant to its constituents. Its process of researching other organizations and engaging with its board to determine the way the organization should position itself is a useful example. The steps taken to develop the new brand identity and launch the new marketing strategy are able to be shared. The process undertaken to activate the rebranding was certainly successful and best practices can be shared with other organizations seeking to refresh their strategy, focus and/or image.