Sustainable food supply evokes strong passions in many people for several reasons. In light of current concerns about disappearing farmland, depleted wild salmon populations, inequities in food distribution, and the ecological footprint of our diets, among others, Vancity has decided to support virtuous food systems in British Columbia through its enviroFund grant.

Geared for the task, Canada’s largest credit union managed to distribute a portion of its enviroVisa profits. After assessing a diverse set of project applications, a total of $700.000 in grants were directed a) to increase local food production; b) to increase the capacity to access, process, and/or distribute local food; c) to increase institutional procurement of local food.

But the endeavor was not as simple as it may sound.

Challenging Needs

Allocating the funds amongst 50 exemplary local food organizations was not an effortless task. They all asked for a share in the fund; they all presented promising applications, stemming from inspiring projects that are addressing the pressing food issue. But how to choose? And how to do so staying within budget while making sure that the grants were relatively well distributed across the different regions in the province?



Typically problems like these have been addressed by groups of experts sitting down to tackle complex decisions (presupposing, of course, they have enough time on their hands, and can handle a good amount of coordination). Vancity wanted to synchronize the insights of 11 judging panelists, however, and that did not necessarily prove to be an easy endeavor.

Having a structured but fluid dialogue. To be sure, face to face contact was irreplaceable, especially in an age of technological hyper-stress. Still, given that geographical tradeoffs and budgets came into play far more than a simple show of hands was needed. Additionally, balancing the perspectives of different team members (let alone that of remote external experts) required having a sustained dialogue to bring nuance and cohesion to an otherwise disjointed conversation. Team meetings can only be sustained for so long; especially in a judging process that required evaluating copious amounts of information.

In today’s mobile society the close bond between individuals has either been stretched to the breaking point, or decisions tend to become increasingly bureaucratic and centralized. And certainly the ballot system also has come with its own set of limitations too: Ticking a checkbox allows for little, if any, real-time interaction — let alone for fostering dialogue or finding consensus.

But necessity is the mother of invention: “Ethelo allowed us to review, evaluate and compare a large volume of grant applications/documents between internal and external committee members in various locations,” said Louise Pochailo, Vancity’s Community Investment Specialist. “These features made the face to face grant decision meeting proceed quicker. A lot of the ground work was completed before the grants decision meeting. This really left more a confirmation of the final decision between committee members and an opportunity to bring up anomalies and discuss budget allocations.”

Ethelo’s Contribution

Wanting to streamline the 2-stage enviroFund assessment process, Vancity’s team of food experts deployed Ethelo’s digital platform to bring structure and cohesion to an voting discussion facing such challenges. Moving away from one-way and opaque inputs, Ethelo has deployed Web 2.0 capabilities to foster mutuality and transparency in the decision making process.

Beyond the ballot box. In the first round of interactions, applications were assessed against three criteria; that is: first, do projects have a measurable social/environmental impact; second, are they action oriented; third, do they foster innovation/sector development. As Figure No. 1 shows, participants evaluated each organization accordingly (based on its project’s description, as well as its location and grant application amount).



Figure No. 1: Assessment panel for voting and social dialogue

Having gone through the first selection, the remaining candidate organizations were further evaluated against a more selective set of conditions. At this stage, however, Vancity wanted to attach further documentation associated with each application. For this purpose, within each organization’s assessment panel Ethelo included links to PDF files containing budgets, project timelines, letters of support, and the like.

Including the (remote) voice of third parties. In addition, Vancity’s team of food experts wanted to incorporate the expertise of external stakeholders from Metro Vancouver as well as from the Interim Director of the BC Food Systems Network. This helped to deepen the analysis, allowing more insightful conversation to be openly shared, thanks to the platform’s social dialogue capability.

Besides fostering remote interactions around a common decision-space, Ethelo also allowed for complementary forms of dialogue. For instance, consider that ideas don’t always come when participants needed them; that most introverts tend to shy away from being vocal in large groups; that some people need time to process and mull on things. But time is valuable and coordinating a meeting of more than 10 internal and external panelists is challenging. Unless, of course, conversations can be captured in an orderly way, and votes registered in a common space.

Finding a Balance through Digital Collaboration

It is difficult to please everyone and find consensus when it comes to complex decisions – and the enviroFund evaluation was not an exception. Choices had to be made when it came to balancing trade-offs and respecting budgets; as well as balancing the opinions of several experts.

“Ethelo proved very convenient; we could access it anywhere at anytime”, said Pochailo. “It also made it easier to share ideas, post questions, and be more honest in expressing comments.”

By finding scenarios that simultaneously met the criteria and resolved the insights of many, the platform allowed Vancity to arrive at a more objectively-based shortlist with the most collective support. And in doing so, the collaborative wisdom of the panelists became an essential ingredient for a happy deal (and for what are likely to be happier meals!).