Posted on Thursday, 27th March 2008 by chris wignall

I am generally not a fan of alliteration as a tool for presenting information. Maybe I heard too many three points and a prayer sermons as a youth.
But when we were working to express the heart of our desire in what we are calling the Catalyst Foundation the ideas we talked about all seemed to [...]

Tags: Catalyst, Leadership
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Posted on Sunday, 23rd March 2008 by chris wignall

Today’s Hamilton Spectator had an article on something called “poorism”. It’s basically the development of tourism in the world’s poorest slums.
I’ve been on a couple trips to areas like this to do work with local churches, which I see as quite different from what this article describes. Still, there is an element of voyeurism or [...]

Tags: Philanthropy
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Posted on Wednesday, 19th March 2008 by chris wignall

As I mentioned recently, I spent a couple days last week with representatives from the Salvation Army (Canada and Bermuda) who were brought together by the Territorial Youth Secretary David Ivany, who is a compulsive dreamer and committed champion to the youth and youth workers he serves. Our agenda was to develop a “manifesto” for [...]

Tags: Vision
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Posted on Tuesday, 18th March 2008 by chris wignall

I spent some time last week with some really amazing people from the Salvation Army (Canada and Bermuda territory) at Jackson’s Point on the shore of Lake Simcoe. I’ll have lots more to share about that in the next couple days. For now, I’ll just say that helping them through a process of discerning a [...]

Tags: Leadership, Resources
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Posted on Friday, 14th March 2008 by chris wignall

I’m not the most experienced leader around by any means, but I think I’ve noticed some things over the years that have proven true repeatedly. One of the strongest of these patterns is that there are some people doing amazing work that I just can’t feel good about. Something about them makes me very uncomfortable.
When [...]

Tags: Leadership
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Posted on Friday, 14th March 2008 by chris wignall

We were “late” to pick up my son from daycare this week. We’re usually there shortly after 4pm but it was a nice day so we all walked up to get him and didn’t arrive until just after 4:30. Officially they don’t close until 5:30 but Ian was the last child of the day and [...]

Tags: Catalyst, Partners
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Posted on Monday, 3rd March 2008 by chris wignall

Almost everyone who gives their life to the benefit of others sometimes struggles with the matter of significance. Lives influenced are rarely definitive and the process is at least as full of heartbreak as it is with glory.
I’m just finishing watching Mr. Holland’s Opus again. It is inspiring, even is it may be somewhat contrived [...]

Tags: Leadership, Resources
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Posted on Sunday, 2nd March 2008 by chris wignall

For the first time in my professional life I have a larger budget than I’m sure how to spend. Being in the role of making grants to deserving people and organisations is an amazing opportunity, but almost immediately it becomes abundantly clear that there are far more worthwhile causes than we have resources. By foundation [...]

Tags: Catalyst, Philanthropy
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