Posted on Wednesday, 9th February 2011 by chris wignall

Today I read an article from Fast Company on how to decide if a conference is worth attending. I’m still in the review/recovery stage from our Catalyst Gather a couple weeks ago. It was the second time we’ve brought together leaders from many of the organizations we work with on an ongoing basis for some [...]

Posted in Catalyst, Partners, Vision | Comments (0)

Posted on Tuesday, 1st February 2011 by chris wignall

Tone matters. Whether it’s a conversation with my wife, meeting with my boss, correcting my kids, or making a presentation to an audience; the way I communicate is often much more influential than what I’m trying to say. This afternoon I listened in on an exciting webinar presented by Network for Good. It was promoted [...]

Posted in Philanthropy, Resources | Comments (4)

Posted on Thursday, 23rd December 2010 by chris wignall

Ever had a gym membership? More to the point, have you ever made decent use a gym membership? My friends who have worked as personal trainers have let me in on what many of us have long suspected, gyms are quite happy to have large numbers of people who pay for their monthly memberships but [...]

Posted in Philanthropy | Comments (0)

Posted on Thursday, 23rd December 2010 by chris wignall

This is a time of year when rituals, traditions, and symbols are everywhere. Some represent family, others are seasonal or sacred. In fact, a lot of the things I do that make it feel like Christmas are meaningful in ways I can’t easily explain. Defining why it seems so wrong that my parents bought an [...]

Posted in Catalyst, Great Stories, Leadership, Vision | Comments (1)

Posted on Thursday, 18th November 2010 by chris wignall

For the last couple decades there has been a growing excitement in development fields about the promise of microfinance as a key tool in reducing the impacts of extreme poverty in a sustainable manner. As the industry has grown from the pioneering work of Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen Bank and the outstanding results [...]

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Posted on Tuesday, 16th November 2010 by chris wignall

In recent weeks I’ve had two good conversations with respected, experienced leaders who have strongly different views on a fairly basic Human Resources matter. How should an organization handle internal candidates when hiring leadership roles? It’s almost universally agreed that a healthy organization needs to be developing depth of personal in leadership. Many nonprofits struggle [...]

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Posted on Monday, 8th November 2010 by chris wignall

In the last couple weeks I’ve become a big fan of Simon Sinek. I’m reading his book Start With Why, I follow him on twitter, I’ve been scoping out his website, and I just finished watching his live presentation at TedX San Diego. I really like what I’m learning. On Simon’s blog I came across [...]

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Posted on Wednesday, 20th October 2010 by chris wignall

In a conversation this morning with a leader in a national organization that is seeking to more effectively connect with people under the age of thirty I was asked if I had any suggestions on how to build those relationships. My response was that of greater importance than reaching out to a younger generation is [...]

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Posted on Tuesday, 28th September 2010 by chris wignall

I recently heard an ESPN radio host say that his success was rooted in advice he received to avoid whatever the majority of people do. Essentially it makes sense, the masses define mediocrity. That said, there appears to be a growing trend of crowdsourcing in nearly every field of endeavour, including philanthropy. The Pepsi Refresh [...]

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Posted on Monday, 27th September 2010 by chris wignall

In recent months I’ve been able to be a part of two pioneering events in which people from across the country gathered to push the boundaries of how their fields generally operate. Stronger Together 2010 saw 8 significant donors combine efforts to provide capacity building grants totalling over one million dollars to Christian charities. The [...]

Posted in Catalyst, Leadership, Past Grants | Comments (0)