Posted on Wednesday, 23rd June 2010 by chris wignall

MoneySense magazine recently published The Charity 100, a series of ratings of Canadian charities based on several factors with the intent “to be a tool for potential donors researching which charities to give money to”. In the nonprofit world this is the kind of thing that fires up the blogosphere and even earns a twitter [...]

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Posted on Friday, 18th June 2010 by chris wignall

I didn’t get much accomplished from a work perspective last week. I spent several hours dealing with my first ever “at fault” car accident, shopped for a car to replace the totalled one, fulfilled an old promise to take my nephews to the zoo, and celebrated my son’s 4th birthday at least three times.
But I [...]

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Posted on Tuesday, 15th June 2010 by chris wignall

This morning the results of the Stronger Together 2010 collaborative granting project were released (Complete list of grantees here.) Having invested a significant part of the past ten months in the process it is a satisfying thing to be able to notify the successful applicants (selected from a total field of 131) and anticipate the [...]

Posted in Catalyst, Great Stories, Partners, Past Grants, Resources | Comments (0)

Posted on Tuesday, 15th June 2010 by chris wignall

My friend and mentor Fred Smith recently posted an insightful article about the tendency for givers to support active programs but resist funding the administrative and supportive costs those programs require. In part he gives this example:
It’s like a business manager in a school where I taught years ago. He had a closet full of [...]

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Posted on Monday, 1st March 2010 by chris wignall

I haven’t made it public before now, but I recently accepted the role of Board Chair at Absolute.org. It’s an organization with phenomenal programs and a demonstrates desire to develop top level leadership and governance. It is my privilege to be entrusted with the responsibility of guiding our board and management team through this next [...]

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Posted on Monday, 1st March 2010 by chris wignall

Mark Petersen offers these comments on the Stronger Together project:
Last night at midnight, the application window for ST2010 closed.   Here’s some stats:

We received 131 applications.
The total amount requested in the 131 applications was $3,619,268.
The average ask was $27,628.   Very high for a permitted range of $5,000 – $30,000.

Now let’s do the math.  The eight partners [...]

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Posted on Friday, 19th February 2010 by chris wignall

Kiva.org is one of the best innovations in poverty work I can remember. Taking the impact of microfinance and tying it to the power of the internet for awareness and individual engagement is nothing short of brilliant.
Unfortunately, along with the massive exposure have come several misconceptions about how Kiva actually works.
On the Social Edge blog [...]

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Posted on Wednesday, 13th January 2010 by chris wignall

When I began work in my role at Catalyst one of the things I was told about representing a donor was “You’ll never pay for lunch and no one will tell you the truth.”
My experience so far largely contradicts both of those points, but there have been some exceptions.
I’m usually quite happy to pick up [...]

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Posted on Tuesday, 5th January 2010 by chris wignall

As we enter our third year, Catalyst is becoming more committed than ever to encourage and support the dreams of our partners and the many other organizations, students, leaders, and friends that we interact with. We long to share in, hear, and tell amazing stories.
We are currently preparing for our annual strategic planning process. As [...]

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Posted on Monday, 9th November 2009 by chris wignall

A few weeks ago I posted an explanation that Catalyst is not a “Christian Foundation”. That has prompted some conversations both outside and within our organization.
Today I read an article from Dr. John Stackhouse that provided a well reasoned explanation of similar thinking. In part he writes:
I deliberately did not support the United Way Campaign [...]

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