Posted on Thursday, 21st May 2009 by chris wignall

A couple quick comments to non-profit leaders on how to get funding from Catalyst and most other foundations that I communicate with. 1. Don’t send me an uninvited, impersonal, and obviously form letter requesting funds. I will not respond positively. Take even a few minutes to give me a call or read some of our [...]

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Posted on Wednesday, 8th April 2009 by chris wignall

Wednesday May 15th is the application deadline for the Catalyst Scholarship through the Halton Learning Foundation. If you, someone you know, or someone who knows someone you know will be graduating from a Halton public high school this year please encourage them to consider applying. Details here.

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Posted on Monday, 6th April 2009 by chris wignall

We are very pleased to be launching our new website. In many ways it is long overdue and the degree of improvement is phenomenal. Take a look around, it’s pretty simple. We wanted a clean and professional look, easy functionality, and the ability to keep things up to date frequently. For us, Craig Fairley at [...]

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Posted on Friday, 27th February 2009 by chris wignall

This is the 100th post on this blog. It’s taken just over a year to get here. Thanks for lurking, thinking, and especially to those who have commented. Take 14 seconds to watch this: Diet Coke and Mentos Our desire is that our credibility, influence, and investments bring a catalytic effect to the leadership of [...]

Tags: Catalyst
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Posted on Tuesday, 3rd February 2009 by chris wignall

This week I am preparing for our annual strategic planning retreat. It’s an important and quite enjoyable time where we review the past year and ready ourselves for what’s next. I’m sure it will be both energizing and exhausting. As part of our review I sent several of our contacts (organizations we funded, people we’ve [...]

Tags: Catalyst
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Posted on Tuesday, 20th January 2009 by chris wignall

People have asked whether Catalyst is a Christian foundation. I don’t really like the question. The founders are committed followers of Jesus and I am also; in that respect everything we do is in some way Christian. But we are somewhat reluctant to identify Catalyst with that adjective. The reasons are slightly complex, but basically [...]

Tags: Catalyst
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Posted on Thursday, 11th December 2008 by chris wignall

I’ve always been something of a jargon junkie. When I enter a new subculture I quickly seek to understand and adopt the particular language that marks one as a member. That has also been true in Philanthropy. The most difficult word to parse has been “Partner” as I blogged about months ago. In our society [...]

Tags: Catalyst, Partners, Philanthropy
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Posted on Friday, 21st November 2008 by chris wignall

Too often we get the impression that leadership is a topic or skill set that can be learned in isolation from other things. I know of more than one “leader” with outstanding credentials who are making significant, obvious, and damaging blunders with stunning frequency. As we’re nearing the end of our pilot project of the [...]

Tags: Catalyst, Leadership
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Posted on Thursday, 23rd October 2008 by chris wignall

Last week I was pleased to be with the first cohort of nonprofit organizations participating in World Vision’s FreeFORM program for a jazz cafe in Niagara Falls. In addition to the always great entertainment from Mike Janzen, I had a chance to connect with several people I’ve met in the last several months through Catalyst. [...]

Tags: Catalyst, Partners
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Posted on Wednesday, 8th October 2008 by chris wignall

This morning we began our first program of leadership development for high school students. We are with a class of 24 through the business department of Abbey Park High School in Oakville, ON. It was a good start as we explored the ways in which those things we did as children that we really enjoyed [...]

Tags: Catalyst, Resources
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