Posted on Wednesday, 28th July 2010 by chris wignall

Earlier this summer my 6 year old refused to take part in a large family picture at a reunion. Regardless of how we asked, encouraged, or mildly threatened him he just wouldn’t sit down with all the cousins and more distant relatives and smile for a few seconds. Until Grandpa offered him $2 to do [...]

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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 [...]

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Posted on Wednesday, 9th June 2010 by chris wignall

Sometimes opportunity knocks, sometimes it seeps through the basement walls.
When recent rains flooded the basement of Stu Taylor’s home outside Winnipeg he didn’t anticipate it leading to positive news coverage for our partner IDE-Canada. To see how personal frustration was turned into national media coverage watch this clip from the CBC or read the release [...]

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Posted on Wednesday, 2nd June 2010 by chris wignall

We are excited at the news that our partners at International Development Enterprises have just been named the first ever winners of the Nestle prize in Creating Shared Value for work they are doing with small scale farmers in Cambodia.
By taking an innovative and market based approach to agricultural sustainability IDE has demonstrated that the [...]

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Posted on Thursday, 25th February 2010 by chris wignall

I love this from Opportunity International – Australia (thanks for the link Macro for Micro)
Small loans, big changes

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Posted on Tuesday, 23rd February 2010 by chris wignall

I am seeing and hearing a lot of charities talking and requesting funding to establish a social media plan and presence. I don’t claim to be an expert in the field but here are my current thoughts for what it’s worth.
The driving aspect of social media is media. At root these are just additional vehicles [...]

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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 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 Tuesday, 8th December 2009 by chris wignall

When I work with students in our high school leadership program one of the things we talk about at some length is the challenge of figuring out the context in which each of us can be at our best; and how to respond when reality doesn’t match our ideal. The thing that truly excellent mentors [...]

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Posted on Tuesday, 27th October 2009 by chris wignall

The stories we tell about people who receive the benefits of charity are very important. They are often a key part of what motivates us to give, they are the way we express progress, and they are the way we assure ourselves that what we are doing is really making a difference. But there is [...]

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