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 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

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 Wednesday, 9th June 2010 by chris wignall

Here we go again with another of my commentaries on how charities use blogs, facebook, twitter, youtube and the like. (Previous thoughts here, here, here, and here).
The Stronger Together 2010 funding process revealed clearly that many Canadian charities are wondering what to do with this new media. And, unfortunately, in my opinion some of them [...]

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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 Thursday, 18th March 2010 by chris wignall

Darren DeGraaf of Arrow Leadership posted an excellent article on some of the lessons he’s learned from leaders he’s worked with. Nothing really new or innovative here, just a fresh reminder of the basic truths that comprise the vast majority of what leadership really is. Well done D!
A favourite bit:
Intentionally mentor your team members.

At Arrow [...]

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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 Wednesday, 24th February 2010 by chris wignall

Great insight today from Breakfast With Fred on our tendency to try to typecast leaders according to various models or systems. I’m just going to quote the whole thing it’s so good:

Too many believe in limited leaderships styles.  It is easy to draw up a grid and put people neatly into boxes.  But, true leadership [...]

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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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