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 [...]

Posted in Catalyst, Leadership, Partners, Philanthropy | Comments (0)

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 [...]

Posted in Great Stories, Leadership, Partners, Resources, Vision | Comments (3)

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 Monday, 25th January 2010 by chris wignall

The news reports of the ongoing suffering in Haiti coupled with the tremendous response of people in Canada and many other nations continue to be the predominant story of another week. There is no question of the desperation, but how to respond is open to much consideration.
Catalyst has heard reports from several of our partners [...]

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Posted on Monday, 18th January 2010 by chris wignall

The tragic events in Haiti over the last week have captured our attention in a rare manner. Like Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, and the 9/11 attacks, the world is taking notice. In this case the suffering is all the more desperate because Haiti has such a history of instability.
We are being inundated [...]

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Posted on Saturday, 12th December 2009 by chris wignall

What a great idea!!
Playpumps International has come up with a way for African villages to access desperately needed clean water by rigging a pump with a children’s merry-go-round. As the children laugh and play together they provide life-giving water for their entire community. The perfect photo op is so many ways. It even gathered support [...]

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Posted on Saturday, 12th December 2009 by chris wignall

Kiva has initiated something not far short of a true paradigm shift in donor relations; everyone else would be wise to pay close attention.
By taking a model with some similarities to traditional child sponsorship (as World Vision and Compassion are well reputed for) and taking full advantage of the immediacy of the internet, Kiva has [...]

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Posted on Tuesday, 10th November 2009 by chris wignall

Microcredit loans such as those offered by Kiva are not the ultimate solution to all the world’s poverty issues.
As a new industry, microfinance has had some struggles and even when working well it really suits just a portion of the needy populations around the world. Some recent research has even suggested that the entire model [...]

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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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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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