Posted on Tuesday, 23rd April 2013 by chris wignall

Watch this video. I’ll wait… Love it. It seems more and more charities and individuals are engaging in awareness campaigns with a focus on social media. Every once in a while one of them strikes a chord and goes viral (like the ambitious but ultimately undermined Kony 2012 project from Invisible Children). The majority of [...]

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Posted on Wednesday, 2nd January 2013 by chris wignall

The application window for Stronger Together 2013 opened a couple hours ago. I’ve been getting a few inquiries from potentially interested charities and wanted to share a few thoughts (representing my own perspective only) on the process. I’ve been actively involved in some of the planning since the beginning of Stronger Together 4 years ago. [...]

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Posted on Monday, 15th October 2012 by chris wignall

Decided to try something a little different for this blog. Let me know what you think.

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Posted on Tuesday, 21st August 2012 by chris wignall

Canadian icon Craig Kielburger has done far more in his life to make a lasting difference than almost anyone, certainly much more than I have. He is a deserving Member of the Order of Canada, a mentee of the Dalai Lama, friend of world leaders and inspiration to more than I can count. His organizations, [...]

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Posted on Thursday, 9th August 2012 by chris wignall

I’m occasionally asked to give some input to a charity on fundraising, especially on working with major donors. I’m happy to give my thoughts, but I’m not sure that my guidance is entirely helpful. I’m not confident that my perspective is representative of the majority of donors. My encouragement to charity leaders is to engage [...]

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Posted on Wednesday, 20th June 2012 by chris wignall

A good friend pointed out to me that yesterday’s post on things learned from this year’s Stronger Together granting process were all directed to applicants. In fact, most of the best lessons are probably better directed to the funders side of the table. 1. Specific Criteria. Thanks to the diligence of Brent Fearon at Bridgeway [...]

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Posted on Tuesday, 19th June 2012 by chris wignall

Last Friday the granting partners for Stronger Together released the successful grants for this year. I know there were a number of organizations that were either very pleased or quite disappointed with the news. For me it marked the culmination of a significant process that consumed a large portion of my attention for the first [...]

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Posted on Friday, 16th March 2012 by chris wignall

Last December I retweeted CBC host Jian Ghomeshi: Lots of other people retweeted it, which makes sense because it represents what has become common understanding in the development field. There are lots of reports supporting the idea that aid given to women results in benefits to their family and community, while aid given to men [...]

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Posted on Friday, 16th December 2011 by chris wignall

In conversations with a few charities this week there has been a repeated theme of how to engage and appreciate donors. It’s been encouraging that the ones I met with have moved beyond simply seeing their supporters as cash machines they can get funds out of if they push the right buttons. Still, there does [...]

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Posted on Tuesday, 6th December 2011 by chris wignall

It’s that time of year when it seems nearly every charity in Canada is filling my mailbox with their year end appeals. Many of my nonprofit friends are under serious stress as they have to bring in a critical portion of their budgets in these next few weeks. In many cases, there is a real [...]

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