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 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 Friday, 23rd April 2010 by chris wignall

Since my last post one of the things that have kept me busy is the continuing process for Stronger Together. It has been extremely informative. Reviewing 131 applications initially and now sitting in on some site visits for some of the 49 finalists has given me a lot of perspective on some of the [...]

Posted in Partners, Philanthropy | Comments (1)

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 Monday, 1st March 2010 by chris wignall

Mark Petersen offers these comments on the Stronger Together project:
Last night at midnight, the application window for ST2010 closed.   Here’s some stats:

We received 131 applications.
The total amount requested in the 131 applications was $3,619,268.
The average ask was $27,628.   Very high for a permitted range of $5,000 – $30,000.

Now let’s do the math.  The eight partners [...]

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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 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 Wednesday, 6th January 2010 by chris wignall

Social media has given us the possibility off raising awareness of needs, issues, and causes more rapidly than ever before, but also has made it easy to give token support that translates to neither dollars nor activity.
Navneet Alang raises concerns about both the superficiality of facebook causes and the expanded potential for narcissism when we [...]

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Posted on Monday, 21st December 2009 by chris wignall

This is the time of year when the majority of charities are scrambling to get last minute donations from donors before the end of the calendar year. While most North Americans are trying to enjoy a little extra time off, many Executive Directors, Development Officers, and CEOs are spending hours trying to access and accomodate [...]

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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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