Posted on Tuesday, 28th September 2010 by chris wignall

I recently heard an ESPN radio host say that his success was rooted in advice he received to avoid whatever the majority of people do. Essentially it makes sense, the masses define mediocrity. That said, there appears to be a growing trend of crowdsourcing in nearly every field of endeavour, including philanthropy. The Pepsi Refresh [...]

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Posted on Tuesday, 14th September 2010 by chris wignall

Wayne Elsey, CEO of Soles4Souls posted a mildly provocative blog today entitled “5 Reasons No One Cares About Your Nonprofit“. It’s worth the couple minutes it will take to read. His 5 reasons are: and my corresponding thoughts 1. I can’t find you online. Wayne urges not only web presence; but current, regularly updated web [...]

Posted in Leadership, Philanthropy, Vision | Comments (1)

Posted on Friday, 13th August 2010 by chris wignall

When we launched our organization in February of 2008 one of the first decisions we made was that we wouldn’t offer grants to churches. It was actually a very easy decision and one made with very little debate. On our website’s FAQs we put it this way: 5. Does Catalyst support church-based projects? Not at [...]

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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 [...]

Posted in Catalyst, Leadership, Philanthropy, Resources | Comments (1)

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 [...]

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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 things [...]

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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 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 [...]

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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 [...]

Posted in Catalyst, Great Stories, Partners, Philanthropy | Comments (2)

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 [...]

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