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 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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Posted on Tuesday, 16th August 2011 by chris wignall

Be warned, this may be more of a rant than a well balanced post. I’m frustrated by the number of leaders who are ending their marriages or in marriages that are deeply struggling. I’m not a sociologist or registered counsellor and I haven’t done a statistical analysis to determine if there’s really a trend to [...]

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Posted on Thursday, 28th April 2011 by chris wignall

My friend and colleague Mark Petersen posted some of his thoughts on partnership based largely on what he’s noticed while working on our shared Stronger Together 2011 project. Earlier this year we hosted a small conference for charities we work with called Gather. (Some of my thoughts on the event can be found here). The [...]

Posted in Catalyst, Partners, Resources | Comments (0)

Posted on Thursday, 31st March 2011 by chris wignall

I just prepared this brief summary of the roles a board member plays for a board I chair. For more on it read everything Bob Andringa ever wrote. The Three Hats of a Board Member Bob Andringa (http://www.theandringagroup.com/pages/bob_andringa) is the source of this helpful concept for how board members can better understand the various ways [...]

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Posted on Friday, 11th February 2011 by chris wignall

What role should members of the board of directors play in fundraising for a charity? One of the most engaged discussions I observed at our Gather conference last month was the one about this topic. I didn’t participate on the conversation; in part because I needed to keep on eye on the entire flow of [...]

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Posted on Tuesday, 1st February 2011 by chris wignall

Tone matters. Whether it’s a conversation with my wife, meeting with my boss, correcting my kids, or making a presentation to an audience; the way I communicate is often much more influential than what I’m trying to say. This afternoon I listened in on an exciting webinar presented by Network for Good. It was promoted [...]

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Posted on Thursday, 18th November 2010 by chris wignall

For the last couple decades there has been a growing excitement in development fields about the promise of microfinance as a key tool in reducing the impacts of extreme poverty in a sustainable manner. As the industry has grown from the pioneering work of Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen Bank and the outstanding results [...]

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Posted on Monday, 8th November 2010 by chris wignall

In the last couple weeks I’ve become a big fan of Simon Sinek. I’m reading his book Start With Why, I follow him on twitter, I’ve been scoping out his website, and I just finished watching his live presentation at TedX San Diego. I really like what I’m learning. On Simon’s blog I came across [...]

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Posted on Monday, 30th August 2010 by chris wignall

A few months ago a colleague from my days as a youth pastor invited me to review his new book. I was somewhat hesitant. While I respected the work Jeff Strong does at Grindstone Church, I suspected his book “Mere Disciple” would disappoint me. I anticipated something that took well established and familiar ideas about [...]

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