Posted on Wednesday, 9th February 2011 by chris wignall

Today I read an article from Fast Company on how to decide if a conference is worth attending. I’m still in the review/recovery stage from our Catalyst Gather a couple weeks ago. It was the second time we’ve brought together leaders from many of the organizations we work with on an ongoing basis for some [...]

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Posted on Thursday, 23rd December 2010 by chris wignall

This is a time of year when rituals, traditions, and symbols are everywhere. Some represent family, others are seasonal or sacred. In fact, a lot of the things I do that make it feel like Christmas are meaningful in ways I can’t easily explain. Defining why it seems so wrong that my parents bought an [...]

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Posted on Thursday, 23rd September 2010 by chris wignall

Engage, Equip, Empower, Evaluate Engage: I still see organizations where staff, volunteers, clients, board, and donors are lacking commitment and energy. They don’t see how their involvement matters, give less than their best, and simply don’t truly believe in what they’re doing. High staff turnover and limited productivity are indicators that there are engagement issues. [...]

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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 [...]

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Posted on Tuesday, 17th August 2010 by chris wignall

One of the major new challenges I’ve taken on this year is chairing the board with Absolute.org (one of our strategic partners). Having been on boards of a few organizations before, and with a sudden need for someone to accept the chair, I agreed to the role in February. It hasn’t been an easy time [...]

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Posted on Monday, 16th August 2010 by chris wignall

Sometimes it’s just about context. Yesterday professional golfer Dustin Johnson blew a chance to win his first major tournament because he hadn’t taken 60 seconds to read the specific rules of the course that were posted for all the players to see. A lot of fans were annoyed that a seemingly small violation caused by [...]

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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, 28th July 2010 by chris wignall

Earlier this summer my 6 year old refused to take part in a large family picture at a reunion. Regardless of how we asked, encouraged, or mildly threatened him he just wouldn’t sit down with all the cousins and more distant relatives and smile for a few seconds. Until Grandpa offered him $2 to do [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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