Posted on Tuesday, 19th August 2008 by chris wignall

A quick list of websites and blogs that I find helpful: Strive! is the best organization I’ve come across for helping boards learn to function in ways that don’t drive themselves, staff, volunteers, donors, and clientele to desperate frustration. You should subscribe to their monthly GEMs and buy Jim Brown’s book. Mission Based Management by [...]

Tags: Resources
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Posted on Friday, 15th August 2008 by chris wignall

Last week I recommended a book on microfinance. After a really good meeting on Wednesday with Opportunity International – Canada I was sent this article that breaks the idea down into a pretty manageable chunk while also exploring the edges of the approach. Microfinance is going to be a key piece to our strategy.

Tags: Catalyst, Partners, Resources
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Posted on Wednesday, 6th August 2008 by chris wignall

Two books are strongly shaping our approach to our philanthropy as we enter our September funding cycle (draft proposals due August 15th): Out of Poverty by Paul Polak, founder of International Development Enterprises. and A Billion Bootstraps by Phil Smith and Eric Thurman, who have had ties to Opportunity International. These two books, combined with [...]

Tags: Catalyst, Partners, Resources
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Posted on Friday, 1st August 2008 by chris wignall

In my role with Catalyst I am responsible for the distribution of a much larger budget than most people or families will give over decades. In my private life the scale is much more modest. In both cases, I want to make the most impact with the resources I have. For smaller private donors there [...]

Tags: Philanthropy, Resources
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Posted on Thursday, 26th June 2008 by chris wignall

I am trying to catch loose ends before I leave for a project with Medical Ministry International in the Dominican Republic tomorrow morning. Point form here we go: -I am very excited about the time with MMI. They (Leanne Graham in particular) have been amazing in the process of making arrangements for this trip after [...]

Tags: Partners, Resources
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Posted on Monday, 23rd June 2008 by chris wignall

Here’s the list of participants in the synchroblog on “What is missional?” I’ll post my thoughts later today. Alan Hirsch Alan Knox Andrew Jones Barb Peters Bill Kinnon Brad Brisco Brad Grinnen Brad Sargent Brother Maynard Bryan Riley Chad Brooks Chris Wignall Cobus Van Wyngaard Dave DeVries David Best David Fitch David Wierzbicki DoSi Doug [...]

Tags: Resources
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Posted on Monday, 16th June 2008 by chris wignall

There is no doubt that Jesus was and is a leader. However, in our quest to develop leaders we are often guilty of abusing the Biblical accounts of his life, death, and resurrection. My shelf contains several books claiming to draw leadership principles from the life of Jesus that we can all apply to our [...]

Tags: Leadership, Resources
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Posted on Wednesday, 4th June 2008 by chris wignall

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has posted a transcript of an interesting live discussion with marketing guru Seth Godin. It may not be entirely in depth; but I suspect some of the people at organizations we are interacting with would benefit from the quick read through. A couple interesting insights for me: -the difficulty of really [...]

Tags: Philanthropy, Resources
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Posted on Tuesday, 3rd June 2008 by chris wignall

When did you last feel deeply and enthusiastically happy? Last week’s Globe and Mail contained an article by Margaret Wente that expressed some of the latest research findings on happiness. (Yeah, they can get money to study anything these days). Among the findings she describes if that the easiest life change we can make to [...]

Tags: Philanthropy, Resources
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Posted on Wednesday, 28th May 2008 by chris wignall

I like long conversations, but I hate wasting time. One of the great challenges for nonprofit leaders is to communicate the purpose and value of their organization quickly, clearly, and with strong appeal. It’s often called “the elevator speech”. I just finished reading a book that has a bunch of simple, practical helps for effective [...]

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