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October 29, 2024
Philanthropy and Democracy: Bridges and Battlegrounds?

I often get insights from the blogs written by the ever-thoughtful Phil Buchanan of the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP).  Phil’s most recent blog reflects on two difficult questions for philanthropy in these polarized times. How to defend and nurture democracy? How to bridge differences of opinion? He swiftly notes that he doesn’t have answers. But […]

September 3, 2024
Learning to Learn Better

As the calendar turns to September, we inevitably think more about learning, whether we are long past formal education or still engaged with it. We are prompted to it at this time of year by media commentary on school access, new tech for learning and the challenges of keeping student attention in the digital age. Much […]

July 2, 2024
Strategy, Trust and Philanthropy

One of the stranger (to me) developments in philanthropy circles in 2024 has been the fierce debate about trust versus strategy, applied to funder approaches. Perhaps for the sake of argument, trust has been described as an alternative to strategy, as if the two were quite separate. This is a distinction made in a much-discussed recent […]

June 7, 2024
Philanthropy and the Outer Commons

As I look around at the lack of political consensus on what to do about poverty, public health or climate, and as I listen to the arguments and debates in the media, I do wonder where and whether we might have agreement on what is the common good. Is there a common good?  Or are […]

May 9, 2024
Philanthropy for the Future

I have always been a fan of science fiction - not fantasy fiction but hard science fiction. Partly it’s because science fiction assumes that there will be a future for humanity, however strange. And partly it’s because these alternative futures are often mind-opening. William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer (published in 1984) was one of those memorable […]

April 22, 2024
Reading Philanthropy

Six years ago, I began reviewing books on philanthropy and social purpose leadership for The Philanthropist Journal. I can now look at a bookshelf’s worth of reviews – 16 books written by 20 authors.  These authors are all from the English-speaking world, primarily the US and the United Kingdom, joined by two Canadians, an Australian […]

April 15, 2024
From Charity To Change: The Next Stage

In early April, the leaders of two relatively new Canadian foundations, Definity Insurance Foundation and Daymark Foundation, joined me at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Gift Planners to share their experiences and insights on the evolution of strategic philanthropy. Here is some of what we talked about... We live in a better […]

February 19, 2024
Moving From Two to Three

When should a foundation start thinking of moving from two to three? Most relations between funder and recipient are of course binary, involving two parties. But sometimes a funder might provide resources to a recipient in between the funder and another recipient. The awkward term “intermediary” is often used in these circumstances where a funder might grant to […]

January 16, 2024
Tools for Thinking Ahead

One of the most difficult things for any organization is to think ahead, to imagine new scenarios, to picture different or more innovative strategies for your work. At the beginning of a year, there is both opportunity and temptation to draw back for a period and consider the present and the future. But how to do […]

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