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Shift the power! We hear this everywhere now. In politics, in the economy, in communities, in the justice system, in media. And it is being used by many, with sincere conviction, in reference to philanthropy. The exhortation to big donors and foundations is to shift the power they hold because of their wealth, their status, their […]

How can philanthropy confront the harsh syndemic we face today? Yes, I wrote syndemic, not pandemic. The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals, describes a syndemic as “characterised by biological and social interactions between conditions and states, interactions that increase a person's susceptibility to harm or worsen their health outcomes.” In other words, being poor, […]

I received some valuable comments on my recent piece on the sevens sins of nonprofit governance. They prompted me to add a coda about what makes a “good” nonprofit board. The seven sins of governance that I referred to essentially revolve around a lack of attention to the duty of care. This is a concept familiar […]

As a long-time nonprofit director, I have reflected on what we can learn from the governance car crash that appears to be the WE Charity and its affiliated structures. I have wondered: where was the WE Charity board as this evolved? Charity Intelligence and others have pointed out the multiple failures in this situation. But […]

The pandemic is a clarifying moment for philanthropy. A spotlight is shining harshly on the familiar endowed foundation model. It is being aimed even more pointedly at the form of endowed philanthropy known as the donor-advised fund or DAF.  The point is sharp: in this time of crisis like no other, when charities and communities […]

Back in January when COVID 19 was a faraway menace to us, I speculated in a blog post on three important challenges in 2020 for Canadian philanthropy. I suggested that foundations could make an important difference in the Canadian nonprofit landscape if they used their funds and influence to help provide a platform for unheard […]

Three months, a quarter of a year, since the pandemic lockdown began. Long days, short weeks for many in the nonprofit sector and their funders. The troubling impacts of the lockdown on charities are piling up: lost revenue, staff layoffs, shuttered programs, and negative increases in social indices such as mental illness, domestic violence and food […]

We don’t exist in a bubble in this world. We exist in a web. This is how we need to think about our situation as a philanthropy sector, as a country, as a region and as human beings on our planet. The inevitable push in this pandemic is towards closure, towards turning inward and locking […]

I participated this week in an important discussion facilitated by Tides Canada and Future of Good on the need for foundation philanthropy in Canada to step up its giving in response to the COVID emergency. The spark for this discussion was a call to action by Give5, a new movement dedicated to encouraging foundations to give […]

I am the granddaughter of a historian and I grew up in a family that valued history for what it can tell us about our present and possibly our future. So, I am intrigued by what history might have to say about our responses to the current pandemic. More specifically, I am interested in what […]