Philanthropy 101

Late last year, Hamilton's McMaster University received a rare and welcome boon: a $10,000 grant from the Massachusetts-based Sunshine Lady Foundation to create and administer a philanthropy class, titled the Strategic Philanthropy and Leadership Course, at the university's DeGroote School...

Turning a business idea into a charitable organization

Setting up and running a charitable organization can be a tricky business, so it's important to ensure that you're always on the right side of the law. In this podcast, Adam and Nicole discuss the question of turning a business...

Humber Initiative on Philanthropy: Moving fundraising forward

On May 13th, a group of professional fundraisers descended upon the Lakeshore Campus of Toronto's Humber College for a day of learning, lively discussion and interaction. The inaugural Humber Initiative on Philanthropy, organized by graduate students of Humber's Fundraising and...

Fundraising Q&A: What to do after accepting emergency grant funding

We've reached the end of our rope. One of our funders has extended a grant to ensure we survive this year, but how do we prove to them (and others) that we're a viable organization? Ouch...that's a really hard question...

The Print Shop: A case study in sustainability

My very first CharityVillage assignment in 2005, on social entrepreneurship, brought me to an old renovated fire hall in downtown Toronto. The headquarters of the story's main subject, Eva Phoenix's Print Shop, it's also the home of a transitional housing...

Better start planning how you are going to manage the impact of the recession

Research conducted that assesses which organizations will withstand the impact of the recession conclude that it is not necessarily those that are boasting the largest budgets or the most effective fundraising efforts in 2008. Organizations that are most likely to...

Funder stewardship: Talk is not cheap

It's safe to say that in the 70-plus years since its inception, the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, a private Montreal-based funder, has established itself as a veritable mainstay of Canada's charitable sector. With an objective of encouraging active citizenship and...

Managing endowments during difficult financial times

Many charities, and in particular foundations, that have established endowment funds are currently concerned about the impact caused by the recent downturn of the economy with regards to their reduced ability to meet their disbursement quota requirements under the Income...

Have cause, will travel

It's not every Christmas Eve that one finds oneself in the remote village of Cusco, Peru stirring up vats of Peruvian hot chocolate and handing out mug-fulls to the local street children. But that's exactly how Ari and Jennifer Zainuddin...

Rolling the dice on charity lotteries

Sometimes you just have to take a chance and see what happens. This philosophy applies to many of us who like a little risk in our lives, especially when the gambling bug bites us. So it's little wonder that some...