While many of us spent New Year’s Day relaxing, Michael Messenger, executive vice-president of World Vision Canada, donned an orange tutu and ran into Lake Ontario for World Vision’s annual Courage Polar Bear Dip that raises money for Rwandan water...
December traditionally leads the way as the biggest fundraising month for Canadian nonprofits and charities. So what better way to kick off the season of giving than with an entire day devoted to giving back in your community? That's what...
Ah, The Raiser’s Edge - that pillar of software that commands our fundraising lives. For most of us, the mere mention of it can send us into panic mode, triggering a grimace of frustration, anger or despair. Heralded for its...
Charities present many grant requests to our donor board. It gives us an opportunity to better understand them and how we can help them achieve their goals. The crucial question, however, is: On presentation day, will your organization have the...
In a 2011 survey of top 200 charities, as identified by Forbes, 97% report having a Facebook presence, 96% a Twitter account and 92% are using YouTube. But, as any community manager knows, Facebook and Pinterest are not a panacea...
Start by listening Almost a decade ago, my colleagues at Good Works and I conducted the first-ever quantitative research study of direct mail donors in Canada. We surveyed 500 Canadian direct mail donors who had made two or more gifts...
Open the floodgates! The wait is over! The 113-day spat that kept Canadians from enjoying the highest level of our national winter sport is finished, and with it, the dam withholding the millions of dollars, and ample publicity, that annually...
They may be Canada’s two coastal bookends, but two provinces, Nova Scotia and British Columbia, have recently taken almost identical measures to increase the power and reach of social venture organizations in each region. On December 4, 2012, Nova Scotia...
“We’re creative. We’re gonna sit at our desks typing while the walls fall down around us. Because we’re the least important, most important thing there is.” Those were Don Draper’s words during an uncharacteristically cynical moment in the hit series...
Canadian charities: ready yourselves. In late November a new, potentially game-changing foundation launched that could spell financial windfall for many charitable sector organizations over the coming years. Toronto-based Upside Foundation has set itself up as a national vehicle through which...
