So often in the voluntary sector we talk about collaboration. However, a number of factors can make collaboration in the sector quite difficult. These include: Funder-driven legacy: Often in the Canadian context, when government has encouraged collaboration we have experienced...
Funding is tight, targets are hard to meet, and clients are demanding more from you. Emotions and stress are running high. You meet as a team to find a solution and, if you are like many, you might make the...
Economic and political uncertainty top global news headlines these days. Yet, in the midst of the turbulence, David Holtzman, senior knowledge exchange specialist at the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL), reminds us that “learning is the most important investment we...
A recent report graced the pages of CharityVillage, giving the nonprofit community reason for pause. Titled, Strengthening Organizational Capacity, it drew its findings from an online survey of 235 nonprofit professionals in Canada, the US and the United Kingdom. Co-authored...
Paulette Vinette, CAE and Jack Shand, CAE collaborated on an original research project in 2008 to identify what board members want from their not-for-profit organizations. This article summarizes their findings, which were presented at the Canadian Society of Association Executives...
This past June, the Centre for Social Innovation and Tides Canada organized a one-day event that brought together more than 240 nonprofit leaders of the community. Titled Sharing for Social Change: An Exploration of Shared Space and Shared Service Models...
A new kind of workplace community has not-for-profits sharing common places, spaces and resources. And they're gaining a lot more than a healthier bottom line. Recently, 240 forward-thinking leaders from Ontario's not-for-profit sector came together at Toronto's MaRS Centre. They...
The two main types of board conflicts Board conflicts are among the most challenging conflicts a nonprofit executive faces. They generally come in two forms - conflicts among board members and conflicts between the board and professional management of the...
My organization funds a charity to carry out programs that serve both our missions. We have been giving core support plus project funding, some of it multi-year, for about ten years now. Our priorities have changed and their programs are...
The pace of life for many of us in the not-for-profit sector has become so hectic that we rarely have time to stop to ponder how we are doing. By the time your planned evaluation programs kick in, it is...

