donor

In the conversation about charity transparency and evaluation the way you ask the question is just as important as the data that you are evaluating.  Understanding the context in which the charity operates will influence how you interperet the data.  For any charity analysis to be meaningful comparing like-organizations adds a level of clarity and strengthens the underlying context of the information.

Check out Place2Give's new charity reporting portal to see a sample of what you might want to consider when comparing organizations.  Don't forget, your own motivations add a layer of complexity to this evalaution.  Do you know what type of donor you are?  Click here to take a donor profiling survey.

Last month I started a blog post about creating a social enterprise dictionary. A discussion was started with comments coming from a variety of individuals.  Last night, over a glass of wine and some "old-fashioned" social networking with David Ian Gray, more was added to the #socent lexicon. Read more »

I have been watching the ripple effects of the allegations of misuse of funds by Three Cups of Tea author and charity founder, Greg Mortensen.  Mr. Mortensen has been accused of spending donor dollars to promote his book, and more importantly that what he says he is promoting is not what is happening on the ground.

In a recent article published by McKinsey and Company, "Global Forces: An Introduction," five trends were identified as the new directions for business.  These same five trends can be applied to global charity and philanthropy. Read more »

Guest Blogger: Amy Lewis is currently completing her Bachelor of Communications-Public Relations Degree at Mount Royal University with an anticipated graduation Summer 2010.  Amy has diverse range communication experience.  Including marketing, media relations and, event planning. For her first internship Amy held the position of marketing coordinator for WorldSkills Calgary 2009.  Amy enjoys exploring the variety of options that Marketing and Public Relations presents. 

Things as of late are looking pretty good, the housing market is in recovery, the economy is beginning to rebound but it wasn't that long ago that we were all crying the sky is falling. Everything appeared to be doom and gloom. Read more »

I normally don't post two blogs in one day, but I read this blog this morning and want to share it with you.  Thank you Seth for allowing me to repost this piece!  You can follow Seth Godin on Twitter @thisissethsblog. Read more »

I had the privilege of hearing Tom Jackson and his wife Alison speak at the Calgary Social Venture Partners AGM last week.  Aside from being an amazing actor and singer, Tom started a foundation called, Singing for Supper, in support of Canada's Homeless. 

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I have been thinking a lot about the word "Philanthropy" lately.  Not because linguistics fascinates me, but because more and more frequently I am hearing from people how they are not "philanthropists".  This is usually in the context of the dollar value of which they donate, not their nature or charitable tendencies.

The word philanthropy comes from the Greek philanthropos, the love of mankind - Phil = Loving and Anthropos = Mankind.  Our use of the word philanthropy as it pertains to charitable donations was not brought into the common English lexicon until 1730.  At that point it time it was not associated with any value beyond someone who donated to charity.  In fact, it wasn't until major family foundations like Kellogg, Carnegie and Ford came along that the word took on the "large-dollar" value connotations. Read more »