Combatting polarization by transforming anger into action
As we commemorate the Quebec City mosque massacre, the Muslim Association of Canada’s Abdul Nakua argues that non-profit organizations can play a critical role in nurturing a vibrant democratic society to combat the toxic effects of polarization.
‘Era of uncertainty’: How leaders in Canada’s non-profit sector are preparing for 2023
Polarization, giving trends, equity, HR issues, reconciliation, the data gap, the climate crisis: we asked leaders in Canada’s non-profit and charitable sector about the challenges and societal shifts they’ll be watching in 2023. Here’s what they had to say.
New pathway to partnership opens with CRA draft guidance on qualifying disbursements
Hopes are high that changes to the Income Tax Act will make it easier to fund non-qualified donees, meaning more resources, more flexibility, and more collaboration between funders and organizations that have often been shut out. The two-month consultation period on the draft guidelines ends January 31.
The future of non-profit work and workers post-pandemic
In the face of unprecedented demand for services, financial vulnerabilities, and a human resources crisis, the sector is at a crossroads. In this introduction to our Work in Progress series, which will examine the key issues relevant to the future of non-profit work and workers, contributor Yvonne Rodney outlines some of the fixes that are needed now.
Featured
Reimagining Philanthropy in Canada
How can we reimagine philanthropy for tomorrow?
Host Ratna Omidvar talks to Lucy Bernholz and Justin Wiebe about a way forward for philanthropy, including a broader understanding of the many ways people give and care for their communities.
Should we think of philanthropy as public money or private money?
Host Ratna Omidvar explores with Liban Abokor, co-founder of Foundation for Black Communities, the nature of philanthropic wealth – who it belongs to – and how to hold the philanthropy sector accountable to the communities it serves.
Diversity and Inclusion
Systemic Islamophobia by the CRA that targets the heart of the community is the worst kind of all
Over the past year, academics and policy experts have been reporting on what appear to be discriminatory practices in the CRA’s audits of Muslim-led charities. Contributor Memona Hossain suggests six ways the sector can help confront this systemic flaw and work with the Muslim charitable sector to build a strong, authentic, and unapologetic Muslim narrative.
It’s not you, it’s them: Women in Power’s invitation to fight systemic failings
Launched in July by Surabhi Jain and Saralyn Hodgkin, Women in Power is an “allyship leadership practice” that urges racialized and white women to turn away from polarization, turn toward discourse, and “stand in our power together” by sharing their lived experiences in the workplace.
Case Studies & Guides
Ontario Trillium Foundation: Four decades of change, challenge, and growth
The Ontario Trillium Foundation was formed in 1982 to provide grants to social service organizations in Ontario communities. Funded by the Ontario government, it began with a $15-million budget that has since grown to more than $100 million in funding across the non-profit sector. The Philanthropist Journal digs into the changes and challenges experienced by OTF on its 40th anniversary.
Five principles to get long-term, flexible funding into the hands of community-led organizations
A recent convening led the Stephen Lewis Foundation to issue a call to action for funders – outlining five anti-colonial funding principles to remove roadblocks for funding community-led organizations.
Decolonization and Reconciliation
Climate transition requires a sense of urgency, sector leaders say
Philanthropic foundations can manage their investments to provide much-needed support on the most urgent issues facing the planet in a variety of ways: divestment, transition financing combined with shareholder engagement, impact/ESG investment – or even winding down and freeing up their endowments to accelerate work toward a net-zero Canada by 2050.
A how-to guide for solving Canada’s digital inequity challenges
There is an urgent need to improve access to critical internet resources in underserved communities across Canada, but the digital equity gap can not be bridged by the private sector and governments alone. There is a clear role for philanthropy, too, in addressing these challenges, and a new how-to guide offers a blueprint.
Series on Rethinking Philanthropy
Measuring and accounting for ‘success’ in the charitable and non-profit sector
The sector’s accountability relationships and how it defines and accounts for “success” are in need of an overhaul, says contributor Nancy Pole. In the fifth article in our Rethinking Philanthropy series, she argues that philanthropic foundations can play a leading role in this transformation – and in so doing, think differently about their own accountabilities.
Assessing the state of the relationship between philanthropy and youth
Youth have long fought at the front lines of social innovation and change, argues the ED of The Youth Harbour and the Foundation for Environmental Stewardship, but when they do receive funding for their grassroots movements, their work is often underestimated and undervalued. She offers some recommendations for how funders can better support youth.
Why moral organizations’ success is crucial to people and planet
It is past time that development NGOs prioritize ethics, argues contributor Robyn Waite: their legitimacy – and success – depends on it, the nature of their practice demands it, and people and planet need moral organizations to succeed.
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Analysis
Ontario Trillium Foundation: Four decades of impact
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Ontario Trillium Foundation. To mark the occasion, The Philanthropist Journal examines the impact the foundation has had on grantees, the non-profit sector, and Ontario communities.
How – and how much – women give is changing the philanthropic landscape
“Broadly, collectively, holistically”: with increasing awareness that it’s time to unlock the potential of women as a key demographic in fundraising strategies, and with women’s and girls’ organizations receiving just 2% of funding, research like that being done by the Women’s Philanthropy Institute aims to jump-start a more woman-friendly version of philanthropy.
The advocacy riddle
How do we ensure the sector has a significant voice in affecting public policy? New research shines a light on the sector’s advocacy efforts, the related challenges, and the structures needed to make that advocacy both broad-based and nimble.
Shifting the conversation: How the sector is using narrative change to advance social change
Changing the way people think about an issue is a precondition to mobilizing action on it. But which organizations have institutionalized narrative change practices as a strategic priority, and how is that playing out day-to-day? How many non-profits are doing the deep listening necessary to understand how audiences perceive their issues, and developing strategic messaging that can shift the conversation?
More articles From the Archives
Charities and the rule against perpetuities
Charitable status is a legally privileged status. The law in numerous ways, ranging from the trivial to the noteworthy, confers legal advantages upon charities. These legal advantages are often misunderstood.
Charity and public welfare in history: A look at Ontario, 1830–1950
Several historical works have described 19th-century Ontario as lacking a conception of public welfare, where the poor were largely left to the benevolence of religious charities. This assumption, however, ignores the complex web of relationships that characterized the delivery of social services in Ontario and in many English-speaking regions across Canada.
Art, after virus: Seven questions for a sector on the edge
In 1999, the Metcalf Foundation collaborated with The Philanthropist to curate a series on the public value of arts and culture in Canada. Now, in the midst of the pandemic, there is a new urgency to the challenges facing the arts.
Strategies for a caring society
This article was developed from a paper presented at Investigating in the Whole Community: Strategies for a Caring Society, a conference organized by the Trillium
Featured Contributors
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Miles Morrisseau
Miles Morrisseau is a Métis writer, journalist, and multimedia producer from the Métis homeland in Manitoba.
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Christina Palassio
Christina Palassio is a non-profit communications professional and freelance writer. When she tweets, she does so at @mcpalassio.
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Angela Long
Angela Long is a freelance writer currently working on a book about rural journalism in Canada.
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Kareem Shaheen
Kareem Shaheen is a journalist based in Montreal. Previously, he was Middle East correspondent for The Guardian, based in Beirut and Istanbul.
- All Featured Contributors