La plupart des philanthropes mettent sur pied une fondation dans le but de redonner à la société. Ils investissent leur argent, leurs compétences, leur expérience et leurs connaissances dans ce qui leur semble le plus utile et satisfaisant (Fondations philanthropiques Canada, 2015). Tôt ou tard, ils apprennent toutefois que la société ou la communauté qu’ils…
Most philanthropists create a foundation as a way to give back to society. They commit their money, skills, experience, and knowledge to what promises to be most useful and satisfying (Philanthropic Foundations Canada, 2015). Sooner or later, however, they learn that the society or community they wish to serve has very specific opinions and expectations…
Six men killed, six women widowed, 17 children left fatherless, and one survivor paralyzed. Two years on, many Muslims are still reeling from the shock of the attack on the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City. As communities across the country gather on January 29 to remember the lives of Ibrahima Barry, Mamadou Tanou Barry,…
Charities in Canada face a long-term crisis of financial sustainability. Their missions will become more challenging with continuing demographic and cultural change. There will be a growing gap between the needs Canadians expect charities to meet and the resources available to carry out their missions.[1] These fundamental social, cultural, and economic trends are leading to…
Three events over the course of one week in November 2017 shone a light on the past, present, and future of social innovation in Canada. At the Social Innovation Generation (SiG) Sunset event, 500 people gathered at MaRS in Toronto to celebrate the end of SiG. Originating in Tim Brodhead’s realization that philanthropy’s toolkit was…
Les organismes caritatifs canadiens font face à un défi persistant de viabilité financière. La réalisation de leur mission se complexifie au fur et à mesure que des changements démographiques et culturels continuent à s’opérer dans la société. De plus, l’écart entre les besoins auxquels ils doivent répondre pour satisfaire les attentes des Canadiens et les…
When the federal government released its Fall Economic Statement in November, it signaled what many in Canadian philanthropic circles would regard as a sea-change in Ottawa’s thinking about a sector that employs more than two million Canadians and accounts for 8% of the country’s GDP. After years of dealing with everything from outmoded legislation to…
This is the final article in our series about European philanthropy. The series is published as a collaboration between The Philanthropist and The Lawson Foundation. Early in 2018, well before Theresa May’s Tory government revealed its contentious proposal for splitting with the European Union, the Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros placed a £400,000 bet on an outspokenly anti-Brexit lobby…
Social Enterprise Law: Trust, Public Benefit, and Capital Markets, by Dana Brakman Reiser and Steven A. Dean. Oxford University Press. New York, U.S.A., 2018, ISBN: 9780190249786 How do you persuade social entrepreneurs and impact investors to trust one another’s commitment to impact? That’s the question Social Enterprise Law attempts to answer. Social enterprises (here defined…
This article is the second in a renewed collaboration between The Philanthropist and The Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. The goal is to highlight Indigenous philanthropy and share Indigenous perspective and wisdom on reciprocity as well as Indigenous-focused work happening in the philanthropic community. In 2007, I wrote one of my first articles…