The Vancouver Island community of Saanich has a lot of heart – literally. Since summer 2020, Saanich residents have decorated more than 900 wooden and clay hearts that now adorn structures all over community parks and spaces. Brenda Weatherston is a community arts specialist with the municipality, and one of the people behind the HeArts…
La collectivité de Saanich, sur l’île de Vancouver, a beaucoup de cœur — littéralement. Depuis l’été 2020, ses résidents ont décoré plus de 900 cœurs en bois et en argile, lesquels ornent maintenant des structures dans les parcs et les espaces communautaires. Brenda Weatherston est une spécialiste des arts communautaires auprès de la municipalité, et l’une des…
As troubling reports surfaced last year outlining the disproportionately high positivity rates of COVID-19 in racialized communities, Toronto-based resident doctor Vivek Govardhanam and some of his colleagues noticed a concerning trend: the information broadcast by public health units and governments wasn’t always reaching the most vulnerable people. He was thinking specifically of first-generation Canadians and…
When Kyle Russell, interim director of Alberta Theatre Projects (ATP), hears on the radio that the Alberta government is banning all gatherings of 250 people or more, he’s on his way to Walmart in search of hand sanitizer. The entire front-of-house staff is scouring Calgary for the elusive product – a quest shared by millions…
This is the first of an ongoing “Solutions Journalism” series. Its goal is to provide practical, informative, and expert resources and tools in concise, approachable articles, in response to feedback from readers and our editorial advisory committee about what they feel is relevant and timely. *** When the 162-year-old Yarmouth YMCA closed its doors for…
This is the third and final article in a series published as a collaboration between The Philanthropist and Century Initiative. *** The COVID-19 pandemic has affirmed an adage often attributed to management guru Peter Drucker: “What gets measured gets managed.” The latest COVID-19 case numbers and vaccination rates are not just frequent topics of discussion –…
This is the first in a series of profiles about past winners – “laureates” – of the Arctic Inspiration Prize. “By the North, for the North,” the prize celebrates and provides seed funding every year to groups working to develop new and creative projects that solve challenges in the North. Northerners helping Northerners is a…
Philanthropy: From Aristotle to Zuckerberg, by Paul Vallely. Bloomsbury Publishing, London; 2020; 756 pp. ISBN HB 978-1-4729-2012-6 If you have been looking for a comprehensive history of the concept and practice of Western philanthropy, you have it now in the form of this lengthy but very readable book by Paul Vallely, a British writer and…
This week: responses to anti-Asian hate crimes and the lack of giving to Black-led organizations, CanadaHelps hits a milestone, more drama from the WE saga, and the dearth of digital philanthropy. Responding to anti-Asian racism and the Atlanta shootings The Toronto chapter of the Chinese Canadian National Council and Butterfly (Asian and Migrant Sex Workers…
A report published in October found that digital development in Canada is not prioritized by the charitable sector, leaving projects such as rural broadband access and digital literacy “underfunded, piecemeal, ad hoc and unorganized.” The study, titled Unconnected: Funding Shortfalls, Policy Imbalances and How They Are Contributing to Canada’s Digital Underdevelopment, was produced by the…