Just Giving: Why Philanthropy Is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better, by Rob Reich. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, 2018, ISBN 9780691184395 Just Giving, by Stanford University professor Rob Reich, is a fascinating book for students of political philosophy and for thoughtful foundation leaders. It takes on fundamentally important questions: what…
In November 2018, Mowat NFP and the Community Safety Knowledge Alliance hosted Innovation in Evidence, a conference on evidence-informed policymaking. Internationally, evidence institutions like What Works Centres have been transforming how evidence is used in the policymaking process to address “wicked” social problems, ranging from social isolation among seniors to policing interventions for crime reduction….
Putting Wealth to Work: Philanthropy for Today or Investing for Tomorrow?, by Joel L. Fleischman. PublicAffairs. New York, New York, 2017, ISBN: 9781610395335 Joel Fleischman is the director of the Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society at Duke University. He is one of the most respected scholars of philanthropy in the US and…
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…