Welcome to the Spring 2010 issue of The Philanthropist.
Our February issue focused on some of the big challenges facing the Canadian nonprofit sector. We heard from you that you like the approach and look of the “new” Philanthropist, and that these are indeed the big questions facing the sector. In this issue, we explore some new ways of working—evolving organizational forms and groupings of different players. In other words, this issue looks at structure and collaborations within the sector. Our summer issue will delve into social innovation exploring both the concept and concrete examples of innovation in the nonprofit sector. After all “true innovation cannot happen without collaboration.”1
Our feature article is an exploration of “Charitable Venture Organizations: A New Infrastructure Model for Canadian Registered Charities” prepared by David Stevens and Margaret Mason. This Tides Canada Initiative is one of the most innovative approaches to come on the scene in some time, and this article explores it in some depth. Prefacing the feature article is an introduction by Leslie Wright, which sets the context of this initiative.
Several articles address coalitions and how they are changing the landscape of the nonprofit sector:
• Hilary Pearson writes on coalitions of grantmakers,
• Terris Lutter zeroes in on the work of one of these—the environmental grantmakers, and
• Liz Mulholland looks at new ways of doing policy work including the important roles of coalitions in such work.
And as the sector looks for more effective ways to operate, interesting forms of sharing and collaborating are developing:
• In her thoughtful reflections, Marilyn Struthers observes the patterns of forming, and reforming across the sector, and
• Susan Carter has developed a short inventory of models of shared space, shared services, and collaborations.
Other new ways of working are underway on various fronts:
• Bonnie Greene writes about the struggle to create and hold on to social space in new urban environments,
• Francois Brouard presents a profile of the new philanthropists, and
• Rachel Laforest describes new approaches to impact assessment discussed at last year’s Forum at Queens University.
In addition we have our columns—click on
• Social Media by Ellen Adelberg to read about recent attempts to harness social media to generate revenue;
• What’s the Law for the recent change to the disbursement quota;
• What the Numbers say for highlights from the first Sector Monitor by David Lasby and Cathy Barr of Imagine Canada;
• Point/Counterpoint wherein Bob Wyatt and myself lock horns on the subject of social enterprise; and
• Book Review column to read Bob Wyatt’s review of Uncharitable by Dan Pallotta.
This issue presents an array of Canadian thinking and experience, which we hope you will find stimulating, enlightening, or infuriating. We invite you to become part of the conversation by commenting on or countering what you find here (and remember to register!)
Don Bourgeois
Editor no t e
1. Quote is from Robin Cardozo, CEO of the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
