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…
New Power: How Power Works in our Hyperconnected World – and How to Make It Work for You, by Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms. Toronto, Ontario, 2018, ISBN 978-0345816443 New Power, by co-authors Australian Jeremy Heimans and British/American Henry Timms, is a timely and optimistic book about the possibilities for social and economic transformation…
The Givers: Wealth, Power and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age, by David Callahan, New York, Knopf, 2017, ISBN 978-1-101-94705-0 All eyes are on Washington, DC, these days as we watch the latest confrontations and debates among the political power brokers in the Trump Administration and Congress. The Trump election and presidency has provoked closer…
This article coincides with the release of a new impact investing guidebook designed to help Canadian foundations begin investing their capital for greater impact. We are at a tipping point for impact investing by foundations in Canada. A growing number are using this approach to support organizations and projects that share their mission. They are…
As we mark the 150th anniversary of confederation, The Philanthropist is profiling Canadians from across the non-profit sector and putting a face to 150 individuals who work or volunteer in Canada’s social sector. Name: Hilary Pearson Current role in the sector: President, Philanthropic Foundations Canada Years working and/or volunteering in the non-profit sector: Over 20 years. What was your…
This article is the second in a series on Indigneous Communities and Philanthropy. SUMMARY: On June 1, 2015, a group of Canadian philanthropic organizations and individual funders presented a collective Declaration of Action to the closing session of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Ottawa. Signatories pledge, among other things, to work towards reconciliation and…
Summary: In 2010 Hilary Pearson wrote in The Philanthropist about the emerging trend of creating Funder Collaboratives to address the challenges of the 2008/2009 economic downturn. In this update, Pearson looks at the emergence of Collective Impact from a funder’s perspective, exploring whether this new approach can help address perennial questions of effectiveness and impact and…
When the economic d ownturn of 2008/2009 began to tighten access to resources and to constrain the grants made by funders, attention turned to collaboration as a strategic response to tough times. Working together seemed to offer a way out of the financial box for charities and funders alike. Indeed, the talk of strategic alliances…
Rethinking Philanthropic Effectiveness: Lessons from an International Network of Foundation Experts Edited by Dirk Eilinghoff. Published by Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2005, 180 pp. Paper: US $30.00 Creative Philanthropy By Helmut Anhaier and Diana Leat. Published by Routledge, 2006, 232 pp. Paper: CDN $53.95 REVIEWED BY HILARY PEARSON President, Philanthropic Foundations Canada In North America, and…