Point : Don Bourgeois Whether or not there is a charitable and not-for-profit “sector” is more than an exercise in semantics. Its existence (or non-existence) matters because the idea of a “sector” speaks to commonalities of interest and cohesion, and those factors lead to influence and political power. In politics, size does matter to the…
Contents: Volume 23, Issue 1 (2010) Challenges and Opportunities Facing the Nonprofit Sector
Our plan was to begin a series of columns on the use of technology by civil society organizations with a glossary of terms and tools with a balanced consideration of the benefits and challenges inherent in each. Like many plans, ours has been overtaken by events. Pundits, journalists, bloggers, and even politicians had become aware…
“Endowments” are held by many Canadian charities. However, the source of these endowed funds and the nature of the legal conditions applicable to these endowments vary widely. More and more often charities that hold endowments are seeking input on how they can or should spend their endowments. The answer to whether they can only spend income…
The nonprofit sector—Canada’s growing economic giant. Well, you won’t read that headline anywhere. Most Canadians are unaware of the role that the country’s nonprofit sector plays in our economy. However, data from Statistics Canada continues to show what a key player the nonprofit sector really is. It also shatters old stereotypes about nonprofit organizations relying…
Welcome to 2010 and the first issue of The (new) Philanthropist. We hope that The Philanthropist / Le Philanthrope will contribute to the strengthening of the nonprofit sector by creating space for reflection, conversation, and debate. In this first issue we present an impressive group of contributors who explore different aspects of the challenges and opportunities…
Yves Vaillancourt Introduction À la suite d’une demande de son comité éditorial, j’ai accepté d’écrire de temps en temps des articles en français dans la revue bilingue The Philantropist / Le Philanthrope. Pour le premier article, j’ai tenu compte d’une suggestion à l’effet que je livre une vision d’ensemble des principales questions auxquelles se trouve…
Mandeep Tiwana and Clare Doube remind us in their article “Civil Society Under Attack,” featured in this issue of The Philanthropist / Le Philathrope, that civil society is openly repressed and under attack in many parts of the world, which should make us feel very fortunate as Canadians. Our governments may suddenly withdraw funding from…
We know, or at least I think we know, that we are living in a time of radical change in our natural environments, our resources, our economies, our demographics, our social values, even our fundamental frames of seeing the world around us. The late Thomas Berry often said that we, we humans, need a new…
We have a new name. We have been the Vancouver Volunteer Centre or Volunteer Vancouver for 66 years. Our new name is Vantage Point. You might ask, “Why the change?” The answer is: Because the world is changing. Fast. Really fast. Since the inception of our volunteer centre in 1943, Canadian society and volunteer engagement…
The economic swells of the last 18 months stress-tested the system of charitable endowments. Headlines announced spectacular losses to these long-term funds. My favourite was the headline to a Vanity Fair article that chronicled “Harvard’s Big, Dumb Financial Train Wreck.” The world biggest endowment lost $11 billion of its $36.9 billion.1 While it is tempting…