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 second in a series of articles published as a collaboration between The Philanthropist and Century Initiative. *** Willa Black is vice-president of corporate affairs and corporate social responsibility at the Canadian arm of IT and networking company Cisco. She has held executive marketing and CSR roles at Cisco Canada since 1999, leading strategies to…
This is the first in a series of articles published as a collaboration between The Philanthropist and Century Initiative. *** Canada is at a crossroads. Our population is aging, our fertility rates are below replacement levels, and our workforce is shrinking. As the non-working-age population grows, and as people live longer, the burden on our…
Nearly one million workers in Canada’s not-for-profit sector lack a workplace retirement plan. High-quality retirement plans with matching contributions are an effective way to build long-term employee financial health, and evidence shows that employees without a plan are unlikely to save enough for their retirement. To point, the median savings of households aged 55 to…
The Corporate Social Mind: How Companies Lead Social Change from the Inside Out, by Derrick Feldmann and Michael Alberg-Seberich, Fast Company Press, Austin, Texas, 2020; 232 pp: ISBN: 978-1734324808 Are the most successful corporations those that focus primarily on the financial value they create for shareholders? Or can they be even more successful if they…
As the COVID-19 pandemic raged in March, Bayan Khatib knew she had to act quickly. The executive director of the Syrian Canadian Foundation was in charge of a program that taught English to newcomers to set them on the path to integration, and another that funded and mentored refugee women who want to become entrepreneurs….
At the end of 2019, the San Francisco-based tech giant Salesforce invited more than 5,500 non-profit professionals to attend more than 300 sessions focused specifically on the sector at its annual mega-conference: Dreamforce. It might be Salesforce’s ideal market. For one thing, it’s enormous, making up 8.5% of Canada’s GDP and employing more than two…
With COVID-19 prompting dramatic change across Canada’s charitable sector, stories of layoffs, cancelled fundraisers, and virtual meetings have become commonplace. Individual organizations are handling the crisis differently and, especially in recent weeks, many are finding new ways to circumvent pandemic-related obstacles and continue to provide needed services. From non-profits serving vulnerable communities in some of…