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…
The charitable sector is responding rapidly to the expanding impact of the pandemic, in terms of outreach, operations, and advocacy. In the coming weeks, The Philanthropist will provide up-to-date coverage, as well as our usual reporting and commentary on other news of relevance to foundations, charities, and non-profits. Read more of our COVID-19 coverage. For charities and non-profits contending…
The charitable sector is responding rapidly to the expanding impact of the pandemic, in terms of outreach, operations, and advocacy. In the coming weeks, The Philanthropist will provide up-to-date coverage, as well as our usual reporting and commentary on other news of relevance to foundations, charities, and non-profits. Read more of our COVID-19 coverage. As Canadians pull together…
Note du rédacteur : Le secteur caritatif répond rapidement à l’impact croissant de la pandémie, pour ce qui est de la sensibilisation, des opérations et de la défense des intérêts. Au cours des prochaines semaines, The Philanthropist suivra l’actualité en plus de publier nos rapports et commentaires habituels concernant d’autres nouvelles d’intérêt pour les fondations, les…
This is the second of two articles about artificial intelligence. “An AI utopia is a place where people have income guaranteed because their machines are working for them. Instead, they focus on activities that they want to do, that are personally meaningful like art or, where human creativity still shines, in science.” – Oren…
This is the first of two articles about artificial intelligence. Although we recognize it is a loaded question, we asked Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant, “how can we solve homelessness?” The boilerplate answer, not surprisingly: “Sorry, I don’t know that one.” It is easy to conclude that machine intelligence is a long way from helping…
The Intrepid Nonprofit: Strategies for Success in Turbulent Times, by Tim Plumptre. Friesen Press, Victoria, B.C., 2019; 330 pp; ISBN 9781525505423 It’s become a truism that we are living and working in a time of extraordinary turbulence. The corollary is that leaders of organizations in such times face stiffer challenges. It’s never been easy…
Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, by Anand Giridharadas. Knopf. New York, 2018; 304 pp: ISBN 9780451493248 Juniper Glass: I didn’t think I would like this book. I had a knee jerk reaction to the slickness of both the title and the author’s hairdo.[1] And, I must admit, by how much…
Photo credit: Senate of Canada Just months after Ottawa set up an advisory body to look at the future of Canadian charities, a Senate committee this week released a 190-page report with a sweeping range of legal and policy reforms that, its members say, are necessary to ensure the health of a sector that generates…