Imagine that a couple has decided to remodel their kitchen. In preparation, they visit a tile store. A salesperson there works with them to choose the perfect backsplash. Everyone is happy with the final selection and the salesperson begins making arrangement for payment and delivery. Just then the husband pulls out a document from his…
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…
“It’s easy . . . to lose sight of long-term trends amid short-term gyrations,” – Ezra Greenberg, Martin Hirt and Sven Smit (April 2017) in The Global Forces Inspiring a New Narrative of Progress, McKinsey Quarterly Non-profit organizations are living in an environment of great complexity, accelerated change, and unprecedented competition for resources. Some…
The Nonprofit World: Civil Society and the Rise of the Nonprofit Sector, by John Casey, Boulder, Colorado, Kumarian Press, 2016, ISBN 9781565495302 Every month or so, I get together with other folks who work in national non-profits in a laid-back office in Montreal’s Plateau neighbourhood for an evening picnic. It is not just any picnic,…
Summary: Innoweave, an award winning collaborative capacity building program designed and delivered by J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, SiG, and over 150 partners from all sectors across Canada, has added new workshops and resources to help groups of community organizations develop Collective Impact initiatives. Drawing from this experience, the authors describe why Innoweave added a Collective Impact…
Human Resource Management In The Nonprofit Sector: Passion, Purpose And Professionalism Edited by Ronald J. Burke & Cary L. Cooper Northamption, MA: Edward Elgar; 2012 ISBN 978-0-85793-729-2 Nonprofit organizations, as the mission-driven agents of change, are moving from the margins to the centre of our social fabric, especially as government spending on social programs, as a…
Running a nonprofit organization (NPO) is challenging. As an executive, your responsibilities include strategy, program delivery, fundraising, and day-to-day operations. Not to mention board relationships, managing your numbers, keeping the lights on, and the “care and feeding” of the folks who arrive at work every day. NPOs require skilled staff in order to address strategic…
Recently, a colleague shared with me a volunteer experience she had, and that prompted me to write this article. As a fellow not-for-profit employee who is very familiar with volunteerism, she decided that she would share some of her experience and expertise with an organization that was well established and worked with volunteers in many…
Have you ever wanted to change your shape? It sounds appealing in a fantastic, Harry Potteresque kind of way. How about the shape of your organization? Have you ever thought of a wholesale change—of eliminating the committees, of changing the Board? One doubts J. K. Rowling would have fared so well had she pursued this…
The Special Report: Ornge Air Ambulance and Related Services (Office of the Auditor General of Ontario, 2012) reports that the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) has not been obtaining the information it needs to fulfill its oversight responsibilities over Ornge’s financial undertakings and operations. Ornge, a government agency reporting to the MOHLTC, is…