Gena Rotstein's blog

There are several things we can learn from past natural disasters and the way that donations were handled:

Once again we are facing an international humanitarian crisis - an earthquake in Japan that has tsunami ripple effects across the world.

Guest blogger - Karine Aviv

Last week I had the pleasure of volunteering in my daughter's grade 5 class at Nellie McClung Elementary School in Calgary, for a fundraiser for the Conquer Cancer Foundation.  It was very touching to see all the kids in her classroom so excited about the event, and to see the rest of the school participate.

In honour of International Women's Day this post is about women and philanthropy.  Part of this post comes from a presentation I made at the Insight Series for the Canadian Women's Foundation a few weeks ago.

In a recent Tactical Philanthropy blog post, Sean Stannard-Stockton highlights four approaches to philanthropy:

Guest blogger – Karine Aviv

Ever since I started working in this sector, I’ve been hearing a lot about fraud.  This is a great concern, because as someone who donates money to charities, I want to know that it is being put to good use, and not going into someone’s personal pocket.  So, what is really going on?

Yesterday was Family Day in several provinces across Canada.  I was thinking about the different family day activities that were happening in Calgary and how many of them were being offered by non-profit organizations in the city - Calgary Zoo, Telus World of Science, Glenbow Museum were three agencies that were targeting families over the long weekend.

Guest blogger - Karine Aviv

Bio: Karine is the marketing manager at Dexterity Consulting. She previously worked at Hitachi-ID (previously M-Tech Information Technology) as the Director of Marketing. Her education background is a BA in Psychology and an MBA in Information Systems.  She lives with her husband and three daughters in Calgary.

I have three daughters, ages 10, 7 and 3.  Teaching them about the importance of community is an on-going process.  By working together with their schools as a team, we are teaching them how to be active members of the community, and that we have a responsibility to help those that are less fortunate and contribute to the common good.

The past few weeks have seen several different reports on Trends in Philanthropy for 2011.  A few months ago I shared my thoughts on what the next couple of years will hold - here are the two most recent blog posts on this topic:

Opportunity in the Void - Societal Paradigm Shift

5 Global Forces that will Change Charitable Sector

Apple has recently decided to prohibit the use of apps by non-profit organizations that would allow iPhone users the ability to make donations.  As a philanthropic advisor, and the CEO of Canada’s first (and only) donor-centered charitable search engine, I find this problematic for two reasons:

1. I feel that is not Apple’s place to be the Gate Keeper of whom and how people can donate to charities. 
    
2. The charitable marketplace is the second largest contributor to Canada’s economy, and as a service provider to both charities and donors, it is important to note that the charitable sector does not respond to market pressures in the same way as other sectors.  Large smart phone manufacturers and corporations, such as Apple, need to recognize the changes that are occurring in the charitable sector marketplace, most especially the way that people are directing their charitable dollars.
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