Gena Rotstein's blog

In yesterday's Globe & Mail Carly Weeks asks the question, "Are Canadians up to the [Giving Pledge] challenge?" Read more »

Charity scams are alive and well in Canada.  In 2003 the Chronicle of Philanthropy released a report that in North America over $1.28B is lossed due to fraud (and that is only the fraud that is caught!).  This hit home this week when Ashley Kirilow was denied bail for her part in a cancery charity scam. Read more »

In a recent article published by McKinsey and Company, "Global Forces: An Introduction," five trends were identified as the new directions for business.  These same five trends can be applied to global charity and philanthropy. Read more »

Guest Blogger: Michele Frugel-Gartner is the Executive Director Social Venture Partners Calgary. Prior to this role, Michele was employed with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and participated in Rotary Internationals Group Study Exchange to Saitama, Japan where she studied the role of philanthropy and Japanese civil society.  She received her M.A. degree in International Studies and Diplomacy at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and is an alumna of the Asia Pacific Leadership Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, HI.

Note about this post: Michele and I are on the planning committee of the Innovation Exchange.  This blog originally appread on the Social Finance site.  It has been reposted with permission from the author.

A year ago, I started quietly along a path to understand the legal and regulatory structures and challenges of social enterprise. It was a quest for knowledge and was parlayed into a course on public policy for nonprofits. For six months, I diligently read everything published on the topic with the hopes that my knowledge in the topic would expand and I'd be able to influence the topic. Starting out slowly and independently, I never imagined how quickly the ball would start to roll. Read more »

Last week I was having coffee with two amazing and insightful people at my favourite local coffee shop - @CaffeRosso in Ramsay. @MicheleFGartner and Bob McInnis, Executive Director of @brownbaggingit, and I were talking about donor motivations and charity trends around fundraising and identifying other revenue streams.  At some point during the conversation Michele identified that "Feel-Good Philanthropy" can have a negative downstream effect on overall grant-making because it does not look at a foundations overall social strategy. Read more »

Carters Professional Corporate just released their latest charity law update.

Here is an excerpt:

A CRA news release, issued on June 14, 2010, notes that 810 charities were selected for audit last year. As a result, the CRA revoked the charitable status of 40 charities for serious infractions of the law. Many additional charities also lost their charitable status for failure to file their annual return.  Read more »

The other day Warren Buffet along with Bill & Melinda Gates announced the Giving Pledge campaign to speak with the wealthiest people in North America and urge them to give 50% of their wealth. Read more »

This blog post is in response to comments made by Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff regarding Canada's pull-out from Afghanistan in 2011. Read more »

Guest Writer: Social Justice Mommy (SJM) is a regular blogger.  When she is not writing for this blog, Heather Setka, is an editor and freelance writer and single mom raising a five year old daughter.

Where There's Smoke, There's Ire

Sometimes in my quest to raise the perfect socially conscious child, I fail. Read more »

Ottawa, Ontario, June 7, 2010... The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has revoked the status of the Canadian Lacrosse Association as a registered Canadian amateur athletic association (RCAAA), effective June 5, 2010. The following notice of revocation was published in the Canada Gazette: Read more »