charity

The news lately has focused on the bad economy, growing personal debt and the downward trend toward a recession.  It’s times like these that the media also focuses on the vibrancy of the charitable sector and increased demands on front-line agencies like food banks to meet the needs of newly laid-off individuals and others affected by a down market.

Here’s the thing with giving, the true philanthropy, it is non incentivized. It is a transactional response to an emotional experience.  In a down economy we still have those same emotions.  My observation is, that in some cases, these emotions are heightened under the constant reminder of financial insecurity.  So when charities cry poverty during a down economy, my guess is that they were heading this way long-before the economy took a turn.  The financial environment accelerated or exacerbated the situation.

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For the past six months or so Place2Give has been supporting Give A Mile by connecting donors to flights so that families can be reunited in a time of crisis.  In an our ongoing commitment to report on what happens as a result of the generosity of our clients here is an update from GAM Founder, Kevin Crowe.

Our impact to date =  

112 Flights given to people for visits of support.
22 International in nature 
4,352,280 miles used

That is 112 people distressed and worried.  People unable to get to their loved ones, people who went from moments of despair and anxiety to moments of love and support.  You have done all of it out of the goodness and compassion of your hearts.  How many sleepless nights have you removed?  How many last fond memories have you given that will allow healing and people to move forward?   How many times has a loved one who was alone and afraid been comforted by the love that may have not been there but for the work and effort you have put in to make a flight happen. 

How to put it in to words ….. a hand reaching out to hold that of a loved one whose time is running out….  In the words of a flight recipient...

This week I had the privilege of attending the Nexus Youth Summit in Washington, DC.  The purpose of this summit is to bring together leaders in philanthropy, social enterprise, social finance and the Next Generation for a series of conversations that lead to action around the critical issues facing our communities - locally, nationally, internationally.

One session that stood out in particular for me was a session on Climate and Philanthropy.  A panel discussion with:

• Ibrahim Al-Husseini, FullCycle Energy
• Ellen Dorsey, Wallace Global Fund
• Alex Bozmoski, Energy & Enterprise Initiative
• Megan Nicholson, Information Technology & Innovation Foundation

As you can see, this panel cross the spectrum of Republicans and Democrats with a view to find economic solutions and market-based solutions to environmental problems.  

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Every month we share the latest tech updates to the Place2Give website and the technology solutions offered through Dexterity Ventures Inc.

The entire Dexterity Ventures (DVI) team has been head down in preparation for GivingTuesday and the presentation at CKX Summit in Toronto (more info about that here) that happened on November 20^th. As such, we would like to use our tech blog this month as a taster for the things we've launched over the month.

We set-up and launched the GivingTuesday Campaign for Place2Give and Dexterity Ventures in anticipation of Tuesday December 2^nd (aka 2014’s ‘GivingTuesday’). The Place2Give GivingTuesday Motif Giving Campaign can be found here.

Over the past five years I have been writing about strategic giving and social impact investing.  Since starting this blog, Generating Social Capital, and working with clients on the Karma & Cents™ philanthropy planning process the landscape has changed and as a result so too has my approach to strategic philanthropy.  

As we enter into the holiday season, as is typical, we will all be approached to donate.  Some of us will look at this as opportunity to give as part of our tax planning process, others will be looking at the holiday giving season with more of a philanthropic approach.  Either way, giving should be done with mindfulness.

Enter GivingTuesday. A national movement that is leading the charge on counter-balancing Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  Please read on, to learn more about how we are encouraging people to use the GivingTuesday movement for strategic philanthropy.

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Philanthropy - the Greek word meaning the love of humankind.  Over time we have taken this concept and made it into a financial transaction with tax credits and incentives to do what we should do naturally – love each other.

My opinion on the #ALSIceBucket campaign has been pretty strong.  In a piece I wrote for the Calgary Herald and other posts about slacktivism campaigns, I talk about the ripple effect of giving.  This is no different, except for this time the Ice Bucket Challenge was given to me.

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For the past several years I have been blogging about the challenges facing the charitable sector, in large part, because of the way that it has been structured, and continues to be managed.  The expectation that the CRA or the IRS has any role or responsibility in managing the way that the sector operates is not only foolish, but unrealistic.  Below is a blog post originally written by Nadine Riopel,The Savvy Do Gooder on just how the sector is broken. I will post part two in the coming days. 

The Place2Give Foundation’s Southern Alberta Emergency Relief Fund has continued to hear back from the agencies that received donations and we want to take this opportunity to share the information and provide an additional update.

In this second in a series of blogs about the Place2Give GivingTuesday Fund, we want to encourage our readers to give more this holiday season.

Many people know about Black Friday and Cyber Monday... now GivingTuesday is coming to Canada on December 3, 2013.  It is a new Canadian day of giving and volunteering, taking place each year after Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  The “Opening day of the giving season,” GivingTuesday is a day where charities, companies and individuals join together to share commitments, rally for favorite causes and think about others.  The goal is to heighten the importance of giving, improve attitudes, and increase giving and volunteering behaviour.  We have two days that are good for the economy.  Now we have a day that is good for the community too.