Today has been an interesting day...  I went from a discussion on duplication of services and the pitfalls of international development reporting, to mission drift and chasing after the almighty dollar, to donor education and the business of philanthropy, back to international development all in a matter of 6 hours.  My head is spinning, but oh the ideas! 

My morning started off with Mocha at Caffe Rosso (while this is not a site to promote coffee shops, I would like to give a shout out to Dave for starting my day off right today - thank you!) and conversation with founder and CEO of the Fig Tree Foundation, Paul Gomes.  One of the many things that we discussed was donor education, and the role that his foundation, other NGO's and consultancies can play in providing this education.  We talked about organizations like the Global Philanthropy Forum and how so few resources there are for Canadians philanthropists, either as networking opportunities or informational tools. 

Our conversation transitioned over to the Round Tables that Fig Tree Foundation hosts. This is a concept that brings together like-minded NGO's to hear what each other is doing, provide a space for collaboration and information sharing and an opportunity to avoid duplication of services by hearing what else is going on in Calgary's international development community. 

As we progressed through this conversation I referred back to one that I had had with CAWST and ChristmasFuture and the Symposium idea for bringing together, not just NGO's but businesses who do work in developing countries, people who fund projects and government bodies who are pulling funding.  In an effort not to duplicate services in envision a model that builds upon this round-table concept and perhaps opening up the floor so that unlikely partners can find a safe-space to collaborate and innovate. 

This conversation went full-circle back to transparency and accountabilities and the important, and somewhat daunting task NGO's are faced with, especially in the developing world, with reporting back to donors their impact and effectiveness.  Needless-to-say, we came up with some great ideas.  For more about this symposium concept please join the LinkedIn Group - Generating Social Capital.