Since 2007, I’ve been writing on civil society, philanthropy, social enterprise, and public diplomacy.
The writing included on this site has been previously published through a variety of networks, including The Conversation, Alliance Magazine, Trico Charitable Foundation, Foreign Policy Association, Social Venture Partners Calgary, Social Innovation Generation, Social Finance.ca, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
I.M.M.A.A.M.M.M
Instead what we know is that in the best examples of social enterprise – we see organizations first looking to their assets -What can we leverage? What are we really great at? Who is in our community? – to build their businesses. They don’t use the lowest common denominator of “How much can we charge our beneficiaries for this service?”
#givingtuesday, I didn’t.
It feels blasphemous to admit that I didn't buy into Giving Tuesday. I'm certain this admission will count against me in the do-gooders tally. On Giving Tuesday, I silently floated through the day afraid to admit my concerns. It was only after a glass of wine with...
Delving deeper into power
My kudos to Alliance for taking on the topic of power and philanthropy. It’s not a topic that we often wade into very deeply, and, as Peter Buffett’s op?ed in the New York Times showed, once the surface is scratched a multitude of perspectives and opinions emerge....
Lysol Wipes
On the Saturday after the Calgary flood, I signed up to the (then) fledgling YYCHelps.ca as a volunteer. On the Monday after the flood, our family returned home, cleaned out the fridge and took stock of what we could offer. Our first stop was our Community Center. We...
Pennies for Charity and Copper for Government?
Canada getting rid of the penny has given me some good food for thought over the past few days, particularly since there has been promotion of charities using their 'drive' mentality to collect pennies from the public as a fundraising mechanism. The thought of...
Pursuing Legacy
“I hate it when people call themselves “entrepreneurs” when what they’re really trying to do is launch a start-up and then sell or go public, so they can cash in and move on. They’re unwilling to do the work it takes to build a real company, which is the hardest work...
Social Enterprises Require the Build-to-Keep Crowd, Too.
The lure of technology lies in its dynamism. The development of sleeker hardware and faster software lingers just around the corner, fueling the competitive desire to get to it first. Within the organizations birthed by this drive, the lights are dim, the drive is...
It’s about nuances, not breakthroughs
Public diplomacy is something I love and I think, something I practice, but not in the way I ever thought I would. Today's Globe and Mail article on Allan Gotlieb provided a beautiful snapshot of why I enjoy it so much. (Emphasis is my own.) Diplomacy in...
Beyond Micro-credit: What’s Next?
I had the privilege of helping to open the Calgary Microcredit Conference this past weekend on a panel with Mark Durieux, University of Calgary, and Rupert Scofield, FINCA where we provided our thoughts to answer the day’s question and conference theme: Microcredit...
The Privilege of Doing Good
I winced slightly during the opening session of SOCAP and wondered if I’d wandered into another variation of dealing with white man’s guilt. Phrases like “changed forever”, “southeast Asia”, “compelled to do something”, and “Peace Corps” sounded like the clichés of...
