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.
The trouble with transformation creep
The mantra for transformative change has become ubiquitous. After all, who would opt for treating symptoms, often derisively labelled as applying band-aids, rather than striving for a cure? While the clarion call of transformation also beckons for us, we’re concerned...
Enterprising Efforts, Calgary Foundation, Spur Fall 2014
Enterprising efforts ‘Profit’ isn't a dirty word when it helps charities accomplish their social goals. Page 17-21.
Focusing on the “how to”: emergent philanthropy debate must evolve
As a small and relatively new private foundation, we were intrigued by Kania, Kramer & Russell’s discussion of an emergent philanthropy framework. While our initial debates focused on the ‘newness’ and the key elements highlighted in their article were...
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...
