Archive for the ‘Philanthropy’ Category

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Monday, October 31st, 2011

The Globe & Mail is overflowing with interesting articles on the non-profit sector these days.

There’s now a section called Giving in the Life section. It’s a little strange that it’s in that part of the newspaper (and website), as most of the content there is normally pretty fluffy and there are lots of real journalism in this series so far. The weekend edition felt like it was 80% about the charitable / non-profit sector. There are important articles about regulation, the thoughts of the current federal government, trends in both foundation giving and donor giving.

Funder Profile: Tesari, Pizza and Philanthropy

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

As many fundraisers know, there is often very little information out there about private foundations, even the larger funders. The funders release very little about themselves, and usually have no online presence.

This is unfortunate, as many of the foundations have people behind them with fascinating stories and compelling legacies.

One example is the Tesari Charitable Foundation, a private foundation started by Michael Arthur Overs. Overs was a very successful Canadian businessman that passed away last year at the age of 70. While his name might not be well known to those outside the business world, the source of his wealth certainly is: the national pizza chain Pizza Pizza, with its memorable phone number and several important innovations (the first centralized call center and insulated delivery bags).

Overs started the franchise in Toronto on December 31, 1967 with a single store. The restaurant chain expanded throughout the next few decades, focusing on Toronto before moving into the rest of Ontario. The company went nation-wide in the later 2000s. Overs passed away in April 2010 of cancer, and his son-in-law Paul Goddard assumed the role of CEO at Pizza Pizza.

Overs’s approach to philanthropy is an example of the low-profile behaviour of most private foundations: his initial endowment of $20 million to the Tesari Charitable Foundation was made without any announcement, even though it caused his company to post $7 million losses for 2005. His Chief Financial Officer stated that it was because Overs was “a private person”. Six years later, it is still not easy to find information about the Foundation.

The Foundation has funded a wide range of causes, from larger organizations such as the the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Foundation, to the newer, and very unique, Donkey Sanctuary of Canada. It has given to charities in the areas of health, social services, and international development with a strong focus on Ontario non-profits. However, like many private foundations, its giving is varied enough to interest other Ontario organizations seeking new funders.

Go check out our profile for the Tesari Charitable Foundation on our free online demo to learn more about them.

Tesari Funder Profile

Sold out event : Les tendances en collecte de fonds ET comment approcher les fondations avec succès

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

Because the non-profit sector in Québec has been quite successful in getting stable government funding, there has been a lot less of a focus on foundations and philanthropy in the province. So a few weeks ago, while discussing the needs of the non-profit sector with Bénévoles d’affaires, we asked them if their members would be interested in learning more about fundraising. Their enthusiastic response prompted us to set about organizing a free two hour workshop on the topic. When asked, both our friends at Episode and Diversa Consulting happily agreed to participate in the event. We obviously underestimated how much interest there is here in Montreal for professional development related to fundraising as, to our surprise and delight, all 80 seats for the event sold out in just two days! Given the number of calls we are still getting, we will almost certainly be holding more workshops on the topic this fall.

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Les tendances en collecte de fonds ET comment approcher les fondations avec succès

Atelier GRATUIT sur la collecte de fonds et les subventions de fondations par Daniel Asselin d’Épisode et Ligia Peña de Diversa Consultants.
Venez en apprendre plus sur le monde des opportunités de financement accessibles à votre organisation et sur les stratégies à votre portée pour approcher les fondations.

Partie 1 – La collecte de fonds aujourd’hui
par Daniel Asselin

Vous désirez lancer une campagne de financement pour votre organisation? Vous souhaitez améliorer les résultats de votre campagne déjà en cours? Vous apprendrez d’un stratège d’expérience comment concevoir une collecte de fonds efficace, rédiger des demandes convaincantes, améliorer la rétention de vos donateurs, acquérir de nouveaux bailleurs de fonds et obtenir des dons majeurs. Fier de ses 30 ans d’expérience à aider les organismes de bienfaisance dans leur financement, Daniel Asselin partagera avec vous des exemples de campagnes fructueuses.

Partie 2 – Solliciter les fondations
par Ligia Peña

Le financement auprès des fondations présente des défis et des opportunités uniques pour un OBNL. Cette partie de l’atelier va présenter les objectifs de la demande de subvention auprès de fondations privées, corporatives et communautaires. Les ressources disponibles seront passées en revue ainsi que les stratégies pour établir des partenariats avec les bailleurs de fonds.

Formateurs

Évoluant dans le secteur de la philanthropie depuis près de 30 ans, Daniel Asselin s’impose aujourd’hui comme une figure dominante en collecte de fonds. Président et fondateur d’Épisode, il a conduit avec succès plus d’une centaine de campagnes de financement, permettant à ce jour à ses clients de redistribuer quelque 500 millions de dollars dans les secteurs de la santé, de l’éducation, de la culture, de l’environnement et du sociocommunautaire.

Ligia Peña est présidente et fondatrice de Diversa Consultants, une entreprise qui travaille avec les petits et moyens OBNL à atteindre leurs objectifs de financement. Mme Peña est aussi conférencière et offre de la formation sur la collecte de fonds en plus d’être chargée de cours au programme de gestion philanthropique au Cégep de Saint-Laurent. Elle est membre du conseil d’administration de l’AFP-chapitre du Québec.

Charities That Act Like Artists

Monday, January 10th, 2011

Seth Godin, author, entrepreneur and popular blogger has some interesting ideas about the business of philanthropy in this interview posted on The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Seth thinks that all businesses, especially charities, should act like artists by pouring passion and creativity into what they do.

Seth’s idea of an artist differs from the usual definition. In his new book Linchpin Seth writes:

“Art isn’t only a painting. Art is anything that’s creative, passionate, and personal. And great art resonates with the viewer, not only with the creator. What makes someone an artist? I don’t think it has anything to do with a paintbrush. There are painters who follow the numbers, or paint billboards, or work in a small village in China, painting reproductions. These folks, while swell people, aren’t artists. On the other hand, Charlie Chaplin was an artist, beyond a doubt. So is Jonathan Ive, who designed the iPod. You can be an artist who works with oil paint or marble, sure. But there are artists who worked with numbers, business models, and customer conversations. Art is about intent and communication, not substances.”

Take the time to watch the interview. What do you think? Does your organization follow Seth’s model?

This holiday season, Better The World through shopping

Monday, December 13th, 2010

We wanted to share with you a new online tool we recently started using.

The folks at the Toronto-based Better The World came up with this new idea to raise funds for non-profits.  It’s an innovative platform that allows people to raise money for a cause by surfing the Web. The idea is simple, users sign-up  and download a side bar that will display applicable ads on the pages they visit. For agreeing to view the ads, the user gets to choose a charity from the site to receive donations. 90% of funds raised by viewing these ads goes to the charity – 10% is kept by the company.

As we find ourselves knee-deep in the holiday season, a time that can be a consumerist nightmare, the shopping application may be of particular interest. Each time the client buys online, from a list of more than 40 participating retailers (including Amazon, eBay and iTunes) a percentage of each purchase is donated to their charity. Currently, The United Way, World Wildlife Foundation and Earthshare are some of the 25+ organizations associated with Better The World, with more on the way.

We are not sure how charities are included as partners but it is exciting to see Canadians developing new ways to use the web to fundraise.

Colloque sur la Philanthropie 2.0

Wednesday, November 24th, 2010

We are excited about an event happening this friday at UQAM – Philanthropie 2.0. The colloquium will focus on the relevance of social media and Web 2.0 for non-profit organizations. The speaker list includes our friend Martin Lessard, along with F. Simon HenaultRégis Barondeau, and Sacha Declomesnil. Claude Béland, former president of the Caisse Desjardins, will be presiding and Bernard Landry, former Premier of Quebec will also be participating.

They will be launching their new site Philanthropie-Québec at the event. The plan for it is to serve as a non-profit portal for the Quebec community sector.

Most of our team will be there. Come say hello if you see us.

BTW – Since we’re all about tracking grants, we couldn’t resist. We are pretty sure, either this or this CRA grant is what is funding this fine project.