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by Michael 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.

Posted in Philanthropy | No Comments »

New report on online and mobile giving trends in Canada

by Bhavya October 21st, 2011

The Mt.Royal Institute for Non-profit Studies recently published a report, e-Giving in Canada:Donation Trends in the 21st century. The researcher, Kim Warnke, analyzed data from two organizations involved in online donations, Mobile Giving Foundation and CanadaHelps, in order to see what trends existed in Canada.

We know that you’re busy, so we pulled out the three trends she identified:

TREND #1
The mean revenues, in both the core and non-core categories, of those organizations using e-Giving tends to be higher than the mean revenues of all Canadian charitable organizations.

TREND #2
Relative levels of participation tend to be similar within ICNPO categories regardless of the method of e-Giving used and over time.

TREND #3
Although e-Giving will continue to grow, the economic environment will affect e-Giving revenues of charities in some ICNPO Categories more than it will in others.

So, basically:
1. larger organizations are the earlier adopters of online and mobile giving;
2. organizations are more or less likely to adopt online and mobile giving depending on their subsector (health, research, social services, etc.);
3. the larger economic situation will effect online and mobile giving in some sub-sectors more than in others.

Posted in Online giving, Research | No Comments »

Wanted: Social Media Strategy Intern

by Jesse September 15th, 2011

Ajah is web startup which has created a new online service for the non-profit sector. We are currently seeking candidates for a fall internship.

We are a dynamic team using the latest web technologies to revolutionize fundraising. Our office is near métro Mont-Royal in the Plateau.
The position is 35 hours a week (flexible), for a period of 12 weeks. Your responsibilities will include:
- Developing an effective marketing strategy using social media platforms
- Generating weekly posts on our blog and create regular updates for other other social media platforms
- Making and uploading screencast tutorials for our tools
- Establishing an online presence in professional and sectoral networks
- Using online survey tools and website metrics to evaluate marketing strategies

You will also have the opportunity to deepen your knowledge of the non-profit sector, fundraising, information management, web entrepreneurship, and various web technologies.

We’re looking for someone fun who has excellent web, writing, and editing skills and who is passionate about either the non-profit sector or information management. Professional or academic experience using social media and online tools is also an asset.

Ability to speak English & French preferred.
Applicants must be students:
- under the age of 30;
- enrolled in a post secondary education program and intending to return to school;
- legally entitled to work in Canada

For more information on joining our team, please send a cover letter and a resume of related experience to info@ajah.ca .

Posted in About Us | No Comments »

Finding without looking

by Michael September 11th, 2011

Yes, we are super Zen.

We’re really happy about our new Related Funders feature. Our goal with Fundtracker is to make finding the right funders for your organization super easy and hopefully even automagical. This new feature is a step closer towards that goal.

On the right-hand side of a foundation’s profile you can now see a list of other foundations under the heading “Related Funders”. Those are foundations that have given money to the same organizations as the foundation whose profile you are on. The accompanying number indicates the number of grant recipients they share. The higher the number of shared recipients, the more “related” a foundation is to the profiled foundation, i.e. the more likely they are to support the same types of organizations.

Related Funders helps you discover possible funders for your organization that you might not have found otherwise. It’s particularly helpful to identify private foundation which might have limited public information about their activities.

It’s important to remember that although we track almost half-a-million donations, there are many more that we cannot track due to the way the Canada Revenue Agency publishes its information. As a result, the Related Funders feature is only an indicator of a foundation’s granting focus.

Posted in New feature | No Comments »

Funder Profile: Tesari, Pizza and Philanthropy

by Jesse 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.