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I A story about widespread sexual misconduct broke in the U.K. last week. This time it involved Oxfam, one of the world’s most respected international aid charities. According to The Guardian, the Charities Commission, the U.K. government’s charity watch dog, has asked for “an urgent clarification from Oxfam after allegations that the charity covered up […]
“Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.” Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau addressing the Press Club in Washington, D.C. (25 March 1969) on the matter of living […]
The eyes of American lawmakers gazed miserably out from our screens yesterday as television networks provided wall-to-wall news coverage of another mass shooting. Fifty-nine dead and 527 injured this time, the largest body count ever. The response to the carnage? “Heroism,” according to news hosts from Anderson Cooper to Rachel Maddow. “It is tragedies like […]
The past decade in international development is forcing re-think of the assumptions that have held the sector together for 60 years. The questions are large and unsettling and weigh heavily. Is it time for Western activists to demand that Africans have more direct involvement in setting their own development path? To come to grips with […]
“Working for a just distribution of the fruits of the earth and human labor is not mere philanthropy. It is a moral obligation. POPE FRANCIS A friend came over the other night to cook dinner. Technically, we were cooking dinner together, but at that moment my job was reading news of interest out loud […]
Charities are entrusted with the lives and wellbeing of the poorest, sickest and most oppressed people in the world. In Canada, the sector generated $246 billion in 2014. How do they view their obligations, chose their priorities and interpret the impact of those choices? In February my book, Cap in Hand: How Charities Are Failing […]
Prologue She was tall, thin and tarty And she drove a Maserati Faster than sound I was heaven bound – Rod Stewart, Italian Girls Have you seen the new Alfa Romeo ad, the one for the Guila (pronounced Julia), that curvy little red rocket of joy whipping around what appears to the Italian countryside? […]
If you recall, Wednesday March 8th was International Women’s Day. It was an odd mix this year. As Women’s March organizers were getting arrested in Washington D.C., a WTF attitude and a call to honour the good men in our lives emanated from other quarters. The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) with world headquarters in […]
Truthfully? The world of charities—a world I’ve inhabited for more than 25 years—is beginning to drive me a bit crazy. What are we supposed to think of charities, anyway? Are they a deer in the headlights responding like the proverbial damsel in distress to events beyond their control? Are they made up of scheming profiteers […]
The question of colour is one of many surrounding the merger of the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF). For now, it seems to be hanging in the air alongside rumination around the appearance of next spring’s tulip. It’s out there, but no one’s really put it into words yet. […]
Your Working Girl 