The Good Blog

I’m fortunate enough to know many of the international philanthropy world’s key thought leaders, a few of whom I re-connected with recently in San Francisco. Meaningful conversations about the state of the charity sector with these leaders move beyond the socially acceptable clichés and engage controversial issues. My friends in San Francisco comprise part of a discouragingly small group of sector professionals who can discuss with complete fluency topics that take most people outside of their comfort zone.

David Arnold, who became president of The Asia Foundation in 2011, is both comfortable and fluent in the benevolent space. Established in 1954, The Asia Foundation operates in 17 different countries and distributes about $17 million a year. Read more…

In their recent series on giving and philanthropy, The Globe and Mail printed an interesting article on the Non-Profit Incubator in China and the evolution of the enabling environment for charities in China. Having been invited to China to speak at the launch of the Non-Profit Incubator project, I have some thoughts on this article.

It is always difficult to know how much ideology informs societal decisions in China. At one level Mark MacKinnon, the author of the article, is correct to say that the concepts of charity, philanthropy and civil society “have long been anathema to the ruling Communist Party”.  At another level, China and the Chinese people have for centuries exemplified visceral charity, responding with generosity and compassion to the multitude of earth quakes and other natural disasters that have occurred in their country. Read more…

The past few days, The Globe and Mail inundated readers with a variety of articles on charity and giving. These articles take one’s thoughts in many different and frequently contradictory directions. What is not clear, however, is whether they will direct our minds to the fundamental question as to whether Canadians want to measure quality of life in our society by the lowness of our marginal tax rates or by the paucity of our food banks. The discussion put forward by The Globe and Mail presumes a shift away from government funded provision for our educational, medical and welfare institutions without ever debating whether this is what Canadians want.

Canada is being asked to look beyond its borders for models of change for the charitable sector. The federal government’s point person for bringing in these changes is Diane Finley, the Minister for Human Resources and Skills Development. Read more…