Weekly News Recap: June 8, 2018

The Lorne and Patricia Gordon Legacy Fund at Inclusion Alberta made possible by Pembina Pipeline Corporation

Fill your brain with giant dreams so that there’s no space for petty pursuits. -- Robin Sharma

A national opportunity

Lists of lists

News

  • Women Leading Philanthropy to transform health care at Royal University Hospital (Global News) SASKATOON STORY "The Royal University Hospital Foundation says its Women Leading Philanthropy (WLP) program will empower female practitioners to transform health care in Saskatchewan." 6/5/18

  • Panda family has 'adjusted beautifully' as Calgary Zoo memberships get a boost (Calgary Herald) CALGARY STORY "Papa panda is 'extremely chill' despite the crowds, his two cubs are furry bundles of curiosity and mama panda likes to take quiet spa days." 6/4/18

  • National Cancer Centre Singapore to raise $70m (The New Paper) "Over the past four years, the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) has quietly raised $80 million in a behind-the-scenes donation drive. [It] officially embarked on the public phase of its campaign to raise a further $70 million, in order to hit its target of $150 million in total by 2022 [...]. The largest donation to date has been $50 million from the Goh Foundation, the majority of which will go towards the proton therapy facility that NCCS is constructing in its new premises." 6/4/18

  • Sask. Polytechnic decision to axe athletic program sparks disbelief among students (CBC) SASKATCHEWAN STORY "A Saskatchewan Polytechnic decision to axe its athletics program is causing ripples of shock and disappointment among students, says a player on the women's basketball team." 6/3/18

  • Giant pandas’ commemorative coin unveiled in Calgary (The Star) CANADIAN STORY "On Saturday, the Royal Canadian Mint unveiled a collector coin to celebrate the giant panda and celebrate its symbolism of friendship between China and Canada at the Calgary Zoo." 6/2/18

  • DIALOG unveils net-zero MacKimmie Complex design at University of Calgary (Canadian Architect) CALGARY STORY Lovely! "Designed by DIALOG, the facility aims to be a high-performance net-zero carbon building. The new complex comprises a fully renovated tower and block and a brand-new link that connects the two buildings by an atrium, all connected by a redesigned outdoor gathering space." 6/1/18

  • Save-On-Food golfers top half million for sick kids (Surrey Now Leader) CANADIAN STORY Nice! "As the commercials claim, Save-On-Foods goes the extra mile. Well, they did just that Wednesday, in aid of sick children. Save-On-Foods, which has its head office in Langley, held its 23rd annual charity golf tournament, raising $580,348 for the cause. The event raised money for five children’s hospitals in Western Canada, including the BC Children’s Hospital. Others include two in Alberta, one in Saskachewan, and the other in Manitoba." 5/31/18

Canada's First Peoples

  • Why there are so few Indigenous graduates at convocation (National Post) CANADIAN STORY "Convocation can be a very emotional occasion. Each year, it seems, the commentariat is whipped up into near hysterics over some honorary degree recipient or guest speaker. This year’s panic came by way of the University of Alberta’s acknowledgement of David Suzuki. Much less attention is devoted to who is not at convocation. In fact a moral indignity continues to unfold without much notice. Each year — and without fail — very few Indigenous people find a place among the graduands." 6/1/18

  • Alberta Indigenous groups want to buy equity share in Trans Mountain pipeline (CBC) ALBERTA STORY "Indigenous groups in the Fort McMurray region of Alberta have put governments on notice they want to buy an equity share in the controversial Trans Mountain pipeline." 5/31/18

  • Indigenous U of L graduands have option of wearing traditional regalia (Lethbridge Herald) LETHBRIDGE STORY This is awesome. "[Indigenous] students, for the first time, will have the option of wearing their traditional regalia to convocation in lieu of the black gown. As well, each of the students will also be presented with an indigenous stole that was designed and created by Charlene Bruised Head-Mountain Horse and her colleagues in the Iikaisskini Gathering Place." 5/31/18

Life and career hacks

Uncommon knowledge

  • Special Committee on the Charitable Sector / Le Comité spécial sur le Secteur de la bienfaisance (LinkedIn) "The official LinkedIn page for the Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector / La page officielle de LinkedIn pour le Comité sénatorial spécial sur le secteur de la bienfaisance. The charitable sector committee was established to examine the impact of federal and provincial laws and policies on charities and nonprofit organizations, and the role of the voluntary sector in Canada. See the committee’s mandate." Thanks to Ron Bailey for sharing this link. May 2018

Philanthropic personalities

  • EDITORIAL: Buffett's philanthropy has left its mark (Frederiscksburg) Warren Buffet's sister remains cool. "Over the past 22 years, the Fredericksburg area and its residents have benefited greatly from her largesse. Since the Sunshine Lady Foundation was established in 1996, it has donated some $100 million to myriad causes here and elsewhere. The remaining $30 million in assets will be spent over the next three or four years, according to foundation director Mitty Beal." 6/4/18

Philanthropic controversy

Trends and shifts

  • Can “effective altruism” maximise the bang for each charitable buck? (The Economist) Interesting article. "Donors to charities rarely make the sort of cost-benefit calculations investors, for example, would think obligatory. So charities attract donations with pictures of smiling gap-toothed children, rather than spreadsheets showing how they actually spend their money. Tugging at the heartstrings, however, does little to allay the doubts of economists sceptical about the efficacy of charity. Who is to say whether donating to a homeless shelter is a better use of money than donating to a school?" 6/2/18

  • OPINION: Move over, Waterloo and Ottawa: Calgary is now out-innovating you (CBC) CALGARY STORY "Which is the most innovative city in Canada? You might be surprised to know that Calgary has now taken the lead on that front, as measured by one of the most common ways of gauging innovation — patents. Calgary has now surpassed the likes of Ottawa and Waterloo in terms of patents per capita. And yet, the Alberta city's rise has happened without the fanfare that accompanied the ascent of the country's previous tech hubs in Ontario." 5/31/18

  • Salesforce.org to Tell SB’18 How Its New Philanthropy Cloud Helps Redesign The Good Life (Triple Pundit) "Shouldn’t there be a better way to engage with your company’s CSR initiatives? Now there is. [Salesforce's] Philanthropy Cloud, a new social impact network built by [Salesforce] in partnership with United Way Worldwide. With Philanthropy Cloud, companies can manage all their philanthropic efforts on one network, easily connecting with employees about CSR initiatives, and then tracking progress, motivating participation, and measuring collective impact." 5/31/18

  • Hard Choices: A Big Foundation Gets More Focused (Inside Philanthropy) "The [Conrad N. Hilton Foundation] is ending its longtime work on avoidable blindness, substance abuse prevention, Catholic education/school choice, and multiple sclerosis. But it’s exiting some of these areas slowly. It will wind down the substance abuse work, for example, over three and a half years and 'with enough funds to do so thoughtfully,' said Hilton CEO Peter Laugharn." 5/31/18

  • FrontStream Announces Acquisition by Marlin (PR NewsWire) "FrontStream, Inc., provider of Panorama™, the all-in-one fundraising platform [...] announced that the company has been acquired by Marlin Equity Partners [...] a leading global investment firm with over $6.7 billion of capital under management and a strong track record of growing companies over time. The investment follows several FrontStream growth milestones and will enable the company to advance its platform and deliver additional services to its customer base worldwide." 5/31/18

  • After years hidden in the background, artificial intelligence is getting pushy: Don Pittis (CBC) CANADIAN CONTENT "And according to the experts, despite any protests to the contrary, we're going to get used to it. Sometimes called 'deep learning' or 'machine learning' to distinguish it from the science fiction monsters that wrench power from human hands, the science of algorithmic prediction has suddenly become more powerful and pervasive than most of us realize." 5/22/18

  • Response To Fundraising Texts Surpass Email Appeals (Nonprofit Times) "Text messaging your supporters and donors can be more personal than an email and more private than a social media post and more casual than a phone call. But it’s not free and list building can take time because SMS marketing is relatively new, according to Ellen Pascale, manager, mobile marketing, at Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)." Thanks to Scott Decksheimer for sharing this article. 5/14/18

Reports and studies

  • Research finds ‘ideological’ gap in how to represent charity beneficiaries (Hilborn) CANADIAN CONTENT "[Fundraisers] tend to understand positive and negative framing typically as referring to ‘happy’ and ‘sad’ images. [The] academic research considers framing as whether something is presented in terms of a ‘loss’ or a ‘gain [...].’" Thanks to Ron Bailey for sharing this story. 5/21/18

  • GlobalWealth Migration Review (New World Health) Unsurprisingly, China and India are on the ascendancy. What is surprising is how fast that ascension is moving. Thanks to Melody Song for sharing this story. February 2018.

Large gifts

  • Partnership boosted by $1 million donation (Australian Jewish News) "The potential to uncover cures and personalised treatments for cancer through advancements in genomic medicine was significantly boosted [...] when the partnership between Australia’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, forged in 2016, receiving its biggest individual donation. Bob Magid, publisher of The AJN, donated $1 million to the partnership, which established the Garvan-Weizmann Centre for Cellular Genomics at the Kinghorn Cancer Centre in Sydney nine months ago." 6/6/18

  • Rush to receive $45 million, its largest single donation ever, to help veterans with PTSD (Chicago Tribune) "Rush University Medical Center will receive up to $45 million — its largest single donation ever — from the Wounded Warrior Project to provide mental health services to thousands of additional veterans." 6/5/18

  • Local Meals on Wheels Receives Largest Donation Ever (NBC) "Thanks to a generous donation of $4.5 million, Meals on Wheels San Diego County will be able to feed even more senior citizens [...]. The McKinney family, which has contributed large sums to other organizations as well recently, was responsible for the donation." 6/5/18

  • Ringling College Receives $1 Million Donation (Sarasota) "Sarasota’s Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation recently donated $1 million to Ringling College of Art and Design." 6/5/18

  • Ripple (XRP) Gets Closer to Mass Adoption with a $50 Million Donation (Global Coin Report) "Ripple seems to be more serious than ever when it comes to mass adoption. News revolving around XRP and the Ripple Foundation is constantly hitting the headlines around the world wide web [...]. This time, $50 million will be donated for the purpose of speeding up the adoption of blockchain technology, and the donation will be split among 17 universities." 6/5/18

  • The Coca-Cola Foundation Grants $1 Million to The Recycling Partnership to Help Prevent Marine Debris at the Curb (BusinessWire) It's a drop in the bucket but it's also a start. "To help address the challenge of waste in waterways and help improve the collection of recyclables for reuse, The Coca-Cola Foundation is contributing $1 million to The Recycling Partnership to support a new coastal and waterway communities grant program." 6/4/18

  • NC State program receives $1 million donation from Red Hat (The Technician) "After the recent retirement of Red Hat’s board of directors chairman, the company decided to honor his commitment to leadership and the community by donating $1 million to an NC State organization he established." 6/3/18

  • Dallas CASA's golf tournament attracted 700 players and netted $1.74 million (Dallas News) "Proceeds enable Dallas CASA to recruit, train and supervise volunteers who advocate for abused and neglected children living in protective care." 6/2/18

  • Paging Dr. T’Challa! Marvel Studios Donates $1.25M To Design Superhero-Themed Hospital Gowns For Kids (Essense) "From time-to-time as adults we might envision ourselves onscreen or analyze what we would do in the heat of an action sequence, but it’s really in the hearts and minds of children to totally throw themselves into the character of their favorite superheroes. Recognizing the importance of childhood imagination, Marvel Studios — via its charity component Hero Acts — has donated $1.25 million to Starlight Children’s Foundation to produce more than 26,000 ‘Starlight Gowns.’” 6/1/18

  • $1.5 million donation made to Cuesta College arts programs (NBC) "Cuesta College received its largest ever donation for arts programs. [The] Harold J. Miossi Charitable Trust announced a $1.5 million donation to Cuesta College." 6/1/18

  • YMCA, Boys & Girls Club project receives $5M; public donations now accepted (Wisconsin Rapids Tribune) "The YMCA and Boys & Girls Club announced the affiliation of the former Riverview Hospital Association with Aspirus contributed $5 million to the project. To date, almost $22 million has been raised for the estimated $27.5 million facility." 6/1/18

  • WPI given $12M unrestricted donation (Worcester Business Journal) "Worcester Polytechnic Institute has been given one of the largest gifts in its history, a $12-million donation that is unrestricted in how the funds can be used. The gift [...] is from an anonymous alumnus." 6/1/18

  • Library of Congress gets a multimillion-dollar comics donation (WTOP Business) Coolio! "Geppi’s Entertainment Museum is closing after 12 years, and the owner’s decades-long collection of comics, posters and other pop-culture items is being donated to the Library of Congress. The collection of more than 3,000 items includes original storyboards that document the creation of Mickey Mouse. While there is no official estimate of the collection, the Library of Congress calls it a multimillion-dollar gift that includes comic books, original art, photos, posters, newspapers, buttons, pins, badges and related materials." 6/1/18

  • Major donation provides boost to Camosun’s new health and wellness centre (Victoria News) VANCOUVER ISLAND STORY "Samantha and John Wilson, co-chairs of the Together for Health fundraising campaign, announced Wednesday that the new health science education centre under construction on Camosun’s Interurban campus will appear as the Alex & Jo Campbell Centre for Health and Wellness [...]. The value of the contribution tops $1 million. This figure, coupled with an other major donation said to be announced in the fall, the fundraising campaign has already reached past the halfway point." 5/31/18

  • $1M donation to support autism research powered by open science (McGill) CANADIAN STORY "Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects a growing number of Canadians. A generous donation from the Djavad Mowafaghian Foundation will create a new partnership between researchers at The Neuro and the University of British Columbia (UBC), who will collaborate to advance drug discovery in ASD in an open science framework. The aim of the donation is to help scientists generate ASD research data that will be shared globally." 5/31/18

  • UCLA School of Law receives $4.3M donation as part of Centennial Campaign (Daily Bruin) "UCLA School of Law’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment received a $4.3 million donation [...] to expand its research on environmental law and policy. The donation from the Emmett Foundation includes a direct gift of $1.8 million and the foundation’s commitment to match up to $2.5 million of gifts from other donors." 5/31/18

  • $10 million donation to University of Haifa will build downtown campus (Cleveland Jewish News) "A $10 million donation to the University of Haifa will be used to build a downtown campus, in an effort to revitalize the school and the city [...]. The donation is from American philanthropist Lorry Lokey, the founder of the international media relations service Business Wire." 5/31/18

  • $2M donation announced to build sport injury research centre (CJME) SASKATOON STORY "The $2-million Ron and Jane Graham Sport Science and Health Centre is being built inside Merlis Belsher Place, the new home of Huskies hockey. The Grahams, longtime supporters of Huskie Athletics, are fully funding the 6,000 square foot addition to the arena." 5/31/18

  • Coach K makes $3M personal donation for low-income kids in Durham (ABC) "There is no cause closer to Mike Krzyzewski's heart than the work they do at the Emily K Center in Durham. Named for his mother, the Center has become a vital resource for the city of Durham's low-income families, providing a conduit for them to attend college [...]. Krzyzewski put his money where his heart is [...] with a $3 million personal donation from him and his wife, Mickie, to the Emily K Center." 5/30/18

  • Media Release - 'Incredible' gift of a lifetime for The Basin community (The Knox) "Local owners of the renowned Como Gardens estate in The Basin, George and Pat Hetrel, have just provided a cheque to Knox City Council to transform nearby Batterham Reserve into a landmark sports and leisure precinct." 5/29/18

  • Inclusion Alberta receives largest-ever donation (Inclusion Alberta) CALGARY STORY Nice gift! "Inclusion Alberta has received its largest-ever philanthropic gift: a $1 Million donation from Pembina Pipeline Corporation to establish the Lorne and Patricia Gordon Legacy Fund. This generous contribution will enable Inclusion Alberta to further support schools and teachers in the provision of quality inclusive education, assist adults with developmental disabilities to secure and maintain employment and respond to families in crisis." 5/25/18

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