Weekly News Recap: July 19, 2019

Weekly News Recap: July 19, 2019

Secret deodorant proudly made a $500,000-plus donation to the world champion U.S. Women’s National Team in support of equal pay. United States' Megan Rapinoe, center, holds the trophy as she celebrates with teammates after they defeated the Netherlands 2-0 in the Women's World Cup final soccer match at the Stade de Lyon in Decines, outside Lyon, France, Sunday, July 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Silence is one of the great arts of conversation. -- Cicero

This week's highlights

  • A very fast 71-year-old #FasterThanYouEverWere
  • A deodorant brand puts the boots to the gender-pay-gap #NotSoSecret
  • BBQ as disaster relief #PitMasters
  • A Hinterland Who's Who of the Raven (aka the Kahkâkiw, Datsą´, ᑐᓗᒐᖅ, Tsyo'kawe'kó:wa., Gaagaakshiinh, or Kaakaaki) voiced in six Indigenous languages #Iconic
  • The secrets of direct mail, why calmness can be contageous, and how to listen without interrupting #LifeAndCareerHacks
  • The annual video postcard of France #ViveLeTour
  • Edmonton's new central library is not getting the reception it hoped for #BadSelfieAngle
  • Grannies delivering ramen and a better ketchup bottle #What!
  • ...And so much more

Wow!

  • The World’s Fastest (Old) Man (New York Times) His record-breaking speed is equivalent to 25 km/hr. Or, for the runners out there, 2:23 minutes per km. "Charles Allie is 71 years old, and he is fast. Chances are, he is a much faster runner than you are — faster, in fact, than you ever were. Last year in Spain he broke his own world record in his age group for the 400 meters by more than a second. That is essentially a quarter-mile, one lap around a standard running track. He crossed the tape in 57.26 seconds." 7/10/19

News

  • The story behind Secret's gender-pay-gap-tackling USWNT donation (PR Week) What a great gift! And another loud shot 'over the bow' of the gender pay gap. Nice work Secret. "Secret deodorant proudly made a $500,000-plus donation to the world champion U.S. Women’s National Team in support of equal pay, but the Procter & Gamble brand said it would have chipped in even if the team did not win the World Cup [...]. Secret donated $529,000, or $23,000 for each of the 23 players on the team to help close the pay gap with men’s players and to encourage other sponsors and brands to join it in the fight for equal pay." 7/17/19

  • Q&A with Nisha Patel, 2019-2020 Edmonton Poet Laureate (The Gateway Online) EDMONTON STORY "Nisha Patel is the newly inaugurated City of Edmonton poet laureate for the 2019-2020 year. A foundational fixture in the Edmonton poetry scene, Patel is also currently the executive director of the Edmonton Poetry Festival." 7/17/19

  • Lakeland College unveils newly designed W.J. Elliott Arboretum (My Lloydminster Now) VERMILIAN STORY Looks beautiful. "Lakeland College is enjoying the newly updated W.J. Elliott Arboretum at the Vermilion campus. First built in the 1970s, the updated design comes after being relatively untouched since then [...]. The update features 1,300 new plants, 20-plus trees and shrubs, as well as a small fruit orchard. Apple, pear and plum trees, as well as saskatoon berries and haskap berries are beside ornamental trees and shrubs." 7/11/19

  • VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation searches for new president (Vancouver Sun) VANCOUVER STORY "The VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation is searching for a new president after Barbara Grantham announced she is leaving the position." 7/10/19

  • When Natural Disasters Strike, Operation BBQ Swoops In With Relief — And Ribs (NPR) Brilliant! What better way to heal and comfort than with BBQ. "Stan Hays was working in insurance in Missouri when the idea first came to him. It was May 2011, and a tornado had just battered the town of Joplin. He felt the urge to help. So he called up a friend, Jeff Stith. Both men shared a common skill: They were pitmasters on competitive barbecue teams [...]. They put out a call on social media, and by noon the following day, a dozen of his buddies had answered. The team drove to the town, setting up their smokers amid extensive damage — roofs torn off houses, and entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble. Hays thought they would have a cookout for three or four days before they ran out of supplies. But 'whenever we needed something, it seemed to appear,' he says. They stayed for 11 days and served 120,000 meals." 7/2/19

First Peoples of Canada

  • Hinterland Who's Who releases vignette on ravens in 6 Indigenous languages (CBC) CANADIAN STORY I love the Hinterland Who's Who and it is especially great that this has been done with six Indigenous languages. I have provided links to all six below. "Hinterland Who's Who, the series of iconic public service announcements about Canadian wildlife, has released a new video on the common raven available in six Indigenous languages. The 30-second vignette joins the profiles on freshwater turtles and wolverines released in 2017 that are available with Woods Cree, Denesuline, Inuktitut, Mohawk, Ojibway and Oji-Cree translations." 7/17/19

  • Student-created website and map shows U of A campus through Indigenous eyes (Folio) This is very cool. "A walking map created by an undergraduate student in Native studies is providing an Indigenous lens to the buildings, art and spaces of the University of Alberta. Robin Howse’s map, entitled pîtos-mâmitoneyihtamowin (reimagine) UAlberta, lists a number of prominent sites on campus—including Sweetgrass Bear, Nîpisîy House, Rutherford House and the Faculty of Native Studies’ tipi—that have, or seem to have, Indigenous or colonial ties." 7/15/19

  • Initiative to honour Indigenous veterans with new grave markers and their traditional names (CBC) CANADIAN STORY I heart this. "For nearly four decades, Stephen McGregor searched for the grave of his father's cousin Sam Gagnon, an Algonquin soldier from Kitigan Zibi, Que., who fought during the First World War [...]. After searching phone books, Legion magazines and online after the Internet became more accessible, he finally found Gagnon's grave at St. Anne's cemetery in Barrhead, Alta., about 100 km northwest of Edmonton, in 2015. The grave was marked by a deteriorating cement plate." 7/13/19

Books to read

Seven life and career hacks -- one for each day of the week

  1. What I Learned From Serving On AFP’s ICON Education Advisory Committee: 2019 (AFP Global) My proposals were not accepted (wah wah) but after reading this article, especially Rebecca's, I have some ideas on how to retool them for next year. "Right about now, those of you who submitted proposals for AFP ICON 2020 in Baltimore are learning if your proposal was accepted. It is a good time to provide everyone with a reminder of the process for selecting the presentations that will be featured at AFP ICON 2020. First, many thanks to Rebecca H. Davis, Ph.D., CFRE, for her great article, 'What I Learned From Serving on AFP’s Conference Education Advisory Committee,' from 2016. Her article contains some great ideas for considering and putting together a conference session proposal. It’s well worth a read. This article builds on Rebecca’s piece, providing some updates on the process for selecting sessions and my own thoughts on how you can increase the chances of your session being selected." 7/11/19

  2. Five Things Canadian Boards Need to Know About Fundraising (AFP Global) CANADIAN CONTENT Oh, this is very good. #1 and #3 are delicious. Nice work AFP. 7/11/19

  3. Why Calmness Can Be Contagious (elemental+) We have all been there. A crisis has emerged, either personally or professionally, in our business lives. I have sometimes been the calm one and it has calmed others. I have also not been the calm one and well... 7/11/19

  4. How to Listen Without Interrupting (BetterMarketing) Very good advice. I wish I had listened to it earlier in my career. 6/11/19

  5. How To Talk To People — 10 Tips For Better Conversation (Medium) It might seem obvious or even trivial to some but, for others, it is not. I make my living 'talking to people' and I found this article refreshing and full of good reminders. 6/7/19

  6. The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Great Designer (Part 1 of 3) (Modus) I have often struggled with how to set up my grid. This and many other practical design tips. 5/16/19

  7. Secrets of Direct Mail: The Dialogue Method by Siegfried Vögele (Medium) I so wish I had read this when I worked in direct mail. But, as they say, it's never too late to get better at what we do. Good stuff in here. 2/2/19

Uncommon knowledge

  • The helicopter team that films the Tour de France is one of a kind (ars Technica) Vive Le Tour! "It's the time of year when the only bicycle race that most people pay attention to is at hand. The Tour de France began on July 6 and with it an intense competition that circles the country and ends in Paris with a yellow jersey presented to the winner. But for millions who watch it on TV, the race is secondary to the scenery. Many of the best views of the three-week-long competition come from video provided by helicopters that follow and shoot the action from overhead. Beyond the cyclists, the aircraft of Hélicoptères de France (HdF) capture jagged mountain slopes, ancient French castles, fields of sunflowers and the wide boulevards of Paris." 7/11/19

  • The Nature of the Human Body (Art) The spectacular origins of Vitruvian Man and the underlying genius of Leonardo Da Vinci. A wonderful excerpt from Walter Isaacson's book on Leonardo. "Using at least a dozen young men as models in his Corte Vecchia studios, [Leonardo] measured each body part from head to toe and produced more than forty drawings and six thousand words. His descriptions included both the average size of body parts and the proportional relationships between different parts [...]. Page after page of his notebooks — fifty-one sections in all — are filled with ever more precise detail." 10/30/19

Opinion

  • The Real Limited Resource (The Agitator) "The limited resource is time and attention: yours and your donors’. With apologies to Elvis and Willie Nelson [...] we are not always on our donors’ minds. Most of their time is spent on things other than charities; even of the time spent thinking about charities, only a portion is spent on you." 7/12/19

Philanthropic personalities

  • The Giving Pledge, the campaign to change billionaire philanthropy, explained (Vox) "Hundreds of billionaires have signed on, with Bloomberg and other big names like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Mackenzie Bezos among them. More than $500 billion have been pledged, and money is already being donated to a range of causes. But somehow, it all feels a little disappointing. Despite their commitment to give at least half of their fortunes away, Gates and Buffett are both richer than when they started. Meanwhile, many other prominent billionaires haven’t signed on to the pledge. There are now 607 billionaires in the US, up from 404 in 2010, and more than 2,000 worldwide — and of that 2,000, only 204 have signed on to the pledge." 7/10/19

  • Millennial Rising: A Prominent Family Foundation Has its First Fourth-Generation Board Chair (Inside Philanthropy) This is the leading edge of the millennial wave of foundation leaders. "Nathan Cummings has a fourth-generation chair of its board of trustees, as Jaimie Mayer, great-granddaughter of the founder, takes over from Ruth Cummings. Having served 18 years on the board, it was not a question of 'if,' but 'when' for Mayer. 'Many people grow up saying they want to be an astronaut or ballerina,' she explains, 'and I grew up saying I wanted to chair my family foundation.'" 6/26/19

Philanthropic controversy

  • New 'warship' design for downtown Edmonton library tanks on social media (CBC) EDMONTON STORY "The downtown library's new look has some Edmontonians wondering if the city is preparing for battle. Social media channels erupted with a barrage of bad reviews for the remodelled Stanley A. Milner Library, which has been closed since 2016 for extensive renovations. Much of the commentary about the renovated building overlooking Sir Winston Churchill Square compare it to a wartime bunker, a battleship or a military tank — and a far cry from the original architectural renderings that showed a shimmering white-and-metallic facade adorned with a cascade of tiny windows." 7/16/19

  • Living in fear but compelled to help: Daughter of murdered billionaire couple goes public (CBC) TORONTO STORY This is terrible. I feel for this family. "Alexandra Krawczyk was paralyzed by fear after her billionaire parents, Barry and Honey Sherman, were murdered. 'I couldn't leave my home for months because I was too scared,' Krawczyk says. She's still afraid, knowing police have yet to make any arrests in the shocking case. But she refuses to let it deter her from ensuring the community projects in which her parents invested millions will keep going." 7/14/19

  • Canada's top researcher positions continue to lack diversity, U of A study finds (CBC) CANADIAN STORY Ugh. We need to do better. "Professors holding prestigious research roles at Canadian universities are still overwhelmingly white and male, despite diversity and inclusion initiatives, researchers say." 7/13/19

  • Billionaire Home Depot co-founder shreds Trump haters in new Facebook post (Yahoo Finance) This is a follow up to the story we included in our recap last week. "Billionaire Home Depot co-founder and noted philanthropist Bernie Marcus — forever a feisty fella even at the youthful age of 90 —has no plans to run from his fresh batch of social media trolls." 7/10/19

Trends and shifts

  • Americans slashed their charitable deductions by $54 billion after Republican tax-code overhaul (MarketWatch) Yikes! "New data on Americans’ tax returns adds to the growing body of evidence that charities are taking a hit as a result of Trump’s overhaul of the tax system. Taxpayers have itemized $54 billion less in charitable contributions so far this tax season compared to the previous year, according to new IRS stats. 'The amount is just jaw-dropping,' said Michael Nilsen, vice president of communications and public policy at the Association of Fundraising Professionals. 'This is a really significant drop. This to me is a sign that giving was hurt.'" 7/11/19

  • One in Three Worldwide Lack Confidence in NGOs (AFP Global) This is a disturbing finding. "A new study from Gallup and Wellcome reveals that a slim majority of the world's adults (52%) express confidence in the charitable organizations and NGOs in their respective countries. However, 32% tell Gallup they do not have confidence in such organizations, many of whom deliver vital services in the countries where they operate." 7/9/19

  • They finally built a better ketchup bottle. And soon it’s going to be everywhere. (Washington Post) And it is better for the planet (less packaging weight = less carbon emissions from transport). "Something new is coming and soon you will scarcely remember when it didn’t exist. It’s called the Standcap Inverted Pouch. Daisy brand sour cream led the charge, debuting their Daisy Squeeze in 2015: a soft-sided, inverted wedge shape with a flat, flip-top dispensing closure on which it sits jauntily. It rolls down like a toothpaste tube, uses gravity as an assist and minimizes the introduction of oxygen, thus slowing spoilage." 7/9/19

  • Grannies in Running Shoes Are Delivering Ramen for Uber in Japan (Bloomberg) I would love to get my ramen delivered by a granny. "Uber Technologies Inc.’s strategy for Japan, where ride-sharing is banned, is as unique as the country itself — think grandma in running shoes delivering ramen noodles [...]. Given Japan‘s strict regulations against ride-sharing, Uber has chosen to work with regulators." 7/4/19

  • PDF: 2016/17 Annual Report- Field Guide to Strategic Philanthropy: The Asian Philanthropist’s Toolkit to Effective Impact (Asian Philanthropy Circle) This is a pretty cool guide. Worth the download. 2018

Large gifts

There were large gifts announced in the past week just none that met our threshold for curation. The 'Bermuda Triangle' for gift announcements appears to be the third week of July. Stay tuned for more announcements in next week's recap.

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