Weekly News Recap: June 2, 2017

University of Calgary student entrepreneurs Erica Hughes (far left) and Jesse Roy-Cote (far right) share ideas with Derrick, Diane, and Doug Hunter. Photo credit: Courtesy University of Calgary

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves — slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. - Thích Nhất Hạnh, a Vietnamese Zen Monk

Episode 3 of our podcast BrainTrust Philanthropy Powered by ViTreo! was posted yesterday. Titled The Future of Fundraising and Philanthropy, this episode features Sharilyn Hale, Jane Potentier, Tom Berekoff, and Andrea McManus. Listen or subscribe to our podcast on our website to never miss an episode.

Books to read

  • Summer Reading 2017 by Bill Gates (YouTube) If you have not watched one of Bill Gates' annual summer reading rundowns, you are in for a real treat. He is a fantastic and authentic reviewer and the books are great. 5/22/17

Events

  • AFP Toronto Fundraising Day (AFP Toronto) TORONTO STORY Join more than 450 colleagues as we celebrate Canadian philanthropy and the important role of fundraisers like you! June 6, 2017

News

  • Janice Wing – 2017 Women of Excellence Nominee (todayville) RED DEER STORY Congrats on being nominated. The awards will be announced at the Red Deer and District Community Foundation 10th Annual Annual Women of Excellence event on June 7th. 5/30/17
  • GPRC receives $6.1M in funding (Daily Herald Tribune) GRANDE PRAIRIE STORY Nice. Everyone is buzzing about this announcement. "Grande Prairie Regional College is one of four colleges in Alberta which will receive more than $21.78 million to improve student learning opportunities and campus infrastructure [...]. GPRC will receive $6.1 million from the provincial and federal governments to modernize facilities and improve student access to innovative research opportunities, which will create approximately 120 construction jobs in the area [...]." 5/25/17
  • Edmontonians to Benefit from Key Investments in TELUS World of Science - Edmonton (CanadaNewsWire) EDMONTON STORY Congrats! $3.35 million in funding from the federal government million has been announced for the Edmonton Space and Science Foundation. "This support, provided by the Government of Canada through the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, will allow the organization to expand, upgrade and modernize an existing theatre and gallery with new technology, heating and cooling systems, accessibility features and specialized equipment." 5/25/17

Trends and shifts

  • Mary Meeker’s 2017 internet trends report: All the slides, plus highlights (Quartz) "Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has released her highly anticipated, annual presentation on internet trends at this year’s Code conference. Here are her slides." I watch for Mary's slide deck every year. Heads' up: it runs 355 slides. Top highlights include that $3.4 billion people were on the internet as of 2016 and that there are now 2.6 billion gamers on the internet up from 100 million in 1995). 5/31/17
  • $400m Andrew and Nicola Forrest donation inspires others to support charity (Canberra Times) "According to Philanthropy Australia, it's estimated that 14.9 million Australian adults (80.8 per cent of the population) gave $12.5 billion to charities and not-for-profit organisations in 2015-16. The average donation was $764 and the median donation was was $200. Compared with 10 years ago, a smaller proportion of Australians were giving, but they gave larger amounts. That's encouraging, but there seems to be a shortfall at the top end of the wealth scale where a small number of families and corporations contribute a disproportionate amount." 5/26/17
  • AUTOMATING THE LAW: A LANDSCAPE OF LEGAL A.I. SOLUTIONS (Topbots) You might have heard that artificial intelligence (AI) is replacing or supplementing many of the activities in law, accounting, engineering, and medicine. If you have ever wondered just what is being replaced, this post is an excellent window into the new world of AI in professional services. 5/15/17

Nonprofit governance

  • Board Recruitment and Selection (Imagine Canada) CANADIAN STORY A great primer and reminder from Suanne Miedema on how to do board recruitment and selection right. I especially like the warning: "engage caution in recruiting board members for the sole purpose of accessing big fundraising networks or free services (e.g. legal, accounting, marketing). Board service is not automatically the best way to engage those volunteers and can lead to confusion between operational decisions and governance decisions." 5/30/17

Philanthropic controversy

  • Family feud between oil tycoon's grandsons threatens $1 million donation to Tulane, lawsuit says (New Orleans Advocate) "A family feud between two grandsons of the Texas oil tycoon who married Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith threatens a $1 million donation earmarked for Tulane University, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in New Orleans federal court. The quarrel between brothers Preston Marshall and E. Pierce Marshall Jr. over their family’s wealth has dragged on for years in Texas courts. Now it is throwing into question a major donation meant for Tulane." 5/31/17

Tools

Philanthropic personalities

  • The ‘epitome’ of philanthropy (Virginia Business) A nice overview of two very generous Virginians, Macon and Joan Brock. "The couple’s donations have included gifts to charitable causes in the visual arts, the environment and education, all areas that reflect their passions. Many of their gifts go to nonprofits in Virginia, but they also have given money to build a school in Sierra Leone." 5/31/17
  • 14 More Billionaires Join the Giving Pledge…And? (Nonprofit Quarterly) Welcome to the pledge! Thanks to Andrea McManus for sharing this post. The Giving Pledge was started by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett to encourage their billionaire peers to give away the bulk of their wealth during their lifetimes. 6/1/17
  • Tencent Co-Founder Charles Chen Tops Forbes China Philanthropy List (Forbes)"Charles Chen, co-founder of China Internet giant Tencent Holdings, ranks No. 1 on a Forbes China survey of charitable giving in support of education. Chen, 46, led the way with 2.3 billion yuan, or $348 million, of donations last year and appears on the cover of the latest issue of Forbes China." 5/29/17

Life and career hacks

  • Making Conferences Pay Off (Partnership Group) CANADIAN STORY My friend and colleague, Brent Barootes, offers up a weekly blog post on topics he is interested in. They are great. I recommend subscribing. This week's post was all about how to make the best of attending a conference. As this is conference season, this is very timely. 5/30/17
  • 5 Zen Principles To Live By (Darius Foroux) Hard to define. Easy to recognize. Important to do. NOTE: There is some NSFW language in this post. 5/29/17
  • Affordance in user interface design (uxdesign.cc) Fascinating word. "Affordance describes all actions that are made physically possible by the properties of an object or an environment. A bottle screw cap affords twisting. A hinged door affords pushing or pulling. A staircase affords ascending or descending." 5/26/17
  • “Make it for your audience’s audience.” (Medium) This guy was writing for my audience. Fun piece. Useful piece. BTW, I did the linked quiz where you had to predict which tweet would get more retweets. I tied the algorithm. We both scored 15 out of 25 in our predictions. 5/25/17

Large gifts

  • Christine Christian invites entrepreneurs to hit the books with $2 million donation to Victoria’s State Library (Smart Company) "More Victorian startup founders will be headed to the library thanks to an entrepreneurial networking space created with the help of a $2 million donation from Melbourne businesswoman Christine Christian. The State Library of Victoria (SLV) has today revealed plans to open Start Space — a dedicated hub for early-stage entrepreneurs that will provide free resources, events and training to those wanting to propel their business ideas into action." 6/1/17
  • 'It's huge': $40-million gift to U of C will create 'transformative' entrepreneur incubator (Calgary Herald) CALGARY STORY Boom! Now this is truly a transformative gift. "The University of Calgary’s dream of creating an entrepreneur incubating hub is $40-million closer thanks to a gift from a leading philanthropic family. The Hunter family’s donation, following an earlier gift to the U of C, will help build a $100-million centre on campus that will nurture innovative business activity across faculties, said university president Elizabeth Cannon." 5/31/17
  • Former Marblehead Resident Pledges Historic Donation To NSMC (Patch.com) "North Shore Medical Center announced the largest donation ever received in its 144-year history this week. Longtime Marblehead resident Arthur J. Epstein pledged $5 million toward NSMC's plan to build a behavioral health center at its Salem campus." We previously shared a story about another $5 million gift from Mr. Epstein in our Feb 3, 2017 recap. 5/30/17
  • $50M Children's Hospital donation largest in Sask. history (CBC) SASKATOON STORY First Vancouver a few months ago, now Saskatoon. You are on a roll Mr. Pattison. Where next? "The Children's Hospital of Saskatchewan will be getting a new name following the largest private donation in Saskatchewan history. The $285-million construction project adjacent to Royal University Hospital will now be known as the Jim Pattison Children's Hospital." 5/30/17
  • Myeloma UK gets £1m donation (PharmaTimes) "The DFN Charitable Foundation is donating £1 million to charity Myeloma UK to help support the development of advanced genomic and genetic research tools to better characterise, monitor and treat the disease [...]. Every year, between 5,000 and 6,000 people in the UK are diagnosed every ear with myeloma, an incurable cancer of plasma cells found in the bone marrow. The disease has a five-year survival rate of just 40 percent, highlighting the need for new treatment options." 5/30/17
  • Heart Bus: Million-dollar mystery donation revives dream for better bush health (ABC News) In a country as large as Australia, this is a critical part of the medical infrastructure. "A million-dollar mystery donation will help a mobile heart clinic roll into more rural towns, bringing specialist doctors and lifesaving expertise to the bush. The Heart of Australia is a cardiology clinic which operates off the back of a truck." 5/29/17
  • Former teacher, state rep donates $1.3M to Marshall County (Aberdeen News) "A former teacher and member of the South Dakota House of Representatives donated more that $1 million to the Britton Area Foundation after his death. Donald Naddy, who grew up on a family farm near Britton, died in February in Port Angeles, Wash., according to a news release from the South Dakota Community Foundation. He was 100." 5/28/17
  • Keeping the Promise: A $1 million pledge shows momentum at work (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) "Although it is new to Pittsburgh, KeyBank quickly was able to size up the region’s priorities. A $1 million donation over four years to the Pittsburgh Promise college scholarship program is proof of that. The donation comes from the bank’s philanthropic wing, KeyBank Foundation." 5/26/17
  • YMCA receives largest corporate donation in its 115-year history (Calgary Herald) CALGARY STORY Fantastic! What a lovely gift from Shane Homes. Cal and Shane Wenzel deserve a huge amount of credit for this investment in Calgary as does YMCA Calgary and it's campaign volunteers. ViTrēo is proud to have played a role in the successful completion of the YMCA Calgary Power of Potential campaign. 5/26/17

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