Embracing the Future – Leading for Change: Three perspectives.

Our sector, in fact all sectors are experiencing an era of profound change. In many ways, this is a period of great uncertainty. We are seeing new non-profit leaders emerging, and long-term leaders starting to transition out. Community leadership is also evolving and changing. While there are many challenges within this shifting environment, there are also opportunities. History has shown us that times of great change frequently spark new ideas, creative leadership and inspired vision.

Within this context, this year’s theme for our 35th anniversary Annual General Meeting emerged. Our three panellists (Beth Cougler Blom, Mitchell Temkin and Sandra Richardson) gave a brief glimpse toward the future …

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AGM Awards

Volunteer Victoria welcomed over 80 guests (funders, supporters, member agencies, Coordinators of Volunteers, etc) to celebrate our35th Annual General Meeting on June 24th. The agenda consisted of a delicious breakfast, guest speakers, agency awards and ended with a brief meeting. The theme for the day was Embracing the Future – Leading for Change.      

Sandra Richardson (Victoria Foundation) presented Val Green (Volunteer Victoria) with a plaque recognizing our accomplishments over the past 35 years and thanking Volunteer Victoria for ‘giving heart to our community for 35 years’.      

Each year our Youth Program Coordinator and Access Program Coordinator present Agency Awards to dedicated leaders working …

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Charities and the HST Rebate

 
 
On July 1, 2010 the HST will come into effect in BC (can anyone have missed this with all the media coverage it has received).

 
For charities and some non-profits (those receiving more than 40% of their revenue from the province) who currently receive a GST rebate, this will mean a change in the rebate calculation.
 
The province has set the PST portion of the HST rebate at 57% for charities. Thus when paying an invoice, the rebate will be calculated by taking 57% of the 7% PST portion and 50% of the 5% GST portion (as you do currently) and adding these together.
 
A quick look at …

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Announcing a new Emerging Leaders Network in Victoria

Volunteer Victoria has recently received funding to develop and manage an Emerging Leaders Network for younger nonprofit professionals in Greater Victoria.  This exciting new initiative, created by and for the “next generation” of nonprofit leaders, will offer them opportunities to participate in leadership-focused networking and professional development events and will engage them in mentoring relationships with current nonprofit leaders.

Volunteer Victoria has been co-leading a network for Executive Directors of nonprofit organizations for many years, but there has never been a networking group available to younger emerging leaders in the sector.  Many late 20 to early 40-somethings are already being recruited into middle management positions and …

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Fundraising in Challenging Economic Times

“What’s happening isn’t going to get better – that’s what we all believe. It might even get worse.”

Those were the cautionary words of fundraising expert Judy Lightwater when she gave the workshop, “Fundraising in Challenging Economic Times”, to a group of Volunteer Victoria’s member agencies this past March. She was talking about the state of our economy and the significant impact it has had on the ability of nonprofit agencies to seek out and receive funding from external sources. “You have to be even more concise than you used to be,” Lightwater advised, referring to the way agencies write funding proposals. She …

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