Category Archives: Uncategorized
Mitacs Opens Research Funding to Not-for-Profit Organizations
Eligible NFP partners can now participate in collaborative research with universities
Vancouver, BC – Eligible not-for-profit (NFP) organizations and Crown corporations can now receive funding to support research collaborations with universities. Qualifying organizations will be able to access high-quality research expertise in order to solve their business challenges.
Today’s announcement expands the reach of Mitacs’ programs significantly. There are approximately 170,000 non-profit organizations in Canada, accounting for 8.1 percent of Canada’s GDP. These organizations — like Mitacs’ programs — work across all disciplines and sectors.
Eligible organizations may include economic development organizations, industry associations, social welfare organizations, and charitable organizations. Partners will be assessed for a demonstrable economic or productivity orientation of the proposed research project, such as creating jobs, reducing costs, or increasing productivity.
Examples of proposed NFP projects:
- Examining the barriers to meaningful employment of blind Canadians
- Anticipated research outcome:Improved employment opportunities for an underemployed population
- Creating themed video games and apps for a theatre festival
Anticipated research outcome: Festival gains new audience and attendance is increased
- Developing a pilot program that helps stroke victims return to work
Anticipated research outcome: Implementation of the program to facilitate shorter recovery times and a faster return to the workplace
Mitacs is accepting applications immediately.
Quotes:
Alejandro Adem, CEO and Scientific Director, Mitacs
“Mitacs is excited to offer Canada’s not-for-profit sector the opportunity to partner with high-quality graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at universities across Canada to help solve their business-related research challenges.”
Ted Hewitt, Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)
“Together, Mitacs and SSHRC are committed to supporting Canada’s future innovators. By partnering in the Accelerate and Elevate programs, we will strengthen connections among researchers, industry partners, and not-for-profit organizations, while offering graduate students in the social sciences and humanities the opportunity to apply their expertise to unique challenges.”
Tasha Sutcliffe, Vice-President/Director, Fisheries and Marines, Ecotrust Canada
“Sustainability of nonprofit organizations like Ecotrust Canada can no longer depend on grant funding alone. Mitacs Accelerate concretely helps our organization with new business planning strategies for the commercialization of our knowledge.”
Quick facts:
- Mitacs is a national, private not-for-profit organization that develops the next generation of innovators with vital skills through unique research and training programs.
- Mitacs’ Accelerate program connects graduate students with industry partners for research internships supervised by faculty. In 2013–2014, Mitacs supported 2,240 Accelerate internships.
- Mitacs’ Elevate program provides recent PhD graduates with customized R&D management and professional development training while they’re working on research projects.
Links:
For more information on not-for-profit organization eligibility, click here.
For details about Mitacs and our programs, visit mitacs.ca/newsroom.
Have You Met Our Sponsor Bgenerus?
Events like NetSquared Camp don’t happen by accident. A team of community champions come together to hold Net2van’s events. We are proud to have worked with Michelle Sklar of Bgenerus, who has provided our ticketing and donation platform (plus marketing support!) for our last two events.Looking for a partner to help raise money online? Give her a shout!
Bgenerus
Do you want to increase your donor base and make fundraising easy?
Charities & nonprofits engage your community to be generous!
What is Bgenerus? Bgenerus is a fundraising tool that allows you to manage your fundraising activities in one place! We help you partner with local and online businesses and allow your organization to offer great deals while making up to 25% off of every coupon sold. Give your donors something in return by offering them exclusive deals to support your cause! Bgenerus enables you to provide flexible options for your supporters to donate directly, or top up purchases they make. Running an event? With the Bgenerus event management tool you can sell tickets to events and manage your attendees all from the same campaign page.
With so little time and resources, Bgenerus makes it easy and efficient to run your comprehensive fundraising activities in one place! For more information or to arrange a demo contact michelle@bgenerus.com.
Cook for Good with #dinnerpartyYVR
Show off your cooking skills at Vancouver’s largest simultaneous dinner party supporting charities you care about! #dinnerpartyYVR presented by Cressey, now in Vol. 3, has to date raised over $15,000 for Canadian charities and is back on Saturday, March 28, 2015.
The idea is simple: 50 hobby chefs (people who love to cook & entertain) host a dinner party in their own Vancouver homes for old and new friends to raise funds for their favourite charity. 100% of ticket sales go to selected charities. Tickets are available in February for a min. donation of $40. After dinner, hobby chefs, dinner guests and often charity representatives gather at a rousing after party featuring live entertainment, sweet treats and other surprises.
If you love cooking, entertaining, and meeting interesting Vancouverites, apply to become a hobby chef.
Hobby chefs choose the meal they want to serve and host a min. of four dinner guests on the event night. Thanks to generous partners such as Serendipity Winery and Howe Sound Brewery, each hobby chef receives gifts valued at up to $200 as a thank you. The application deadline is January 17, 2015 but if you apply and get approved by the end of the year, you will also entered to win one of the following prizes:
- $25 gift certificate for Craft Beer Market;
- A ticket to #dinnerpartyYVR for a friend/family (2 available)
- 2 tickets to Serendipity Winery’s summer movie night, a bottle of their delicious wine AND a private tour with the winemaker (date TBD).
Apply now and cook for good on Saturday, March 28, 2015.
If you have any questions, send a note to event organizer, Annika Reinhardt.
10 Reasons You Should Attend the NGO Ho Ho
Top 10 Reasons you should attend the NGO Ho Ho Holiday Party for Vancouver’s changemakers and community activists:
10 – Kick off the holiday party season with a great community of people
9 – You worked hard all week and it’s Saturday night! Time to let loose!
8 – Your boss won’t be there – or maybe they will be but we have 3 rooms to party in! #hidefromyourboss
7 – We have three rooms to party! Yeah Beaumont Studios!
6 – Your ticket includes a free drink!
5 – Your ticket includes food from Vij’s Railway Express food truck – Yum!
4 – We will have a photobooth – take goofy photos with people you don’t know and then tag them on Facebook!
3 – We will have a cookie decorating table – who likes pink frosting??
2 – Get your groove on – we will have live jazz and the Fresh Princess will be DJ-ing
1 – You are awesome! Now get out there and party! Buy your ticket here!
Get your ticket to the NGO Ho Ho Holiday party today!
http://goo.gl/xrRHJc
NTEN’s Member Appreciation Month
As a Tech Club organizer, I’m looking forward to NTEN’s Member Appreciation Month this November. Every year, NTEN says thank you to its member community of nonprofit professionals committed to using technology for social change by offering a full month of free programming and prizes exclusively for NTEN Members, plus special local events and content. If you’re not an NTEN Member, you can learn more and join today just in time for the celebration: http://www.nten.org/join!
In addition to supporting Net2van’s regular events NTEN is also sponsoring our November 29 NGO Ho Ho. Join me in giving them some #NTENthanks.
Kick off the celebration with NTEN’s 2014 Year In Review: Community Impact webinar on November 3 (http://www.nten.org/events/webinar/2014/11/03/2014-year-in-review-nten-community-impact) and hear from NTEN staff and Community who will share their experiences and highlights from 2014; then look forward at what’s ahead for 2015. Check out the full list of upcoming webinars and register: http://www.nten.org/events. All November webinars are free for NTEN Members.
Win a prize! NTEN will be giving away daily prizes, and special prizes for members actively engaged in the community. Plus, they’ll be awarding two grand prizes: an engagement award for an NTEN Member who’s the most active in the community during MAM, and the renewal award for a Member who renews before November 30th.
Learn more about MAM and join the celebration on the event page: http://www.nten.org/mam.
NGO HO HO – Let’s get the holiday festivities underway!
We know it feels like fall has just barely begun, but hey, that’s no reason to not be thinking about sparkly festivities and celebrating with friends, co-workers and loved ones! Working hard and reaching goals makes you an inspiration and we want to celebrate that!
Join us on Saturday, November 29th for the NGO HO HO – the holiday party for Vancouver’s activists, changemakers and non-profit communiteers! http://goo.gl/xrRHJc
There will be drinks and nibblies and best of all – a room full of the kind of people who are making Vancouver such an awesome city.
Intrigued? How about we also throw in some live jazz, a photo booth and DJ Fresh Princess spinning soul, funk and R&B?
Tickets are $20 so get them fast!
NGO HO HO
Saturday, November 29th
7:30pm ‘til late
The Beaumont Studios
316 West 5th Ave, Vancouver
Charities Under Threat: Responding to federal charity-bashing and CRA Audits
Federal cabinet ministers have called registered charities criminal organizations and terrorist organizations and the government has set aside $13 million for stepped up audits of charity activities by Canada Revenue Agency. This panel explores the effects on charities and their ability to pursue their societal Missions, the “best practices” that charities can pursue to minimize their risk of losing their charitable status, and the implications for society and democracy of the government’s actions. The panel will include a charity lawyer and a researcher whose thesis jump-started a national conversation on these issues. There will be time for questions.
When: Thursday, November 13 2014, 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Where: HiVE Vancouver, #210 – 128 W Hastings St.
AGENDA
- 5:30 – 6:00 PM: Networking and snacks
- 6:00 – 7:00 PM: Presentation
- 7:00 – 7:30 PM: Q&A and Wrap
- 7:45 – 9:30 PM: Post-event social!
PRESENTERS
Margaret Mason, charity lawyer, Bull Housser
One of Canada’s leading lawyers for charitable and not-for-profit organizations, Margaret Mason is a frequent writer and speaker nationally. Her expertise includes corporate structuring and regulatory compliance for charitable organizations. Her practice spans a broad range of issues which affect charities and not-for-profits including tax exempt status, governance, international programs, and social enterprise.
Gareth Kirkby, Researcher, Professional Communicator
A former Webster Award-winning journalist, Gareth Kirkby’s recent Master’s thesis examined the impacts on charities of confrontational rhetoric and actions by the federal government. It triggered a national discussion this past summer. Gareth’s research involving interviews with charity leaders and experts, found government using CRA to target certain charity sectors, that an “advocacy chill” triggered by government actions is “muffling” and “distracting” charities from their Missions, that the government is attempting with some success to narrow society’s important policy conversations, treating some charities as national enemies, and that these cumulative actions are a threat to democratic decision-making.
PANEL HOST
Ethan Clow has been working in the nonprofit sector for several years. He was executive director of the Centre for Inquiry Vancouver, and is currently a community engagement consultant. Ethan has hosted two talk shows on CiTR 101.9FM, the campus community radio station at UBC. For several years he hosted Radio Freethinker, a show promoting science, critical thinking and secular humanism, and now he hosts The Sector, a podcast focusing on social justice, nonprofits and activism.
Event hashtag: #Net2van
Host: @Net2van @EthanClow and @NoahCab
ACCESSIBILITY
Mobility Access: This venue does not have ramps and elevators and is not wheelchair accessible.
Hearing Access: Speakers at this event will use microphones.
Sight Access: Contact the organizers if you need an advance copy of the presentation.
We want everyone to be able to participate in the Net2Van community and events. Please don’t hesitate to let us know what we can do to accommodate your needs.
NGO Ho Ho Ho Planning Call
RSVP for conference call details. 
Date: Tuesday, September 30. Noon – 1:00 PM
Let’s hold a Net2van holiday party in late November/ early December. Wanna get involved? Join me for the first call as we choose a venue and determine what the event will look like.
We’ll need event planners, marketers, designers, people with connections to musicians/DJs, hosts, decorating crews and more!
Awesome August Events
Net2van and our community partners have some great events scheduled for the next two months. Keep reading for our August and September lineup.
UPCOMING NET2VAN EVENTS
All NetSquared Vancouver events are free or by donation.
The End of Slacktivism: How to Understand, Facilitate & Deepen Online Engagement
When: Tuesday, August 5
RSVP: http://goo.gl/LQHZU1
How do you visualize an engagement scheme that fits your organization? What tracking is needed and what it will cost you? Find out how one the leading Canadian online advocacy groups, OpenMedia, understands and facilitates online engagement and learn how you can can help your supporters find their way to deeper online engagement.
$ocial Media? Using small wins to grow social media revenue
When: Tuesday, September 2
RSVP: http://goo.gl/7ZXBQ7
Many organizations have found that a strong social media presence has not yet translated directly into significant fundraising revenue.The BC SPCA’s Shoni Field will share their experiences using a ‘small wins’ approach to growing their social media sourced revenue.
Case studies include: BC SPCA Medical Emergency, Second Chance Holiday Campaign, Calendar Contest and National Cupcake Days.
UPCOMING EVENTS FROM OUR COMMUNITY FRIENDS
Groundswell Open House
When: Monday, August 11
RSVP: http://groundswellcommunity.ca/next-open-house/
Come if you’re interested in applying, checking us out, learning more, volunteering and/or just wondering what we’re up to. Groundswell offers three intensive alternatives-to-business programs bringing together 30 youth under the age of 35 to work individually and together to rethink economic logics and build new projects.
Creating Your Digital Strategy – An Evening with Matt Toner
When: Wednesday, August 20
RSVP http://goo.gl/xwnIzL
Matt will share his personal experience in developing digital media strategies for film, TV, gaming and interactive media. This is an opportunity to learn and connect with Matt in an intimate, workshop style setting.
Importing & Global Change in the Raiser’s Edge
When: Thursday, September 18
RSVP: http://goo.gl/I73o7G
This event will cover the topics of Importing and Global Change, Add & Delete inThe Raiser’s Edge.
Baird Hall from O-matic Software will be presenting on Import-o-matic, an advanced and flexible import utility for The Raiser’s Edge that saves organizations countless hours by streamlining and standardizing imports.
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Got an event that should be in the next newsletter? Let me know!