Posts by James Burden
Generosity in Tax Season? (Part One)
It is once again tax-filing season. Time to check the mail each day for those stray T4’s and T5’s and gather up a year’s worth of receipts for medical and education expenses and charitable donations. For the highly organized among us the start of tax season triggers little more than walking a few steps to…
Read MoreFor This Business, Generosity is the Bottom Line
Today’s marketplace may be dominated by large corporations duty-bound to deliver ever-increasing profits, but for 40 years Norm and Joan Smith* ran a prosperous agriculture business with a different definition of success. Generosity outweighed the bottom line, and they prioritized donating to numerous charities from their farm income every year. The Smiths always knew that…
Read MoreBridging the Generation Gap with Generosity (Part Three)
Link to Part One and Part Two I have been privileged to work with many generous Abundance Canada clients, including Gerald*, a father whose guidance inspired new generations of philanthropists. A Tradition of Generous Giving Gerald was a hard-working father and business owner who generously supported the charities he loved. From the time they were…
Read MoreBridging the Generation Gap with Generosity (Part Two)
Link to Part One Five Opportunities to Engage the Next Generation in Giving While there’s no guarantee that our children and grandchildren will follow in our footsteps when it comes to philanthropy, evidence suggests that we have more influence in this area than they might let on. Knowing this, it makes sense to think strategically…
Read MoreBridging the Generation Gap with Generosity (Part One)
Young pop singer Billie Eilish’s reaction to a comedy routine at the 92nd Oscars ceremony had a lot of people talking and tweeting about the generation gap last week. I must admit that until I saw the headlines analyzing her perplexed expression, I hadn’t even heard of Billie Eilish, but the whole thing got me…
Read MoreThe Most Precious Gift
Nowadays, the click of a mouse or tap of a smartphone has largely replaced cash and cheque transactions. Charitable donations are increasingly moving towards digital platforms. Some fear this change in donation methods has reduced the opportunity to model generosity to the next generation, but I think it has boosted the impact of modelling another…
Read MoreFaithful Generosity
Most researchers agree that charitable giving is a learned behaviour, but most people have never enrolled in lessons on how to be generous. It is just something we pick up through experience. On average, people who are active in a faith community give more to charity than other people in Canada. For them, giving generously…
Read MoreWhen Opportunity Knocked … Generosity Answered
When Jacinta started her catering business 10 years ago, she never imagined where it would lead. What began with two volunteer helpers in her tiny home kitchen grew into a successful company employing twelve staff members at a permanent location with two commercial kitchens, five commercial fridges, a warehouse, a hydroponic greenhouse, and even a…
Read MoreThe Family That Gives Together
It’s a new decade, and another Christmas is firmly in the rear-view mirror. We all love to give and make time to spend with loved ones during the holidays, but that Christmas spirit often gets lost when we fall back into our busy family routines. But what if togetherness and generosity were the family routine?…
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