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Shifting Power Dynamics: Equity, diversity, and inclusion in the nonprofit sector

July 6, 2023

The first study of its kind, Shifting Power Dynamics: Equity, diversity and inclusion in the nonprofit sector, explores what Canadian charities and nonprofits are doing to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) within their organizations. The study provides key insights into our sector's commitment to EDI through an exploration of the following topics:how organizations are integrating EDI into their workthe role of equity working groups in advancing EDIthe factors that enable and hinder organizations as they seek to apply EDI principlesthe role of governance and operational leadership in advancing EDI In addition to research highlights, this post includes recommendations for organizations to improve their EDI practices. We firmly believe that all organizations, regardless of their mission, have a responsibility to advance equity and address systemic discrimination and racism. Funders have a unique role to play so we include specific recommendations for them.

Building the Welcome Corps, an Alternative Pathway for Refugees: A Conversation with Craig Damian Smith

June 20, 2023

In early 2023, the Joe Biden administration announced a new program allowing for private refugee sponsorship called the Welcome Corps. The administration is calling it the "boldest innovation in refugee resettlement in four decades," as it aims to mobilize at least 10,000 Americans to act as private sponsors to at least 5,000 refugees from around the world in the program's first year.This brief outlines a conversation with Craig Damian Smith, who has worked in the Canadian context of private refugee sponsorship and is the co-founder and executive director of Pairity — a data-driven platform that facilitates global refugee resettlement and community sponsorship and evaluates outcomes around refugee integration and social cohesion within receiving communities. Pairity is currently partnering with the U.S. government and other actors to establish the Welcome Corps.

Lessons from Other Democracies: Ideas for Combatting Mistrust and Polarization in US Elections

June 15, 2023

Protections are baked into each stage of US election administration. Yet, there is a crisis of confidence in US elections. After falling to a record low following the 2020 elections, trust in US elections increased after the 2022 midterms. However, far too many Americans continue to harbor mistaken beliefs about the prevalence of widespread fraud and miscounted votes, as well as concerns about the ability of election officials to administer future elections fairly. Malign actors—both foreign and domestic—are taking advantage of and reinforcing these trends to serve their varied interests, including geopolitical advantage and monetary gain.Adopting best practices from other countries is an opportunity to buttress policies and procedures that make US elections free and fair and draw inspiration from others facing the same challenges. With its decentralized election system and state "laboratories of democracy", the United States is well suited for incremental, location-specific adaptation of new ideas.

Influence, Affluence & Opportunity: Donor-advised Funds in Canada

May 17, 2023

Donor-advised funds in Canada have a seventy-year history, and their use as a tool for charitable giving has become more popular in the past decade. Alongside this growing popularity and attention, there is significant interest in understanding the scope and scale of donor-advised funds in Canada, as well as how they are becoming an integral part of the charitable giving landscape.KCI and the CAGP Foundation have partnered together on this research initiative to add to the growing body of knowledge about DAFs in Canada and help strengthen relationships and understanding between donors, DAF organizations, and operating charities to continue to strengthen communities across Canada.

The Health Costs of Gun Violence: How the U.S. Compares to Other Countries

April 20, 2023

In the following seven charts, we illustrate how gun violence affects Americans compared to people in 13 other high-income countries. The data are drawn from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation's (IHME) Global Burden of Disease database, the Small Arms Survey's Global Firearms Holdings database, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office's Firearm Injuries: Health Care Service Needs and Costs report (see "Data Sources and Methods" for details).

Sustaining Art Research Collections: Case Studies in Collaboration

April 18, 2023

Art research collections continue to be impacted by the lingering effects of economic uncertainty and the global COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in reduced or stagnant budgets and staffing cuts. These impacts have coincided with a period of institutional reflection and examination of the fundamental role of cultural heritage institutions in society. The case studies presented here illustrate how partnerships can support sustainability and growth, and they also share case study participants' generous insights into the lessons learned from their experiences. The report provides recommendations like conducting an upfront analysis of the benefits that a partnership will provide to each participant, understanding the core mission values that a potential partnership would support, and ensuring that the effort required to create and sustain a partnership aligns with the partnership's benefits. This timely report offers key insights into successful and sustainable collaborations for practitioners who may be facing immediate staffing, technology, or space needs and provides a framework that can guide future collaborations that not only meet basic needs, but also advance experimentation and innovation.

Sustaining Art Research Collections: Using Data to Explore Collaboration

February 15, 2023

The report in hand builds upon earlier studies by employing analysis of collective collection and resource sharing data to identify patterns in art library collections that may point the way toward valuable collaborative opportunities. This will provide a baseline from which art libraries can think about how they might work with other institutions to create sustainable long-term collection management and sharing partnerships that will benefit researchers and institutions alike. No doubt a lofty goal, but a challenge worth pursuing in order to strategically position art libraries for a future where resources may indeed be more limited, but where leadership, unity, and creativity may be the best possible antidote.

Windsor Stabilization Project - Cast Iron Capital Removal

February 14, 2023

The conservation of the cast iron capitals that set on top of the columns of Windsor Ruins begins with their disassembly. The inside of the capitals are filled with brick rubble and mortar that has to be carefully removed without damaging the cast iron. The capitals are made up of 86 individual pieces that have to be removed one by one in order to gently clean and conserve them. The capital will be reassembled and reset on top of the column once the conservation work is complete.

“This Is Why We Became Activists”: Violence Against Lesbian, Bisexual, and Queer Women and Non-Binary People

February 14, 2023

According to interviews Human Rights Watch conducted with 66 lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ+) activists, researchers, lawyers, and movement leaders in 26 countries between March and September 2022, forced marriage is one of ten key areas of human rights abuses most affecting LBQ+ women's lives. Human Rights Watch identified the following areas of LBQ+ rights as those in need of immediate investigation, advocacy, and policy reform. This report explores how the denial of LBQ+ people's rights in these ten areas impacts their lives and harms their ability to exercise and enjoy the advancement of more traditionally recognized LGBT rights and women's rights:the right to free and full consent to marriage;land, housing, and property rights;freedom from violence based on gender expression;freedom from violence and discrimination at work;freedom of movement and the right to appear in public without fear of violence;parental rights and the right to create a family;the right to asylum;the right to health, including services for sexual, reproductive, and mental health;protection and recognition as human rights defenders; andaccess to justice.This investigation sought to analyze how and in what circumstances the rights of LBQ+ people are violated, centering LBQ+ identity as the primary modality for inclusion in the report. Gender-nonconforming, non-binary, and transgender people who identify as LBQ+ were naturally included. At the same time, a key finding of the report is that the fixed categories "cisgender" and "transgender" are ill-suited for documenting LBQ+ rights violations, movements, and struggles for justice. As will be seen in this report, people assigned female at birth bear the weight of highly gendered expectations which include marrying and having children with cisgender men, and are punished in a wide range of ways for failing or refusing to meet these expectations. Many LBQ+ people intentionally decenter cisgender men from their personal, romantic, sexual, and economic lives. In this way, the identity LBQ+ itself is a transgression of gendered norms. Whether or not an LBQ+ person identifies as transgender as it is popularly conceptualized, the rigidly binary (and often violently enforced) gender boundaries outside of which LBQ+ people already live, regardless of their gender identity, may help to explain why the allegedly clear division between "cisgender" and "transgender" categories simply does not work for many LBQ+ communities. This report aims to explore and uplift, rather than deny, that reality.

Windsor Ruins Stabilization Project

December 16, 2022

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) is taking steps to stabilize and preserve the Windsor Ruins site in Claiborne County. The stabilization project is underway and will last through the spring of 2023.  More than a century of exposure to the elements has caused erosion to the 45-foot-tall masonry columns and fracturing of the cast iron capitals.  Temporary fencing has been erected to protect visitors at the site from falling debris and the ongoing work.Mingo Tingle, chief of technical preservation services at MDAH, describes the work currently underway at Windsor Ruins.

Social Media Seen as Mostly Good for Democracy Across Many Nations, But U.S. is a Major Outlier

December 6, 2022

As people across the globe have increasingly turned to Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and other platforms to get their news and express their opinions, the sphere of social media has become a new public space for discussing – and often arguing bitterly – about political and social issues. And in the mind of many analysts, social media is one of the major reasons for the declining health of democracy in nations around the world.However, as a new Pew Research Center survey of 19 advanced economies shows, ordinary citizens see social media as both a constructive and destructive component of political life, and overall most believe it has actually had a positive impact on democracy. Across the countries polled, a median of 57% say social media has been more of a good thing for their democracy, with 35% saying it has been a bad thing.There are substantial cross-national differences on this question, however, and the United States is a clear outlier: Just 34% of U.S. adults think social media has been good for democracy, while 64% say it has had a bad impact. In fact, the U.S. is an outlier on a number of measures, with larger shares of Americans seeing social media as divisive.

Legal and Policy Barriers to Self-Managed Abortion

September 13, 2022

We envision a world where individuals seeking abortion care can exercise full reproductive autonomy without any impediments or gatekeepers. This includes the ability of individuals to have self-managed abortions, which are those performed through self-care interventions or without clinical supervision, particularly early in pregnancy through medication abortion. Self-managed abortion is grounded in an array of human rights, including the rights to health, equality and non-discrimination, information, privacy, and to benefit from scientific progress.This mapping aims to better understand the global legal landscape on self-managed abortion, with a focus on medication abortion1 as the safest form of self-managed abortion. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that individuals have the option to self-manage abortion using medication abortion at least during their first 12 weeks of pregnancy. The WHO recognizes that individuals can safely and effectively self-assess their eligibility for abortion and self-administer abortion medication, demonstrating that self-managed abortion is a critical tool for enabling individuals to safely exercise reproductive freedom.Yet, as this mapping shows, even in countries with liberal abortion laws, guaranteeing access to medication abortion and enabling individuals to self-manage abortion care requires a reconceptualization of legal and policy frameworks on abortion.