Perhaps you’ve been wondering whether Canadians still have money to make significant gifts. If so, you can relax. Environics Analytics’ WealthScapes 2010, a study of net worth among Canadian households, found that the average household net worth grew by 4.6 per cent from 2008 to 2009.

Vancouver kept its title as the city with the highest average household net worth in Canada ($572,988). But the city’s figure grew at a rate one-third less than the national average.

Toronto surpassed Calgary, last year's second-ranked city, largely due to an increase in the value of real estate holdings.

According to Mark Murphy of Leadership IQ, the hidden meaning of the simple word “Why?” depends on how old you are. And that, he says, leads to a lot of intergenerational misunderstanding in the workplace. If you’re a seasoned manager who’s a little tired of hearing “Why?” from younger workers, he has tips on using it to your advantage. And if you’re an inquiring younger worker and noticed a little irritation in your manager’s response to “Why?” there are ways to reframe the question and get what you need.

In Tiny Essentials of Donor Loyalty, author Adrian Sargeant defines trust as donors’ belief that their needs will be met in the future by the actions the charity takes. As donors develop that trust in a nonprofit they will exhibit higher levels of loyalty.

Consider relief donors who care about reducing suffering in the developing world. Because they can’t see the relief work first hand, they must trust that the relief agency will deliver that work effectively and efficiently.

To build trust, it is vital that when donors offer money for a specific purpose they are reassured that it was used effectively and given evidence of the impact that resulted. But, there are additional ways that an organization can build trust.

The 2010 Canadian Sponsorship Landscape Study holds some hopeful statistics for those looking to boost their sponsorship involvement says Brent Barootes of Calgary’s Partnership Group – Sponsorship Specialists. Here are some of the study’s highlights.

Sponsorship revenues and activation increased by 2.6% between 2008 and 2009 to $1.43 billion – an increase of 25 per cent since the introductory study of 2006.

Sponsors are spending more on activation: in 2009, an average of $0.76 for every dollar spent on sponsorship rights, compared to just $0.41 in 2006.

The board defines a nonprofit’s mission, its purposes, programs and priorities. It sets out the vision and what the organization wants to be and do in the coming years.

The mission statement should be an unambiguous, comprehensive declaration of the organization’s ends, its purposes and/or the means of achieving the ends, and its programs and priorities. Most organizations create a mission statement that is crafted for public use in annual reports and promotional materials.