Can geospatial data help communities prepare for natural disasters? Here are the lessons from Türkiye and Syria.

Why It Matters

Location-based, openly available data – which is crowdsourced across a community, or from around the world – can help those working in aid contexts ascertain where the need for resources is most urgent following a disaster. However, constant and preemptive data collection activities – both before and after a disaster – could help aid workers and government agencies proactively plan for such disasters.

How Greta Thunberg helped one Quebec foundation get hooked on funding social movements

Why It Matters

Foundations have finite resources and big social policy objectives. A new report from the Broadbent Institute argues funders can make bigger strides on their social policy goals by funding social movements than they can through lobbying or research alone.

Foundations provide funding to address a hospital’s biggest long-term needs. Why aren’t they preparing for climate change?

Why It Matters

Climate change is the single greatest long-term threat to the health of Canadians, according to Canada’s chief public health officer – and hospital foundations are a significant source of equipment and capital spending for major hospitals.

The Red Cross assessed the world’s preparations for the next pandemic. Canada isn’t ready.

Why It Matters

Out of a 100-point score used to assess a country’s preparedness for the next pandemic, Canada scored 69 – a score that’s barely changed since 2019. Boosting this score and preparing for the next global pandemic will require significant planning well in advance.

23 Daring Predictions that will Shape the Social Impact World in 2023

Why It Matters

Signals tend to reveal emergent phenomena sooner so that changemakers can turn their attention to possible opportunities, disruptions, innovations and developments that affect their missions, programs and work. Signals can become mainstream and evolve into trends — when a signal hits a certain threshold, for example, it might become a trend in the broader society or sector, and begin to diffuse rapidly.

Governments aren’t taking responsibility for climate change’s human health catastrophe. These changemakers are forcing them.

Why It Matters

Governments are reluctant to commit billions of dollars for bold, urgent climate adaptation efforts unless forced by courts or activism. This process isn’t easy, but there are strategies to pressure powerful institutions to address human health.