Philanthropy, digital payments and financial inclusion - OECD Observer

Philanthropy, digital payments and financial inclusion - OECD Observer

Jeremy Grantham, environmental philanthropist: 'We're trying to buy time for the world to wake up'

You've probably never heard of him, and for years Jeremy Grantham liked it that way. But now the man who made billions by predicting every recent financial crisis is speaking out

One icy morning in February, a train pulled into Washington DC. It was loaded with environmentalists planning to handcuff themselves to the gates of the White House, in protest at the building of a 3,500km oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Amid the hundreds of placard-carrying protesters stood a somewhat incongruous figure in a suit – Jeremy Grantham, a 74-year-old fund manager. "What we are trying to do is buy time," he told reporters. "Buy time for the world to wake up."

See full Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/apr/12/jeremy-grantham-environmental-philanthropist-interview

Want to Help People? Just Give Them Money

"We give money directly to the poor — no strings attached."

I was skeptical of the idea being pitched to my team. Two decades in philanthropy, including eight years at The Gates Foundation and six at Google Giving, had shown me the power of development done well. Living in India, I saw firsthand how an HIV prevention program could literally save millions of lives. Based on this experience, I believed — like many others — that doing for the poor is a better investment than giving money to them directly. Data from a startup nonprofit called GiveDirectly changed my opinion.

Last fall, my team huddled in a room to review our pipeline for the Global Impact Awards, Google's program to support entrepreneurial nonprofits using technology to change the world. Like other venture philanthropists in Silicon Valley, we hunt for projects that are tech-enabled, data-driven, and have an element of informed risk.

See full Article: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/03/want_to_help_people_just_give.html

Corporate Philanthropy with a Global Footprint

This report was authored in conjunction with and based on the findings of The Conference Board Research Working Group on Corporate Philanthropy.

This report focuses on effective global corporate philanthropy practices. Topics include strategy, structure, operations, and measurement as well as benchmarking among 20 participating companies, brief case studies, and attention to the cultural and regulatory landscapes of corporate philanthropy in Western Europe, Latin America, China, and other countries and regions.

See full Summary: http://www.conference-board.org/publications/publicationdetail.cfm?publicationid=2452

Philanthropy Helps in Fight Against Global Social Problems

Philanthropy, social entrepreneurship step in when official donors reluctant
Donors more focused on maximizing impact when trying to solve social ills
Government-civil society cooperation key to success, says Bill Clinton

In the face of the global financial crisis and pressure on governments to curtail official development assistance, philanthropy and social entrepreneurship are supplementing the demands of the poor and needy.

The December 2012 issue of the IMF’s quarterly Finance & Development magazine looks at how private donors are substituting for cash-strapped governments.

New and innovative solutions are just waiting to be discovered and implemented, according to both university professors who study the subject and philanthropists who practice it, such as former U.S. president Bill Clinton, who writes in the issue about finding “new ways to extend the circle of opportunity so that every person—in every country—has the opportunity to succeed.”

See full Article: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2012/NEW112912A.htm

Every Which Way We Can

Philanthropy and private investment are increasingly important in the global fight against poverty

Global poverty reduction was once a battle financed by well-off countries with the support of international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank. But times are changing.

Philanthropic contributions by the likes of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and George Soros’s Open Society Foundation, social enterprises such as the Grameen Bank, and the increasing flow of investment funds to developing countries are now taking on a higher profile in the fight against poverty.

See full Article: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2012/12/karlan.htm

6 myths about microfinance charity that donors can do without

Is microfinance a good bet for a donor? We feel the answer is complicated, and that the many extreme exaggerations of microfinance’s impact get in the way of making an informed decision.

This post summarizes the differences between the stories you’ve probably heard and the reality according to available evidence.

Myth #1: the way microfinance charities help is by giving people loans to expand businesses. Success stories like Andrea’s, Lucas’s and Sophia’s are representative.

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Tapping corporate expertise to improve lives

It used to be that when I went to talk to companies about stepping up their contributions to social causes in Africa, I would be ushered in to the corporate social responsibility department. But times have changed. These days, I usually start with someone in business development—and may end up with someone in the CEO’s office. That’s because smart companies are starting to see Africa as an emerging investment opportunity. While more established markets may be sagging, Africa is fast becoming one of the most attractive regions for expansion—studies show current purchasing power on the African continent at $1.3 trillion. Indeed, the story of Africa’s rise may be one of the most dramatic and important developments of this century, and one that’s still just in the beginning stages.

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A new model for philanthropy

I never meant to get into the shoe business, and would have said you were crazy if you told me five years ago that’s what I’d be doing today. The idea to start TOMS came during a trip to Argentina back in 2006. I met some volunteers who were holding a shoe drive to collect used or slightly worn shoes for children in the community. One of the volunteers explained that many kids lacked shoes, an absence that not only complicated every aspect of their lives but also exposed them to a wide range of diseases. I spent a few days traveling from village to village, witnessing the real effects of being shoeless: the blisters, the sores, the infections—all the result of the children not being able to protect their feet from the ground. I wanted to do something about it. But what?

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Hurun Philanthropy List 2011

In Search of China’s Carnegie - Glass Tycoon takes the title of China’s Most Generous with donations of US$700 million

65-year old Cao Dewang of Fuyao Glass, crowned China’s Most Generous, with donations over the past year reaching US$700 million, followed by Wang Jianlin with US$180 million and Zhu Mengyi with US$100 million.

Top 100 Chinese Philanthropists donate US$18.5 million on average, equating to 1.5% of their wealth.

32 individuals donated US$10 million or more over the past year, more than double last year.

Disaster relief and education most popular causes. Chinese wealthy rush to help in wake of Yushu earthquake.

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Can Warren Buffett and Bill Gates save the world?

How the Giving Pledge, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett's quest to get billionaires to donate half their wealth to charity, will impact philanthropy and the world's needy.

Twenty-five years ago, when Steve Hilton was an entry-level guy working in the file room at his family's foundation, he sometimes had to explain his place within the family legacy.

His grandfather Conrad, the son of an immigrant shopkeeper, turned a single 40-room hotel in Cisco, Texas, into an international empire – the ur -American tale of self-made wealth. His father, Barron, expanded the family business even more, eventually selling the hotel conglomerate in 2007.

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Reclaiming the Moral Life of Philanthropy

Gara LaMarche believes the nation’s charitable organizations have lost “moral clarity,” growing more concerned with “the fix, the intervention, than about reasons for doing or caring about what is right.”

After many decades laboring in large, private foundations, LaMarche has an intimate perspective on this drift in philanthropic mission and practice. He draws several telling examples from his own experience. As head of the Texas Civil Liberties Union in the mid-1980s, LaMarche failed to sway diehard capital punishment legislators with the “traditional ACLU rights talk,” which was viewed either as starry-eyed idealism or dangerous radicalism.

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How important is philanthropy?

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has said he will commit the majority of his estimated $13.5bn (£8.8bn) fortune to philanthropy after his death. Are we too dependent on philanthropists?

Mr Allen follows fellow co-founder Bill Gates in pledging billions of dollars to projects designed to help others.

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Microsoft co-founder commits billions to philanthropy

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has said he will commit the majority of his estimated $13.5bn (£8.8bn) fortune to philanthropy after his death.

Mr Allen follows fellow co-founder Bill Gates in pledging billions of dollars to projects designed to help others.

He set up a charitable foundation 20 years ago that has given $400m. He has personally donated a further $600m.

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Strategic Philanthropy: How and why to go about it

Since I started Red Door Interactive, I’ve made it a policy to devote a certain amount of company resources each quarter to pro bono work for worthy nonprofits. I had discovered this trait long ago within our educational system, as well as through other companies and leaders who’ve been an example to me.

Until this year, such efforts usually took the form of having the team create a new Web site or develop a very basic and brief email or Internet campaign. While we were happy to do it, we discovered that any benefit we provided was short lived and soon forgotten, by both our team and the charity organization, because most of the efforts we undertook weren’t within our normal, results-oriented, long-term construct.

We changed that this year when we announced our strategic and exclusive partnership with New Leaders for New Schools, a nationwide organization that recruits and trains aspiring urban public school principals.

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How Philanthropy Builds A Brand

An interview with Shelly Lazarus, chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide.

David Ogilvy founded the agency that bears his name in 1948. Today it is a global leader in advertising, marketing and public relations. From 1996 through 2008 Shelly Lazarus was chief executive officer of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, and since 1997 she has been chairman. A protégé of David Ogilvy, she shared in his belief that the purpose of advertising was to build great brands. Under her leadership that has remained the centerpiece of the company's philosophy, extending across regions and marketing disciplines and attracting some of the world's largest and most respected businesses, including American Express, BP, Coca-Cola, IBM, Motorola and Unilever, among many others.

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2009 Hurun Philanthropy List

The 2009 Hurun Philanthropy list, comprised of the Top 100 philanthropists in China, shows total donations since 2004 of 15.7 billion yuan. China’s most generous philanthropist, 87-year-old Yu Pengnian, has donated 3 billion yuan over a five year period. Huang Rulun of the Jinyuan Group ranks second with an 850 million yuan donation this year and 1.45 billion over a five year period. Zhu Mengyi of Hopson Development ranks third with total donations of 1.15 billion. There are 78 people from the 2008 Hurun Rich List in the 2009 Hurun Philanthropy List of which 7 are featured in the rich list top 10. The top 100 philanthropists donated an average of 160 million yuan which accounted for approximately 4% of the 2008 Hurun Rich List wealth.

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Charities Hit By Iceland Banking Collapse Should Get Bail_Out, Say MPs

Do we have the next candidates on list for a bailout?

Onésimo Alvarez-Moro

See article:
Charities should be compensated by the Government for the money they lost when the Icelandic banking system collapsed last year, say MPs.

The Treasury Select Committee says it is "imperative" that charities, which lost an estimated £120m, should be supported with a one-off bail-out of taxpayers' cash.

Many charities are too big to be classed as retail depositors under the Government's deposit insurance scheme and are faced with trying to get back funds from the banks' administrators.

The committee also called on the Government to provide charities with further statutory guidance on managing their finances.

Se full Article.

The state of philanthropy: A conversation with Acumen Fund’s CEO

Jacqueline Novogratz discusses the challenges that divide and unite today’s philanthropic community.

As global philanthropy reshapes itself to accommodate a widening array of private-sector involvement and a blend of private and public investment, discussion of both the ethics and effectiveness of these diverse methods has moved front and center. In this video interview, Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of venture-philanthropy firm Acumen Fund, shares her perspective on the current challenges facing the philanthropic community and the opportunity she sees to move past a traditional public-sector approach to charitable giving.

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The Conference Board Finds the Economic Downturn Will Have Major Effects on Corporate Philanthropy

Issues related to the economic downturn dominate the concerns of corporate giving officers polled in a study by The Conference Board released today on the philanthropy plans of major U.S. companies.

The report, The 2009 Corporate Philanthropy Agenda: How the Economic Downturn is Affecting Corporate Giving, was based on a February 2009 survey of 158 companies on planned changes in corporate giving programs.

"How their companies are faring overall financially is very much on the minds of leading U.S. companies when allotting their corporate philanthropy monies," says Carolyn Cavicchio, Senior Research Associate, Global Corporate Citizenship, The Conference Board. "There is a definite shift toward more critical business issues and an increased emphasis on measuring giving outcomes."

See full Press Release.