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June-July 2001
Global Giving Round-Up
Overviews of best-practices around the world and links to learn more about them
BuyAfrica.com -- Linking African Artisans with Global Markets
Ever look longingly at the exquisite beadwork, basketry, masks and other artwork, crafts and handiwork from Africa? In an innovative venture to make these products more widely available -- and help expand employment and income opportunities in the continent -- Johannesburg-based Hylton Appelbaum, who is a trustee of the Liberty Life Foundation and a member of the Global Philanthropists Circle, has helped to create BuyAfrica.com, a business-to-business Web site linking African artisans and small manufacturers with distributors in global markets. For more information visit www.buyafrica.com.
Foundation Supports Urban Agriculture in South Africa
In 1977 Joy Niland and Pauline Raphaely, two suburban South Africans, founded the Food Gardens Foundation as a way to introduce low-cost (or even no-cost) methods of "restoring life and fertility to poor soil" and, most important, growing food, to families in the impoverished black township of Soweto. More than 20 years later, Foundation projects operate in rural and urban areas throughout Southern Africa. To learn how Niland and Raphaely got started, built bridges into communities that normally regard outsiders with mistrust, and what FGF looks like today, visit www.cityfarmer.org/s.africa.html#S.Africa.
Momentum on the HIV/AIDS Front
Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke has become the unpaid chief executive of the Global Business Council on AIDS, which advocates for an increased private sector response to the AIDS crisis. A member of the Council, Coca-Cola Corporation, recently announced that it will tap its resources in a variety of ways to address the crisis in Africa -- including using its marketing infrastructure for outreach and education and providing medical coverage for employees. Coca-Cola will also lend staff to nonprofit groups to assist in logistics of distributing information, condoms and other items. For more information about the Council and its members, visit www.gbcaids.com.
Foundation for Excellence -- U.S.-based Indian Entrepreneurs Share Their Wealth
Venk Shukla, co-founder of a successful Silicon Valley company, has a second, unpaid job: As president of the Foundation for Excellence (FFE) funded by Indian philanthropists in the Valley, he oversees a fund to provide scholarships back home in India. While the technology sector went down in 2001, FFE's activities and donations grew. To learn more about how and why he does it, see www.economictimes.com/060800/06dias01.htm. You can also check out FFE's Web site, www.ffe.org.
The Good Earth: Goldman Prize Honors Global Environmentalists
For the past 14 years, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Foundation has awarded annual prizes totaling $750,000 to honor six environmental crusaders worldwide. Richard Goldman is a member of the Global Philanthropists Circle. Each year, activists from each of the six continental regions are singled out for their leadership and commitment to environmental protection, often taking significant risks in the process. For details, click www.goldmanprize.org.
Don't Fence Them In: Southern African Parks Initiative Opens Borders -- and Job Opportunities
The South African newspaper Business Day recently reported that Anton Rupert -- chairman of the South Africa-based Peace Parks Foundation (PPF), head of the huge Rembrandt conglomerate and a member of the Global Philanthropists Circle -- was planning to donate the equivalent of a winning lottery ticket to create a huge "trans-frontier" national park bordering Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. This project would give tourists access to an area currently restricted to hunters -- and bordered with an electric fence -- and generate jobs. Read about this initiative, and the general work of the foundation, at www.peaceparks.org.
Mexicans Say "¡Si!" to More Giving
The San Diego Union-Tribune recently reported on the rapid rise in philanthropic activities in Mexico, including corporate giving. The latest edition of the Directory of Philanthropic Institutions, published by the Mexican Center for Philanthropy (CEMEFI -- www.cemefi.org), lists more than 4,200 philanthropic organizations in the country and says new ones are developing all the time. (CEMEFI was founded by Manuel Arango, who is now a member of the Global Philanthropists Circle.) One of these is the Fundación Internacional de la Comunidad, a spin-off of the San Diego-based International Community Foundation (www.icfdn.org), which helps Mexican nonprofits in the areas of health, education, community-building, and the environment. For a complete text of the article, click www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20010622-9999_1n22mexsmith.html.
Philanthropy Ink
The Economist (June 16, 2001) features a survey entitled "The New Wealth of Nations," which focuses on the rise of new and larger class of wealthy people around the world and suggests that a global "golden age of philanthropy" may be on the rise as well. While American philanthropy remains proportionally higher than anywhere else, The Economist points to signs that it is "becoming increasingly important in other countries, too." Citing Latin America as the most fertile ground for philanthropic growth, The Economist highlights the Star Media Foundation, created two years ago by Uruguayan entrepreneur Fernando Espuelas to narrow the digital divide through education and technical training, and initiatives by Brazilian business leaders such as Victor Siaulys, of pharmaceutical firm Ache, to use their wealth to campaign for change.
© 2001 The Synergos Institute
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