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October 2001
Global Giving Round-Up
Overviews of best-practices around the world and links to learn more about them
September 11: Unparalleled catastrophe generates unparalleled philanthropy
Five weeks following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that charitable organizations engaged in the relief and recovery effort had collected more than $1 billion. The top fundraiser was the American Red Cross (www.redcross.org), at $452 million. Internet donations surged in the first few weeks after the attacks, but then slowed down considerably. The Red Cross reports raising $62 million on-line in the three weeks after the crisis, but just $2 million since. (Chronicle of Philanthropy, October 16, 2001)
... but major nonprofits feel the pain: Hundreds of charities affected
The international headquarters of Helen Keller Worldwide (HKW) (www.hkworld.org), were located across the street from the World Trade Center and destroyed on September 11. The organization lost about $500,000 in eyeglass lenses as well as computers, records and other materials. (Chronicle of Philanthropy, October 4, 2001)
Hilton Prize awarded after delay for Twin Towers tragedy
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation's (www.hiltonfoundation.org) annual Humanitarian Prize, which was to have been formally awarded at a luncheon and international conference in New York City on September 17, was rescheduled for November 30 following the World Trade Center tragedy. The 2001 Prize will be presented at an official ceremony by United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, winner of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, to London-based St. Christopher's Hospice. Established in 1967 by Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the worldwide hospice movement, St. Christopher's is the world's first teaching hospice, and many leading doctors and nurses have trained there. Dame Cicely, who is now 83 and chairs the hospice, will be in New York to receive the award.
...and nominations sought for 2002 Hilton Humanitarian Prize
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is seeking nominations for the 2002 Hilton Humanitarian Prize, with a focus on an established nonprofit, charitable or non-governmental organization that has made extraordinary contributions toward alleviating human suffering anywhere in the world. Nomination packets are available on the Hilton Foundation website. Nominations must be received or postmarked by December 15, 2001. Contact: Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Hilton Humanitarian Prize, 10100 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 1000, Los Angeles, California 90067-4011, USA. Telephone: (310) 556-4694 Fax: (310) 556-8130.
Real acumen: New nonprofit fund supports social change organizations
The Acumen Fund, a new nonprofit fund, is being launched to enable philanthropists and investors to support nonprofits and for-profit firms worldwide that are dedicated to social change. A partnership between the Cisco Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation, the New York City-based fund, headed by Jacqueline Novogratz, will launch its initial portfolio this fall, with a focus on health and communications that aim to improve the lives of poor people in developing countries. (NonProfitXPress, August 15, 2001)
Quiet no more: Atlantic Philanthropies reverse "quiet" image
Until recently, Bermuda-based Atlantic Philanthropies (www.atlanticphilanthropies.org) kept a low profile. The Philanthropies recently reversed their disclosure policy so that grantees can use their name to help them fundraise from other sources. (Education Week, July 11, 2001)
Thai business leaders provide mobility and hope to hundreds of amputees
Since 1998, the Thai Industrial Development Forum in Bangkok has supported a project to make and donate artificial limbs to amputees around the world, using polyurethane products not conventionally associated with prostheses. Leaders of this initiative, who pooled their resources in different areas of the manufacture of products using polyurethane, credit altruism, Buddhist merit-making and reverence for the king of Thailand. Their project recently earned the Gold Prize in the annual Innovation Awards sponsored by Far Eastern Economic Review. According to the magazine, the business group initially encountered resistance from hospitals and government when they offered to provide the limbs, because of their use of new materials. Since their first effort, they have produced and given away hundreds -- some to land-mine victims but most to road-accident victims. (Far Eastern Economic Review, October 18, 2001)
Wired: Bangladeshi philanthropist brings cell phones to rural communities
Bangladeshi investment banker Iqbal Quadir was honored earlier this year as one of the World Economic Forum's Global Leaders for Tomorrow for his innovation in creating GrameenPhone (www.grameenphone.com), a telecommunications company in Bangladesh that provides cellular phones to village entrepreneurs, who then charge a nominal fee to their customers to connect them to businesses or family members. GrameenPhone has already reached thousands of villages, providing income to the owners and saving users- who previously had to travel to nearby towns to make telephone calls -- time and money. (ADB [Asian Development Bank] Review, Vol. 33, #2, April-June 2001; The South Asian, February 2001)
Eyes on the Prize: New director named at Goldman Funds
Robert T. Gamble, a public policy expert with extensive experience in local government, has been named executive director of the San Francisco-based Richard and Rhoda Goldman Charitable Funds (www.goldmanfund.org) as well as the Goldman Environmental Prize (www.goldmanprize.org), the world's largest award for grassroots environmentalists. Richard N. Goldman is a member of the Global Philanthropists Circle. (Philanthropy News Digest, July 30, 2001)
Italian novelist follows her heart: Susanna Tamaro creates global charity
European philanthropy has gotten a big boost from Italian novelist Susanna Tamaro, who has created the new Tamaro Foundation to support disadvantaged children, young people, women and the elderly in Italy, India, Bangladesh and other needy areas. The Zurich-based Limmat Foundation (www.limmat.org) is administering the foundation for Tamaro, whose best-seller, Va' Dove Ti Porta Il Cuore (Follow Your Heart), sold 800,000 copies in Italy. (Philanthropy in Europe, Issue #6, 4/2001)
Building blocks in Botswana: Business leaders help homeless
Business leaders in Francistown, Botswana, have formed a committee to address a housing shortage among the city's poor, including a fund-raising initiative to kick-start brick-making and other income-generating businesses. (Daily News, Botswana, August 15, 2001)
Using philanthropy to fight prejudice
California-born George Aratani, the Japanese-American founder of Mikasa Chinaware and Kenwood Electronics, has been a "quiet" but high-impact philanthropist. As the result of his experience being interned with his family during World War II, Aratani decided, when he became successful, to fund institutions that address issues of prejudice and fear so many Japanese Americans lived through. (Advancing Philanthropy, July/August 2001)
Ice cream mogul tries venture philanthropy
Ben & Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen has formed an investment fund to buy companies in low-income neighborhoods as a way of raising wages and improving employee benefits. Cohen's Barred Rock Fund is his first venture since he and partner Jerry Greenfield sold Ben & Jerry's to Unilever for $326 million last year and has already closed its first deal on a Philadelphia-based cleaning-products maker. (USA Today, August 6, 2001)
Entrepreneurs and philanthropists for the future
Some four years ago, Linda Rottenberg and Peter Kellner, former Yale Law School classmates, created Endeavor (www.endeavor.org), a nonprofit development organization that supports entrepreneurship in emerging markets, with the thesis that successful entrepreneurs are the leaders -- and philanthropists -- of the future.
Philanthropy Ink
In an essay on August 12 entitled "Building their own private state departments," New York Times editorial writer Tina Rosenberg muses on the roles of mega-donors Ted Turner, George Soros and Bill Gates in helping to shape global political and social policy through their philanthropic initiatives. She cites as an example Turner's agreement to a request from President Clinton to pay $34 million to the United Nations as back dues when the U.S. Congress refused to do so. And she notes how "in most countries, opponents of dictatorship or those struggling to build civil society can find help at the American embassy. But in nearly 60 nations, they might be able to get more direct support at George Soros's Open Society Institute."
 Creative Commons Attribution license; reuse is encouraged with credit to Synergos.
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